STREAM 1 MIGRATION AND DIVERSITY / Vassiliki Chryssanthopoulou (Athens) & Adrian Stoicescu (Bucharest)

This stream examines the formation and transformation of identities of migrants, people in exile, and members of diasporas, as these identities are manifested in both physical and virtual space (i.e. in websites). We examine basic concepts relating to migration and diversity (such as ethnicity, transnationalism, deterritorialization etc.) and illustrate them through various ethnographic examples. We look at the ways in which such mobile individuals and groups (re)create, maintain and transmit their identity-linked experiences, including traumatic ones, to their descendants and to the general public, by sharing their memories orally or in written form, as auto-ethnographic literature and/or oral history. Participating students will acquire research training and practice in ways to conduct interviews and fieldwork with migrant, refugee or diaspora individuals and/or groups, in the context of either physical or virtual encounters.