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Newsflash No. 51 - May 23, 2018

A collection of events, seminars, information, and opportunities for master’s students at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Content

Details can be found by clicking the text

 

News from the Faculty of Social Sciences

Seminar: Swedish humanitarian work among Armenian refugees 1923-1947, 23rd of May
Lecture: Transnational Justice and Gendered Vulnerability: Feminist Politics and (Im)possible Solidarities, 23rd of May
Seminar: On the Swedish National Election Studies Program: A research agenda for the 2018 general election, 23rd of May
Lecture: Trans*: A Quick Guide to Gender Variability, 24th of May
Seminar: Moving Towards a Sustainable Work Life – Project Coordinators' Accounts, 29th of May 2018 
Seminar: A Regal Crackdown in Asia’s Newest One-Party State, 30th of May

Other News and Events

Seminar: Environmental subject formation through REDD+ in cocoa-forest communities in Ghana, 24th of May
Seminar: Feather light refugee housing in Sweden, 24th of May
Seminar in Copenhague: James C. Scott on public historical memory, 24th of May
Documentary Film screening in Roskilde: Imag(-in-)ing Migration, 23 and 24th of May 2018
Seminar: Urban Environmental Justice, 25th of May
Conference: Anti-Racism and Diversity in University, 28th of May
Seminar: Bourdieu and Diaspora Studies, 28th of May
Seminar: Youth perspectives on the Conflict in Yemen, 29th of May

 

News from the Faculty of Social Sciences

Seminar: Swedish humanitarian work among Armenian refugees 1923-1947

Maria Småberg, Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies, Department of History

In this article I discuss how material items can function as a key to a wider understanding of historical relations between Middle Eastern Christians and Europe. Taking as an example the Swedish missionary Alma Johansson, who worked among Armenian refugees in Thessaloniki, 1923–1947, I analyse the material culture in the humanitarian work and show how exchanges of needlework over the borders created cosmopolitan bonds of solidarity between Swedish and Armenian women which made for empowerment and change locally and globally. I discuss critically how this material help did not only meet material needs, but also existential, emotional and cultural needs of donors and recipients alike. The needlework also became a help to self-help for the refugee women.


Time:  23rd of May 2018 - 12:00 to 13:00
Location: The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Finngatan 16
Contact: anna [dot] hellgren [at] cme [dot] lu [dot] se (anna[dot]hellgren[at]cme[dot]lu[dot]se)
For more information click: https://www.sam.lu.se/event/swedish-humanitarian-work-among-armenian-refugees-1923-1947
 

Lecture: Transnational Justice and Gendered Vulnerability: Feminist Politics and (Im)possible Solidarities

Nikita Dhawan, Professor of Political Science (Political Theory and Gender Studies) and Director of the Research Platform Gender Studies: "Identities – Discourses – Transformations" at the University of Innsbruck, Austria

In recent discussions on gender justice, there has been increasing focus on transnational feminist networks as facilitating “solidarity across borders”. In the face of growing global interdependence, the hope is that a transnational citizen’s movement could potentially galvanize global co-operation in overcoming gender violence and promoting gender equality. In my paper I will argue that while new modes of collective agency can emerge by drawing on gendered vulnerability as a site of political agency, “global sisterhood” can inadvertently also function as a technology of neoliberal governmentality. Against this background, my talk will critically engage with the prospects and limits of global gender justice from a postcolonial perspective.

Time: 23rd of May 2018 - 13:00 to15:00
Location: M:240, "Gamla Kirurgen" Sandgatan 3, Lund
Contact: katrine [dot] scott [at] genus [dot] lu [dot] se (katrine[dot]scott[at]genus[dot]lu[dot]se)
For more information click: https://www.genus.lu.se/event/transnational-justice-and-gendered-vulnerability-feminist-politics-and-impossible-solidarities

 

Seminar: On the Swedish National Election Studies Program: A research agenda for the 2018 general election

