Intersections and Dissonances between Race, Ethnicity and Migration Studies

Joining link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkfu-srjguGt3MRDrnW8QTtSMnkK20Vf_4 

1. The unfinished politics of race, the uncertain status of migration studies

Michael Keith

Abstract: The place in the academy, the research focus and research funding have all been highly contested in scholarship of both race and migration in the United Kingdom. This contribution attempts to consider how this history inflects how our researcher agendas have evolved in the recent past and what this might mean for thinking about research agendas in the near future.

Bio: Michael Keith is Professor at COMPAS, University of Oxford, Director of the PEAK Urban Research programme, co-ordinator of Urban Transformations (The ESRC portfolio of investments and research on cities), and co-Director of the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities. His research focuses on migration related processes of urban change. His most recent work is the monograph China Constructing Capitalism: Economic Life and Urban Change (2014). His next, ‘Urban transformations and public health in the emergent city’ will be published in 2020 by Manchester University Press.

He has experience outside the academy working in the community and voluntary sector and as a politician for twenty years in the East End of London, leader of a London local authority and founder, chair and board member of a wide range of urban regeneration companies and public/private partnerships. He has also several decades experience in the voluntary sector, initially in organisations focusing on racism and the criminal justice system and more recently as the co-founder and chair of the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, the largest multicultural arts centre in the UK.

2. Bringing Race and Migration back into dialogue

Claire Alexander

Abstract: This presentation will offer some exploratory thoughts on the reasons for, and consequences of, the division between racial and ethnic and migration studies in the UK, and the necessity of reopening dialogue across these two fields of research.

Bio: Claire Alexander is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, and Associate Director of the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity. She is author of The Art of Being Black, The Asian Gang, and The Bengal Diaspora (with Joya Chatterji & Annu Jalais).

3. Racism and Migration: Linkages, Absences and Evolving Research Agendas

John Solomos

Abstract: In the contemporary conjuncture questions about race and migration are at the heart of both political and policy debates. This is evident in various geopolitical environments, including Europe, North America and increasingly other parts of the globe. As a result, we have seen a notable increase in the focus of research agendas and scholarly debates, with distinctive bodies of work on both race and migration. This paper explores the changing contours of these bodies of scholarly output and discusses both the linkages as well as the divergences between research agendas on race and racism and migration. In developing this analysis, we argue that it is important to develop a conversation across these evolving bodies of research and scholarship that can tease out issues that are common to both bodies of research. This conversation will be of importance if we are going to be able to develop a critical analysis of the interface between racism and migration in the contemporary environment.

Bio- John Solomos is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. He has researched and written widely on the history and contemporary forms of race and ethnic relations in Britain, theories of race and racism, the politics of race, equal opportunity policies, multiculturalism and social policy, race and football, and racist movements and ideas. His most recent books are Race, Ethnicity and Social Theory (Routledge 2021) and Race and Racism in Britain 4th Edition (Palgrave Macmillan 2021). His most recent edited books are the Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Racisms (Routledge 2020) and, Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader Third Edition (co-edited with Les Back) (Routledge 2022). He is Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Ethnic and Racial Studies, which is published 16 issues a year by Routledge. He is also co-editor of the book series on Racism, Resistance and Social Change for Manchester University Press and General Editor of The Routledge Encyclopedia of Race and Racism.

COMPAS Michaelmas 2020 Seminar Series

Thursdays at 4pm (Weeks 1, 3, 5 and 7) on Zoom. Joining links will be added above.

Race, Ethnicity and Migration

Convened by Bani Gill and Marie Mallet-Garcia

Recent events such as the Windrush scandal, Black Lives Matter movement and the Rhodes Must Fall initiative have sparked a global conversation on racial inequality and systemic violence. As an interdisciplinary research centre, COMPAS recognizes the urgent need to build upon this momentum by critically reflecting on issues of race, racialization and ethnicity as embedded in, shaping and transforming diverse contexts of migration and mobility across the world. In this regard, COMPAS is organizing a seminar series on ‘Race, Ethnicity and Migration’ in the Michaelmas term.