Steffen Bo Jensen, Professor of the Department of Politics and Society and the Head of the MIX, shared his thoughts about the upcoming event.
MIX – Community platform for scholars
At Aalborg University many researchers work on displacement, migration, and integration topics. In fact, 16 research papers from 5 different departments will be represented in the seminar. Steffen adds: “At AAU, there are so many interesting people who work on displacement, migration, and integration from all kinds of disciplines. However, they are often scattered around different research groups. Of course, they discuss their work in these settings, but it is important to have a space where we can begin understanding the connections between different research topics across disciplines. This is where the internal seminars are important: they contribute to building a community of scholars.”
One of the research papers presented will be from Steffen himself. The presentation will cover his recent fieldwork in Marseilles’ marginalized community, in which most residents are from North Africa and Comoros in the Indian Ocean, a former French territory. “I try to understand how the sentiment of abandonment dominates the narratives of residents and state officials. The residents see the dilapidated buildings, the health risks, and the violence. The state sees that the residents have abandoned the republic – a bit like the discussion of parallel societies in Denmark. So, I try to think about the meaning and importance of abandonment,” he explains.
Broad compass of themes
The keynote of the event will be presented by Achim Goerres, Professor of Empirical Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen. Achim will be covering the topic “Immigrant-Origin Voters at the 2017 and 2021 Bundestag Elections: Insights from the Immigrant German Election Study”. Moreover, Steffen notes that he is especially excited about the broad scope of the themes that this seminar is offering. He adds: “Recently, I have published a book called ‘Situating Displacement’ with students from Global Refugee Studies where we argue for an expanded notion of displacement. I think the seminar promises to continue this important conceptual work.”
Upcoming for MIX
When asked about the upcoming MIX plans for 2023, Steffen confirms that the deep-dive Online Seminar series every month will most definitely continue. “One always becomes just a bit more clever,” he adds. “And then, the big event will be an international conference in April in Aalborg. More to come on that one…”
More on mix internal seminar on 12 December, 2022
The MIX Internal seminar will be held on 12 December, 2022, 13:00 – 16:30 at Kroghstræde 3, 9220 Aalborg, Rooms 2.130 & 2.132.
More information about the event and participation