In the past thirty years, the Swedish party system has undergone a fundamental trans­for­mation both in size (fragmentation) and structure (dimensionality and pola­ri­zation). The number of effective parties is growing, the classic unidimensional economic left-right divide is challenged by several new issue dimensions, and the polarization along new cultural conflicts is effectively re-sorting the electorate. Fuel­led by processes of dealignment and individualization, changes in the citizens’ perceptions of the political space and their own ideological positions have also resulted in political change at the polls. As a direct consequence of these developments, Sweden experience a volatile parliamentary situation with dire implications for political stability. In the past few years, the SNES program has been “reinvented” with new sources of funding, a new organization and a change in survey mode for the large voter surveys that is conducted at times of elections. This is a challenge to the comparability with the long standing series of voter surveys (1956-2014) and the comparative part of the study (Comparative Study of Electoral Systems CSES 1995-). Efforts have been made to keep the 2018 Swedish Election Study as the main ‘work horse‘ for research on electoral behavior in Sweden. In 2018, the program will also field the Members of Parliament surveys (Riksdagsundersökningarna), candidate surveys (Comparative Candidate Studies, CCS), and the coding of party pledges (Party Pledge Research Group). The main research objective of the program is still focused on monitoring the well-being and the dynamics of the representative democracy, and how long-term and short-term determinants affect electoral behavior. As always, the SNES will try balancing the research objectives of keeping the unique 50 years+ time series intact while at the same time make room for new components that speak directly to contemporary electoral research. On-going research themes involve the development of choice set models, analyses of retrospective voting, new measures of partisanship, and voters’ use of social media and voting advice applications. The component of the SNES 2018 that include the comparative study of electoral systems (CSES IV) – “Democracy divided” is devoted to the study of populism, with survey instruments for tapping out-group attitudes, sense of nationalism, and elite attitudes surveyed in more than 50 countries.

Time: 23rd of May 2018 14:15 to 15:30
Location: Large conference room, Eden
Contact: karin [dot] aggestam [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se
For more information click: https://www.svet.lu.se/en/event/higher-research-seminar-with-henrik-ekengren-oscarsson-on-the-swedish-national-election-studies-program-a-research-agenda-for-the-2018-general-election

 

Lecture: Trans*: A Quick Guide to Gender Variability

Jack Halberstam, Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Columbia University

In the last decade, public discussions of transgenderism have increased exponentially. What was once regarded as an unusual or even unfortunate disorder has become an accepted articulation of gendered embodiment as well as a new site for political activism. How did a stigmatized identity become so central to US and European articulations of self and other? What fuels the continued fascination with transgender embodiment and how has the recognition of its legitimacy changed current gender protocols in the US? What is the history of gender and how does it sit alongside histories of sexuality, race, ability and health? How do we explain the recent emergence of the transgender child and how are families, parents and medical professionals responding to them? What contradictions and paradoxes do current discussions about non-binary restrooms present and how does the visibility of transgender subjects put pressure on the whole system of bodily classification as it has evolved over the past 150 years?

Time: 24th of May 2018 - 10:00 to 12:00
Location: Kulturens Auditorium, Tegnérsplatsen 6, Lund.
Contact: jens [dot] rydstrom [at] genus [dot] lu [dot] se (jens[dot]rydstrom[at]genus[dot]lu[dot]se)
For more information click: https://www.genus.lu.se/event/trans-a-quick-guide-to-gender-variability

 

Seminar: Moving Towards a Sustainable Work Life – Project Coordinators' Accounts

Nina Gren, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Lund University

Nina Gren will present her work “Moving Towards a Sustainable Work Life – Project Coordinators' Accounts”. This seminar is part of the series Lunch Seminar, every Tuesdays at the Department of Sociology, Lund University. Each presenter talks for about half an hour, followed by discussion. Feel free to bring your lunch! Time: 12.05 - 13.00, with the possibility to stay longer if you want to continue the discussion.  You can access to Nina Gren’s profile here: https://www.soc.lu.se/en/nina-gren

Time: 29th of May 2018 12:00 to 13:00
Location: Konferensrum 1, våning 3 (G:335), Sociologiska institutionen, Paradisgatan 5, Hus G, Lund
Contact: carola [dot] aili [at] soc [dot] lu [dot] se (carola[dot]aili[at]soc[dot]lu[dot]se)
For more information: https://www.soc.lu.se/en/node/778

