University of Birmingham: EUniWell-funded Winter School ends with a Summer Workshop in Florence, Italy

The EUniWell-funded winter school on focused on migration and diversity in European cities (MADEINEUEOPE) in Florence on 9-10 June. Professor Nando Sigona, director of the winter school, and the University of Firenze’s PVC international relations, Professor Giorgia Giovannetti, welcomed EUniWell academic partners and students at Villa Rispoli in the city centre of Florence.

The interdisciplinary winter school, which took place online over four weeks in January, brought together 38 postgraduate students and internationally renowned academics in the field of migration and diversity research to discuss the politics of migration and diversity in Europe. The final workshop was delayed into early summer due to the COVID pandemic. Participants could finally meet in person, network and exchange ideas through a variety of academic panel discussions, presentations and long and excellent coffee breaks. Students and academics presented their cutting-edge research on migration and diversity from a range of disciplines and perspectives, including law, anthropology, psychology, history and social work.

Matias Mesquita, an Angolan-Italian migrant rights activist, shared how migrants in Firenze are dealing with racist discrimination and organising in collective agency and action. Joint dinners and a late-night city tour facilitated intense face-to-face discussions surrounding bottom-up knowledge production, methodology and ethics of migration research and how to think about intersectionality, i.e. taking into account migration-related diversity in connection with other categories and identities such as gender, age and racialisation.

The winter school, together with the summer workshop, was organised by the University of Birmingham in partnership with the Universities of Leiden, Firenze, Cologne and Linneaus.