Migration and Identity Hub

Description

The Migration and Identity Hub encourages collaboration among departmental staff to explore migration-related questions. This hub actively cooperates with other entities within the university, notably the Migration Research Group, and extends its collaborative efforts to external colleagues. Migration, a consistent aspect of human history worldwide, has garnered interest from various fields such as Humanities, Social Sciences, and increasingly, Natural Sciences. The universal phenomenon of migration presents policy challenges, and recent developments in human and paleogenetics necessitate increased interaction between Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences.

The hub's research into migration is dual-faceted: it aims to chronicle, elucidate, and comprehend past migrations while acknowledging migration's influence on historical development. Members’ expertise spans from ancient to contemporary history, covering European, Asian, African, and history from the Americas, including the history of Humanities and epistemology.

The hub's interests are delineated into four key areas:

• Migration as a global and group phenomenon: Migration, an inherently global and group phenomenon, significantly impacts societal history and inter-group dynamics. Understanding migration requires a macro and meso/micro approach to address the associated epistemological and methodological challenges.
• Gendering migration: This area focuses on linking gender, migration, power, and identity, thereby restoring the centrality of family and ethnicity in migration studies.
• Migration and the state: The recurring discourse on migration and sovereignty predominantly revolves around border issues. However, research indicates that borders generally facilitate cross-border relations.
• Conceptions of migration: Traditionally, migration studies have been biased towards sedentary societies. Postmodern and postcolonial perspectives challenge these assumptions, promoting subaltern views and exploring nomadic representations of social life. As migration undergoes reassessment within the Humanities, history, traditionally allied with the Social Sciences, plays a crucial role in bridging the gap between these fields.

As it studies the human past, history also finds itself engaged in critical dialogue with paleogenetics.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

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University of Sheffield
Sheffield