 

Seminar: A Regal Crackdown in Asia’s Newest One-Party State

Astrid Norén-Nilsson, Senior Lecturer, Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies, Lund University, on A Regal Crackdown in Asia’s Newest One-Party State

Cambodia’s recent turn to authoritarianism, which has ended more than two decades of competitive electoral competition (1993-2017), has been bound up with striking efforts to link Prime Minister Hun Sen to the historical monarchy. In August 2017, the month that the government crackdown commenced, the movie “His Royal Highness Sdech Kan” was released – the culmen of a long-term project to identify Hun Sen with 16th century king Sdech Kan, a man of prowess who toppled the king at the time and ascended the throne himself. Two weeks after the November 2017 dissolution of opposition the Cambodia National Rescue Party, Hun Sen presided over a peace ceremony at Angkor Wat, replete with royal symbolism, that (contradictorily) seemed to posit him as a descendant of the line of Angkorean kings. Whilst Hun Sen has long built a complex set of regal legitimisations elevating him to or above kingship, these have both intensified and changed qualitatively during the ongoing crackdown. This paper analyses these recent developments and investigates what light they can shed on the nature of authoritarianism as it unfolds in today’s Cambodia. Investigating the nexus between the autocrat and the king, it provides an initial exploration of what new political order may be emerging.  

Time: 30th of May 2018 - 13:15 to 14:30
Location: Large conference room, Eden
Contact: anders [dot] uhlin [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (anders[dot]uhlin[at]svet[dot]lu[dot]se)
For more information click: https://www.svet.lu.se/en/event/higher-research-seminar-with-astrid-noren-nilsson-on-a-regal-crackdown-in-asias-newest-one-party-state

 

Other News and Events

Seminar: Environmental subject formation through REDD+ in cocoa-forest communities in Ghana

Emily Boyd, Director of LUCSUS, Lund University

Using internationally conceived mechanisms like REDD+ as part of the suite of solutions to address climate change requires the use of forests, which are local sites of habitation, sources of livelihoods, and offer significant support services to socio-ecological systems. Various arguments support local forest communities and indigenous people (wherever this applies), who live in or near these REDD+ forests, to participate in forest protection and management that achieves reduced emissions. With new environmental technologies such as REDD+ comes new knowledge that creates new forms of power, and leads to certain practices and thinking patterns. There is a dearth in knowledge about what the powers, practices and thinking patterns developed under REDD+ are. To help fill this gap, this study explores the cocoa-forest communities of Kamaso and Attobrakrom in Ghana, to understand what REDD+ signifies for small landholder farmers and how they come to care (or not) for their environment through REDD+ implementation. We pose the questions: 1. How is REDD+ understood among cocoa-forest communities? 2. What changes in behaviours have manifested since REDD+ was introduced? 3. Why do cocoa-forest communities care (or not) about REDD+? Using interviews, focus group discussions and transect walks, the findings indicate that the overly technical narrative of REDD+ is watered down to a simplified understanding of “tree-planting” (ndua dua) at the local level, reflective of a wider politics of low carbon development. Despite this, REDD+ promotes new understandings and identities around forests, making some people care, act and benefit from livelihoods and reduced climate impacts, such as by monitoring and reporting illegalities. Not all members of the communities have become subjects of REDD+, for a number of socio-political reasons. We conclude by suggesting that adding elements of emotion and connection, i.e. relationality, to the concept of subjectivity provides valuable insight into what motivates individuals to adopt (or not) new environmental practices for sustainability, by also recognising the value of placing the relational above dominant ideologies of the self.

Time: 24th of May 2018 10:00 to 12:00
Location: Wrangel Building, LUCSUS. Biskopsgatan 5, 223 62 Lund
Contact: maja [dot] essebo [at] lucsus [dot] lu [dot] se
For more information click: https://www.lucsus.lu.se/event/lucsus-seminar-environmental-subject-formation-through-redd-in-cocoa-forest-communities-in-ghana

 

Seminar: Feather light refugee housing in Sweden

Marwa Dabaieh, department of Urban Studies, Faculty of Culture and Society, Malmö University, presents a paper on eco-cycle refugee shelters.

