Borders and Migration in Digital Times

August 16 – 28, 2021
European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

The Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION invites master and post-graduate students including Ph.D.-candidates to apply for the two-week international summer school “Borders and Migration in Digital Times” at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, which will take place from 16 to 28 August, 2021, and which is financially supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In the summer school, we deal with the rapidly developing digitalization of border and migration management. Students who intend to start exploring this emerging field are invited as well as those who have already consolidated a research interest in this direction.

Thematic focus of the summer school
The summer school “Borders and Migration in Digital Times” offers 20 international students an opportunity to explore how policies and practices of border demarcation and migration management are influenced and changed by the availability and use of digital technologies. This thematic focus corresponds with the dual observation that, on the one hand, the management and control of migration as well as the protection of state borders against irregular migration are increasingly supported by digital infrastructures. These new coordination and control instruments partially replace and relocate traditional forms of state-run border practices linked to geo-political spaces. On the other hand, migrants apply digital devices in order to pass state borders, to build transnational networks, and to stay in contact with family and acquaintances living at a distance. But even after migrants have crossed a state border, the digital dimension of migration management facilitates new boundaries and categorization methods as well as opportunities for migrants and their integration. In this summer school, we want to generate a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the relevance and use of digital technologies in multilevel processes which reshape the notion and location of the border itself and the way in which migration is dealt with and managed.

About the program
The summer school’s program combines various formats which facilitate the acquisition and consolidation of knowledge and skills. Renowned scientists from the fields of border, migration and digital studies will delve into core aspects with their lectures. A continuous tutorial provides space to discuss selected publications with the invited lecturers as well as with the researchers of the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION.
The summer school provides opportunities to acquire basic experience in the practical
application of a digital publication tool (e.g. MAHARA). In collaborative sessions, participants will creatively learn how to design, produce and publish digital contributions – including film material. Participants with an already developed research focus on digital borders and migration management will have the chance to share their own research projects or ideas within speed presentations. In the course of the summer school, excursions to topically relevant sites in Berlin and at the German-Polish border are envisaged.

Confirmed speakers

Sarah Green (University of Helsinki)
Digital Borders and the Nonhuman: on the surveillance of animal movements and zoonotic diseases across the Mediterranean
(keynote)

Annalisa Pelizza (University of Bologna and University of Twente)
Digital migration management as “alterity processing”. Evidence from the European border(s)

Philipp Hacker (European University Viadrina)
Algorithmic Discrimination and Algorithmic Fairness

Bastian Vollmer (Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz)
The unsmart application of smart border control technologies

Götz Herrmann (University of Paderborn)
Sociotechnical imaginaries of the border

Vassilis Tsianos (Applied University of Kiel)

Estela Schindel (European University Viadrina)

Kira Kosnick (European University Viadrina)

Jan-Hendrik Passoth (European University Viadrina)

Benefits of the summer school specifically consist of:
• An encounter with cultural and social science perspectives on borders and migration in digital times.
• Imparting and deepening the knowledge about basic theoretical approaches and concepts such as migration and border regimes, migration infrastructure, securitization, externalization of controls, digital bordering, border complexities, digitalization of migration management and control, differential inclusion, algorithm-driven decision-making, autonomy of migration.
• Getting to know an interdisciplinary perspective on border and migration research and (first) experiences of interdisciplinary cooperation.
• Gaining an understanding of what the prerequisites are for a multidimensional application of analytical concepts which explain complex social processes and structural formations.
• Acquisition of practical digital knowledge through the creative, guided development of audio-visual contributions tackling self-selected questions, which are presented at the end of the summer school and published on the summer school website.
• Discussion of the ethical dimensions of the use of digital technology for border control and border crossing.

For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.