(Some of the members of MIGREL in the annual Krakow seminar)
We are a research group focusing on topics related to migration, religion, and intercultural relations, based at VID Specialized University in Norway. We are a distinctly interdisciplinary group, with members from a variety of disciplines ranging from sociology, anthropology, theology, history, law, to religious studies. The research group goes back to 2015 when out of a research project idea the research group called «Cracks and in-betweens: Religion, Migration and Transnational Relations» was established. It was formed as a result of growing interest and demand for research in such areas. The research group began to expand primarily due to the rising numbers of PhD candidates. Given the growing variety of research interests, the group's thematic focus was expanded to include intercultural interactions and relationships, and it was expanded with more researchers with its main affiliation to the Centre for Intercultural Communication (SIK). In 2017 it was decided for the group to be renamed MIGREL (Migration, Religion, and Intercultural Relations) to encompass the growing variety of research interests. Kari Storstein Haug, Professor at Centre of Mission and Global Studies & Faculty of Theology, Diaconia and Leadership studies at VID, was appointed as the leader of the research group and has been since then. Over the past year, the group's expertise in this field has been further strengthened and the group continues to grow. Currently, we are comprised of 31 researchers.
We envision this blog to be a place to share news about the work that we do in our research group such as new projects, publications, conference presentations, academic visits, etc. with the goal of expanding our academic network for potential future collaborations.
We would also like this to be a platform to engage in inspiring discussions on topics related to migration, religion, and intercultural relations.
Since the beginning, many of the members of MIGREL have been PhD candidates, given the success of the group in securing internal funding for these. Other major projects in the group include
Cracks and in-betweens (internally funded), Doing family across borders (FAMAC) (funded by the Norwegian Research Council) and Labour market affiliation among newly arrived refugees in Rogaland. Between ambition and reality - MAVI. (financed by the University Fund Rogaland).
The group is active in writing research proposals for funding and this year several of the members of the group have submitted two research proposals to the Norwegian Research Council and we hope for positive results. MIGREL’s members are also quite active in publishing their research, for more please see our Publications section.
More recently, based on the research groups’ work, we have prepared an elective at PhD level on migration and religion, as well as courses at bachelor's and master's level. The syllabus contains publications from several of the group's members such as Gunhild Odden’s textbook in international migration (She is currently on leave from MIGREL while she is vice-rector).
Looking ahead we have several members of our group involved in the MAVI project, where the data collection process is coming to an end, so it will be a main focus in the future. We seek to develop networks and work with topics related to migration and welfare (in collaboration with the University of Stavanger) to develop applications for external funding (Horizon Europe?). The Cracks and in-betweens project is also coming to an end and there is a potential of writing a book linked to the work done in that group. Otherwise, several of our members have either recently defended their PhDs (look out for a new blog post about their projects) while several others are in the final phase, hence for those that are interested in helping to develop new projects we will be discussing potential exciting new projects. Finally, we have several new members joining the MIGREL research group and we are excited about the possible new projects and collaborations that this may result in.
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