Forced migration is not a recent phenomenon, nor is the reality of the amount suffering of the displaced population fleeing from armed conflict. Finding housing for refugees has not only become an acute obligation for hosting countries but it is a situation predicted to continue, and possibly increase, in the future. This talk  is discussing and showing the results of an experimental project for designing and constructing an ecocycle refugee shelter. The project shows a proof of concept for an environmentally low impact shelter that pays respect to social norms, religious beliefs and cultural traditions of refugees. This research project  applied a transdisciplinary participatory methodology using an occupant centred approach. It is looking at current postconflict housing issues in hosting countries with a focus on Syrian refugees in Sweden. The project aims at fulfilling refugees’ needs and involve them in the design and construction process in a participatory manner to help reducing the post trauma  and sense of belonging. It is also for  raising the awareness of a cost efficient and climate responsive way of building back better in the refugee’s home country. The talk will shed lights on the project methodological, design and construction steps. The house prototype is standing in Brunnshög, Lund until December 2018. This workshop is presented within the Pufendorf IAS initiative "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Migration research 2017/2018". Please register for this workshop by sending an email to eva [dot] persson [at] pi [dot] lu [dot] se (eva[dot]persson[at]pi[dot]lu[dot]se)

Time: 24th of May 2018 - 10:00 to 12:00
Location: Pufendorf IAS
Contact: Eva [dot] Persson [at] pi [dot] lu [dot] se (Eva[dot]Persson[at]pi[dot]lu[dot]se)
For more information click: https://www.pi.lu.se/event/feather-light-refugee-housing-in-sweden

 

Seminar: James C. Scott on public historical memory

James C. Scott, Professor, Yale University

Every nation requires truthful, documented and comprehensive histories of its past. Those histories must include not only the achievements, victories, and glories of its past but also its failures, its crimes, and persecutions. Such histories alone can serve as an honest basis for national self-understanding, for independent scholarship and for raising a self-aware and critical generation of students and citizens. At this seminar, Professor James C. Scott will present the argument that public historical memory must take the form of a popular or social movement that is broadly inclusive and a widely popular activity. Drawing on references to public memory initiatives in Germany, Russia and the United States, James C. Scott will particularly reflect on what a public memory agenda for Myanmar could look like. As a country that has experienced five decades of oppressive military rule and continuous atrocities against ethnic and religious minorities, there is a real risk that a public memory exercise in Myanmar will become a history of the Bamar majority. Not only the military, but also the elected government, under the de facto leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi since 2016, will unlikely write a history that reveals military misrule and oppression of minorities. How can an honest history be written by and for the people of Myanmar? What are the current challenges and openings? In addressing these questions, James C. Scott will also reflect on the critical situation of the Rohingya people in Myanmar.  Participation is free of charge, but registration is required.

Time: 24th of May 2018 - 10:00 to 12:00
Location: DIIS ∙ Danish Institute for International Studies; Auditorium. Gl. Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A; 2100 Copenhagen
For more information click: https://www.diis.dk/en/event/james-c-scott-on-public-historical-memory

 

Documentary Films screening: Imag(-in-)ing Migration

As part of the International Conference on Migration, Development and Citizenship, there will be two sessions of documentary film screening. On 23rd of May at 17:00, “The Encyclopedia of Migrants” a film and art project by Benoit Raoulx and Frédéric Leterrier. On 24th of May at 16.30: “River Nomads”, a film by Eric Hahonou and Lotte Pelckmans; and “Becky’s Journey” a film by Sine Plambech.

