Submission deadline: March 15, 2021

Topics: Research pertaining to migration and inclusive societies (please see “scope” below)

Project duration: Until December 31, 2021

Funded by: MIS – Migration and Inclusive Societies (FHSE)

Contact: till.dembeck@uni.lu or nicole.holzapfel-mantin@uni.lu

Budget: € 10 000 total; max. € 3000 per project

Eligibility

This call is open to all researchers at the FHSE who conduct research pertaining to migration and inclusive societies. While projects of PhD-students can be funded, the salary of PhD-students cannot be funded. It is possible to apply for a project as a group; in this case, one member of the group must be designated as the contact person to MIS or the Principal Investigator (PI). Groups may also include researchers from other Faculties or Interdisciplinary Centers of the University as well as Luxembourg Institutes, but in this case, the designated contact person or the PI must be a member of FHSE.

Scope

MIS invites proposals for research projects on the broader topic of migration and inclusive societies.

Successful project proposals will be teaching, outreach, and/or research oriented and must align with:

• at least 1 of the 5 Working Areas:
• Socio-Economic Participation & Global Connectivity
• Diversity & Social Cohesion
• Cross-Border Movement & Citizenship
• Multilingualism & Educational Challenges
• Experiences of Borders & Cultural Identities
• the MIS-Mission-statement:
  The Key Research Area “Migration and Inclusive Societies” (MIS) at the FHSE (https://mis.uni.lu/en) conducts inter- and cross-disciplinary research, teaching and outreach in migration studies with the aim of promoting inclusive societies. Its activities include all aspects of life and borders, thereby going beyond addressing migration with purely economic or political questions. By fostering disciplinary and methodological diversity, MIS engages with the complexity of migration processes and of inclusion.

How to apply

• Please submit an application with a summary of your proposed project (500 words excluding references) to nicole.holzapfel-mantin@uni.lu by March 15, 2021
• In the application please state:
• The project title (at least preliminary)
• The objectives and expected results of your project
• Who is involved in your project (individual and group-applications are possible)
• how your project relates to at least one of the five MIS-working areas and the MIS-Mission-Statement
• how much funding you are applying for and why
• on what purposes you would want to spend the project-money
• Please note that all project-expenses have to be in line with UL financial guidelines
• a timetable of the course of your proposed project

The MIS-Consortium will review your application and results will be communicated via email by March 31, 2021.

Successful projects will be asked to:

• display the MIS-logo on all related material (posters, publications etc.) and acknowledge MIS-support in any other appropriate manner.
• open all related events to MIS-members
• present at MIS-events
• provide a written final report (500 words; including project title, use of funding, outcomes) after the funding period/project has ended, which may be put on the MIS-website; a report-template will be sent out

Borders are vital features of our life, and bordering processes a substantial part of how we negotiate territory, access to space, goods, social status and belonging; in other words, our relationships to others and the environment in which we live.

Focusing on migration and the movement of people in and across time, space and social orders, sharpens our understanding of the complexity of borders, why they exist, to whom they matter and what it takes to perceive, navigate, cross or circumvent them. These navigations can look very different for people with specific backgrounds, pertaining to language, culture, race and, importantly, passport.

Previous conferences have looked into migration, the political, economic forces driving it, the ways it is patterned, administered and controlled by state border regimes, and the consequences migration has created for people who move and societies accommodating people on the move.

Following this line of enquiry, this conference proposes to zoom deeper into the migration experience of people by foregrounding how migration is being connected to culture. We suggest exploring the nexus of migration and culture in more depth asking how migration is lived, experienced, reflected in, and mediated, in particular, through cultural and artistic practice. We seek to investigate this lens as a way to deepen our understanding of the complexity and difference of migration experience , on the one hand, and the possibilities of connecting different migrant experiences and groups of people , on the other.

Luxembourg seems an ideal place to frame such a reflection. Being itself very small, Luxembourg benefits from an economic mobility that is particularly high and diverse. More than half of the population are of second or third generation migrant background, reflecting the country’s past as a key player in the coal and steel industry. The country’s more recent success as a capital in finance and banking, and as an important political player promoting the European Union and running some of its major institutions has attracted a large number of a highly educated work force.

Situated at the heart of the Greater Region, including Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany, more than 180.000 people are crossing national borders with Luxembourg daily for work. While Luxembourg is, no doubt, a hub of mobility, the forms and experiences of mobility do vary greatly depending on the conditions of work and life.

This scenario allows us to understand some important issues in more depth:

✓ How are people involved in different forms of mobility (cross border workers, Luxembourgish residents, and newly arrived migrants) experience migration or ‘mobility for work’?

✓ What places and forms of ‘cultural encounter’ are created (or not) because of these mobilities?

✓ What meanings are circulated, negotiated, emerging in these ‘cultural encounters’?

✓ How do these experiences translate into forms of cultural and artistic practice? How are these experiences voiced, mediated and articulated through creative process (e.g. music, literature, film, fine and performing arts)?