June 15, 2016
Table of Contents:

"The Many Worlds of Black New York" - Application Deadline is Tomorrow

The application deadline is TOMORROW for Columbia University's Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS) Summer Teachers and Scholars Institute (STSI)! Partial fellowships are still available!

Convening for one week between Monday July 11 and Friday July 16, this year's STSI is themed "The Many Worlds of Black New York" and will focus on the history, cultures, and institutions of African-descended peoples in New York City. We encourage you to apply! 

This Summer Institute offers what few others are able: 
  • The opportunity to study African-American art, photography, history, culture, politics, and life through the lens of New York, and in New York
  • Attend seminars facilitated by today's leading scholars in African-American Studies
  • Visit and tour historical landmarks and institutions around the city
  • Receive instruction in the latest research methods and,
  • Enjoy afternoon and evening cultural excursions throughout New York City
This year's lecturers will include Samuel K. Roberts (STSI Director), Cheryl Hicks, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Brian Purnell, and Christina Greer. STSI seminars will explore various themes including:
  • The Struggle for Civil Rights in Brooklyn
  • The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
  • Educating Harlem: Activism for Equality in the Mid-20th Century
  • Race, Policing, Gender and Criminal Justice 
  • Black Immigration since 1965
  • Health/Medical Rights
In addition to serving as a space for collaborative thinking and skills training, STSI will offer a unique opportunity to explore the tremendous richness and vast scope of African-American Studies. 

The fee for the STSI is $1,800 and a limited number of partial fellowships are still available. Please submit your application by June 15th.

Please go to 
www.columbiastsi.com  for more information or contact us at  stsi@columbia.edu .




CALL FOR MANUSCRIPT CHAPTERS
Sub-Saharan African Migrations: Challenges, Failures, and Coping Strategies

We are seeking original chapters for a collection tentatively titled "Sub-Saharan African Migrations: Challenges, Failures, and Coping Strategies". While there are numerous examples of successful migration experiences, the aim of this collection is to explore the nature and frequency of the lack of success that too many sub-Saharan Africans encounter once they make the decision to emigrate. The amount of empirical research focusing on the link between migration and integration in the destination countries rose significantly in recent years. The variety of empirical methods that researchers employ is impressive, ranging from qualitative interviews to diverse questionnaire surveys with highly sophisticated statistical methods. However, apart from some isolated studies (Colomb & Ayats, 1962; Breuvart & Danvers, 1998; Chomentowski, 2010; Sfm, 2005, Thorsen, 2009; Zeleza, 2009), little is known about the lack of success in African migration dynamics.

Most studies on African migration report on the migration benefits, but leave out the social disappointment of migrants on economic, psychological, and political levels. We now know that the inability to achieve goals in a migration context can have different adverse impacts on individuals and the family group. Finally, structural racism in the countries of destination, in particular against African migrants, can significantly impede their professional, educational and personal development and have severe psychopathological impacts. The old "immigration culture" of Africans must be placed in the local and international contexts in which several factors overlap: social and economic disruption, conflicts of various kinds, dissatisfaction in conflict with aspirations towards new horizons that arise every day.

Possible topics might include:
  • Modern Diaspora out of Sub-Saharan Africa and into a specific region of the World and the problems that migrants encounter. These regions would include Europe, Asia, Middle East, all of the Americas --including the USA, Canada, and Latin America--where there is a growing population of Africans now choosing to immigrate directly to countries like Brazil and Argentina;
  • Internal migration within the continent of Africa;
  • Representations of migration failures in performance such as popular culture, movies, literature, art, and exhibitions;
  • Symbolic and emotional elements related to migrant lack of success as well as narratives and representations linked to the central topic;
  • Disillusionment with the migration effort and its related psychopathologies, mental health and trauma due to any number of factors like: structural, institutional and individual racism or other causes in the destination country";
  • Further consequences of the migrant experience in the form of linguistic isolation, lack of harmony or integration within the destination country;
  • The ways in which these elements are narrated, visualized and often politicized;
  • "The self-interested actions of politicians, pundits, and bureaucrats" (Massey, 2015);
  • Gender and Migration;
  • The Syrian effect on Sub-Saharan African migration;
  • The inter-linkages between African migrations, identity, citizenship and social inadequacy;
  • Papers that address possible solutions to any of the problems that appear above or that the author cares to address.
This list of suggestions is not restrictive, and we encourage likely participants to consider their own topics for a chapter.

Book description and Chapter Details:

The book will have two major sections: one descriptive and the other prescriptive. The first section will concentrate on the broad overview of the subjects tied together as one the greatest population movements out of Africa since the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. The second section suggests alternatives to what currently happens and provides a pro-active stance towards the problems that receive attention in Section One.

All chapters must be in English and should not have been published previously. Authors should follow the APSA guidelines for writing book chapters. Each final chapter will be between 6,000-7500 words, including references. Images with previous written authorizations and rights for publication are welcome. Authors are responsible for obtaining the rights of any images as well as research interviews that appear in the text. Editors will provide forms later including a contract upon acceptance of the manuscript. 

Interested scholars and practitioners of migration efforts should submit the following materials by July 30, 2016:
A) An abstract of no more than 300 words;
B) A biographical sketch of no more than two pages, including complete contact information;
C) An example of previously published work in the case of scholars or a sample of field work in the case of practitioners.

Timeline:

July 30, 2016: Send abstracts of no more than 300 words, together with a short bio including contact details, and one example of previously published work in a relevant field. In the case of practitioners, an example of the field work will suffice.
October 20, 2016: Acceptance letters will be sent to authors after selection.
April 28, 2017: Submission of chapters.

Please submit all expressions of interest, abstracts and bios to ProjectMigration17@gmail.com Preferably with the subject line: "African Migration"

About the Editors:

Professor Yvonne Captain: Prof. Captain is an Associate Professor of Latin American and International Affairs at George Washington University. In addition to her expertise on Africa and its Diaspora, she researches and integrates into her teaching the relationships of South-South nations in Africa and Latin America. Her publications reflect these two areas of focus.

Doctor Papa Sow: Dr. Sow is a senior researcher at the Centre for Development Research, University of Bonn, Germany. He is currently working on the WASCAL project - West African Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use - funded by the German Ministry of Education. His research focuses on population dynamics issues with special links to African migrations (Senegal, The Gambia, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Morocco) and climate variability and uncertainties.

Dr. Elina Marmer: Dr. Marmer is a researcher, author and lecturer at the University of Hamburg, Institute of Intercultural Education and the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Department of Social Work. She is mainly concerned with the nexus of racism and education, specifically focusing on hegemonic knowledge production and its impact on students of African descent in Germany.




ISS Annual Meeting 2017

ISS Annual Meeting 2017 will be held in Charlotte NC, January 26-29. Meeting will be organized as Seminar focused on the theme "The Nation/State."

Please mark your calendars accordingly.

Information regarding meeting registration and hotel is forthcoming.




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