The centre brings together academics, practitioners, and activists from a range of fields and geopolitical spaces to theorise key aspects of the dynamic migratory process, while opening reflexive and informed spaces for practice.
With a special focus on forced migration, CMS adopts a multidisciplinary approach, engaging perspectives from refugee studies, international law, international relations, humanitarian action, education, geography, sociology and anthropology among others. CMS seeks to push the boundaries of theory and practice, and to encourage critical reflexive dialogue and practice by opening new and inclusive spaces for questioning and challenging established discourse and practice while supporting the emergence of new critical epistemological, methodological and practical engagements.
The centre seeks to shift the frontiers of migration studies to develop outwards, critically, and to engage new theory as it works to understand the forced migratory experience in all its complexity: bodies in space and time, situating the multidimensional individual within the broader historical, social, economic, and political context at local, national and international levels.
We start off from an understanding that the study of migration is complex, and that there is no definite or ‘right’ way of studying migration, hence pitching this process as fractured, divided, and contested. But we see this space as productive as we work towards developing alternative ways of understanding and researching. Our aim is the development of new theory and concepts that will be useful to researchers, social movements and migrants themselves. We work in the hope of developing Critical Migration Studies as a critical and nuanced field in its own right, working beyond mere theorisation, towards combating human rights violations, racism, exclusion and oppression. In this regard, our approach is unapologetically political.
Engaging with CMS:
Studying with us:
If you are interested in opportunities to study with us, please follow the Courses link. Our courses are largely online, and have a strong practical, methodological conceptual focus. The courses are for researchers as well as activists and practitioners of various levels and experience. Through the course you will interact with and have access to a diverse research community, who will assist with tutoring and support.
Training and capacity building:
At CMS we develop tailor made training sessions and courses (including short courses), using online, offline and blended learning addressing the needs of researchers, activists and practitioners. We engage and apply theory in a practical, dialogical and participatory way as we work towards praxis. Please conact us to discuss your requirements and your target audience.
Research
For research proposals , please visit our contacts page and send us an email to discuss your ideas and requirments. While we work with a range of mixed methods, we promote the use of participatory and inclusive approaches (e.g. participatory action research), and work in support of research that ‘leaves something behind’, whether through strengthened lobbying and activism, capacity building or direct action. We also aim to displace universal approaches privileging global North approaches, tools and ‘knowledge’.