Widening Participation, Consolidating Research: Developments on the Blog

Post by Andriani Fili, the Leverhulme Network Facilitator

As we described in our 2014 annual report, Border Criminologies continues to look for new means of interacting with scholars, students, practitioners and those subject to the field of migration and border control. As part of those plans, we are pleased to announce that next week we will commence a range of themed posts on our blog as well as establishing a discussion forum for researchers. We will also be joining forces with COMPAS at the University of Oxford in soliciting blog posts on migration and gender.

We have set up an initial collection of monthly themed weeks with five posts from experts in a particular field. The topics include research methodology, race and border control, policing, detention, deportation, the role of NGOs and staff. In grouping entries on a similar topic, the themed weeks will explore matters in greater depth and variety, revealing different perspectives and interpretations of the issue in question. The organiser will commission 4 posts and write the introductory blog post offering a brief description of the topic for that week and of the upcoming posts. We particularly encourage organisers to seek out the perspective of migrants, detainees, refugees, and others experiencing border control as part of our ongoing interest in first-hand accounts and experiences.

The first themed week will commence on Monday, 16 February with five posts on Research Methodology led by Mary Bosworth. Next month will follow with Yolanda Vazquez as the organiser of a week on race and border control. In April Tanya Golash Boza and four more contributors will explore deportation from a variety of perspectives and in May Leanne Weber takes the lead on a week about policing. Criminal Law is the topic of the next themed week in June, organized by Ana Aliverti while I will be inviting a series of posts on Greece and the tragic limits of migration policies in July. Coming back after the summer holidays, the first themed week of the academic year in September will focus on the work of UK NGOs for positive change in the immigration and detention system organised by Ali McGinley. Ruben Andersson will organise a week on the industry of illegality in October, followed, the next month by Gabriella Sanchez who is arranging one on human smuggling. The final themed week of the year that we have put in place will be led by Thomas Ugelvik, focusing on researching staff perspectives in a variety of settings.

This list is not exhaustive. Indeed, we currently have two papers on images of border control, that we would like to form the basis of a collection on visual methods. If you have an idea of a theme you would like to explore please email Andriani Fili.

In March, we will also launch a new special joint blog series on "Migration and Gender," together with COMPAS. Scholarship on migration suggests that women’s and men’s experiences of mobility diverge in important ways and that we must not only look at gender as a constitutive element of immigration but also examine the ways in which immigration and citizenship policies are constitutive of gendered and heteronormative relations. This blog series fleshes out our understanding of the relationship between gender and migration and hopes to help us reflect on the role gender plays in the causes and consequences of migration and how migration policy and scholarship is itself deeply gendered. This blog series, hosted by COMPAS and Border Criminologies, seeks to contribute to an expanding body of literature through the exploration of a breadth of issues as well as promote a dialogue between scholars in the field.

Finally, over the next few months, we will be also holding a series of online discussions that address issues raised during our own research or various events (conferences and workshops). Our discussion forum will be easily available online to all, and will provide a quick snapshot of current thinking about particular themes and issues. More information on our research discussion forum and how you can join in will follow soon.

As we move forward with our plans to experiment with new methods of communications we welcome suggestions and participation in these endeavours.

Any thoughts about this post? Get in touch with us! Send us an email, or post a comment here or on Facebook. You can also tweet us.

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How to cite this blog post (Harvard style):

Fili, A. (2015) Widening Participation, Consolidating research: Developments on the Blog. Available at: http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/widening-participation/ (Accessed [date]).