Time: 23 and 24th of May 2018
Location: Roskilde University, Room 41.1-14. Universitetsvej 1, Postbox 260, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
For more information click: http://events.ruc.dk/apad-conference/programme.html

 

Seminar: Urban Environmental Justice

Isabelle Anguelovski, ICREA Research Professor and Director, Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. And Mine Islar, Associate Senior Lecturer, LUCSUS, Lund University

This seminar discusses the ways in which environmental justice is crucial for areas like urban planning and forming urban collective movements by highlighting connections between work on environmental justice, sustainability policies and urban political movements. In doing so it raises significant questions about the need for, and potential of, a renewed holism in research on regeneration and renewal, bridging insights into community development, urban planning and urban environmental politics. Speakers goes about this task by exploring rich, deep case studies from several cities. Please note that registration is needed. You can register at https://simpleeventsignup.com/event/132396

Time: 25th of May 2018 - 10:00 to 12:00
Location: Wrangel Building, LUCSUS. Biskopsgatan 5, 223 62 Lund
Contact: mine [dot] islar [at] lucsus [dot] lu [dot] se (mine[dot]islar[at]lucsus[dot]lu[dot]se)
For more information click: https://www.lucsus.lu.se/event/urban-environmental-justice

 

Conference: Anti-Racism and Diversity in University, 28th of May

This conference aims at exploring sites of structural, institutional and other forms of racism in academic life and developing strategies to dismantle sometimes blatant, other times more subtle and hidden, forms of discrimination and racism in academia.
How can we teach in an anti-racist way? What does an anti-racist learning require? How might we create and sustain learning spaces in which we can explore difficult issues in critical ways? How does one become an anti-racist scholar? How do we engage with anti-racism in research and how can we write critical research applications that also are successful? How can anti-racism help us create more diverse curricula and reading lists? How can we identify and address the privilege that leads to “cloning cultures” in academia? What are the best strategies for creating an academia that reflects the diversity of society? This event is organized by Antirasistiska Akademin and Gender Troublemakers.

Time: 28th of May 2018 – 9:00 to 17:00
Location: Auditorium, Kulturen. Tegnérsplatsen 6, 223 50 Lund
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/194833797799380/
 

Seminar: Bourdieu and Diaspora Studies  

Paul Tabar, director of the Institute for Migration Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology at the Lebanese American University.

‘Transnational’ nowadays refers to an overly broad set of activities, actors and processes, often rendering its application hollow. Given the apparent similarities to the transnational, diasporic activities, processes and actors are often the first victims of the conceptual curse of transnationalism, resulting in the glossing over of particularities in the diasporic field which would, if studied separately, have important consequences for analysis. Failure to introduce viable options for differentiation between two (very) different sets of activities that comprise transnational and diasporic, means we are unable to identify specificities that have important consequences for the analysis of the diasporic field. By introducing the Bourdieusian concept of the ‘field’, and arguing that the diasporic field should be separate from the transnational field, we demonstrate that the actions of diasporic groups towards their homeland are best studied independently (but mindful) of, transnationalism. The ‘field’ framework highlights the power relations that determine the impact of diasporic remittances. Without this diaspora-specific lens, we lose the centrality of the state in diasporic homeland relations, and also ignore the fact that remittances are the outcome of a process of power struggle between actors (specific to the diaspora) which is best encapsulated in the concept of a ‘field’.

Time: 28th of May 2018 - 12:00 to 13:00
Location: Center for Middle Eastern Studies’ Seminar Room. Box 201, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
For more information click: http://www.cmes.lu.se/events/

 

Seminar: Youth perspectives on the Conflict in Yemen

The conflict in Yemen drove the country into the most severe human-made humanitarian crisis. According to the United Nations, more than two-thirds of the Yemeni population lives under the threat of hunger, and epidemics such as cholera and diphtheria continue to spread. Systematic violations of human rights are apparent in the actions of both internal and external warring parties exacerbating the human calamity in the country. This public panel brings together a group of Yemeni youth activists who will address the situation in Yemen from different perspectives and areas of expertise. The goal of the session is to depict the complexity of the situation in Yemen and the impact of the conflict on the humanitarian, political, economic, and cultural conditions.

Time: 29th of May 2018 - 16:00 to 18:00
Location: Edens hörsal, Paradisgatan 5H
For more information click: http://www.cmes.lu.se/events/