Raquel Herrero-Arias and Zubia Willmann Robleda, members of the IMER Junior Scholar Research Network share their experiences of their academic visits.
Raquel Herrero-Arias’s experience:
In 2018 I received two grants from The Meltzer Fund for research stays abroad. First, in 2018, I went to Nijmegen (the Netherlands) as a visiting PhD student at the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, at Radboud University. My tutor there was Anouk de Koning, an Associate Professor who leads a project funded by an ERC Starting Grant titled “Reproducing Europe: Migrant Parenting and Contested Citizenship”. During my three months stay, I had the opportunity to participate in internal seminars held by the project’s team, attend to a Masterclass by Professor Cati Coe, and be part of a two days international workshop titled “Negotiating Good Lives: affective encounters, hesitant belonging and the welfare state in Europe”. Having discussions with Anouk’s research team was very enriching and beneficial for the writing up of my second article. I really appreciate having had the opportunity to present my draft to Reproducing Europe’s team and PhD’s networks, and get feedback from them.
I am currently writing from Canterbury (UK) where I am doing a two months stay at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent. I am attending two postgraduate courses: “The family, parenting culture, and parenting policy”, and “Sociology of health, illness and medicine”. My aim is to get to know sociological approaches to parenting and health that can be applied in my research field, and which will improve my teaching competencies for a Master course I teach on parenting and childhood at UiB. My tutor here is Professor Ellie Lee who is the director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies (CPCS), and will be co-author of an article I am writing with the help of her supervision. Moreover, I have presented my PhD project at the CPCS’ seminars and joined a research group on migration and ethnicity.
A research stay abroad gives you the opportunity to work in a new environment and have discussions with academics working on different fields and from different perspectives. I cannot think of a better way to grow professionally and personally.
Zubia Willmann Robleda’s experience:
Thanks to a research stay abroad grant that I received from VID Specialized University, my university, I was able to travel to Amsterdam, where I am currently on a four month visit at the Department of Sociology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. During this visit, I am part of Prof. Dr. Halleh Ghorashi’s research team (Identities, Diversity and Inclusion-IDI) and have the opportunity to also participate in the Refugee Academy Expertise lab (launched in June 2017). This lab has the aim of connecting existing academic, professional and local knowledge to bring research and practice around refugee issues closer together. I hope to also benefit from the supervision of Prof. Dr. Halleh Ghorashi and other members of the research team during my stay in the department.
In the first month of my visit I have participated in a workshop on “Teaching intersectionality” organized by the Migration and Diversity Centre – MDC at the VRIJE Universiteit Amsterdam. I have also presented my project at a Refugee Academy Expertise lab meeting and received valuable feedback from the members. Also by working on a daily basis in the department I have had the opportunity to meet other PhD and junior scholars in the field of migration and engage in interesting discussions. I hope that the remaining three months at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will give me the opportunity to discuss my work further with the colleagues of the department, gather inspiration and fresh perspectives in the last year of my PhD. Being in this environment where there are so many researchers and research groups in the field of migration and particularly asylum seekers, is a unique opportunity for my project and professional career.
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