Symfiliosi (SYM)

Symfiliosi is a non-profit non-governmental organisation based in Cyprus. It is one of the partners that make up the Centre for the Study of Migration, Inter-ethnic & Labour Relations. It has a keen interest and involvement in anti-racism, anti-discrimination, social cohesion and integration of migrant communities, combating sex trafficking and safeguarding the rights of minorities and ethnic communities. It has been involved in research projects on: policies regarding the situation of unaccompanied migrant minors, funded by the EU (DAPHNE programme); the demand side of trafficking funded by the EU (AGIS programme); detention conditions of asylum seekers funded by EU (Programme “2005 Actions in support of civil society in the Member States which acceded to the European Union on 1st May 2004); good practices by banks and credit institutions for the integration of migrants and refugees, in the framework of the program INTI, 2007-2008; Ways of Implementing the EU directives on Violence against Children, Young People and Women: Good Practices and Recommendations in (DAPHNE project) led by the University of Ljubljana.

Dali 23, Lefkosia, 2549 Cyprus
Institute web page: http://www.reconciliationcyprus.org/index.php

Nicos Trimikliniotis (senior researcher) is Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration, Inter-ethnic & Labour Relations and Assistant Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Nicosia; he directs the Cyprus National Focal Point for Fundamental Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination. He was Scientific Director for Cyprus for FP6 Project FEMIPOL on Integration of female immigrants in labour market and society: Policy assessment and policy recommendations.

Corina Demetriou (researcher) studied law and holds a Masters degree in international law, with a focus on human rights. She has co-ordinated many of the projects, including the UNHCR funded project on provision of legal assistance to asylum seekers and refugees (2005-2006). She was involved as an analyst in the AGIS research project on the demand side of sex trafficking and in EU funded research projects on unaccompanied migrant minors and on the detention conditions of migrants. Since 2007 she is the national expert for Cyprus of the Network of Legal Experts in the anti-discrimination field operated by the Migration Policy Group and Human European Consultancy.

Olga Demetriou (researcher) is Project leader on Cypriot refugee subjectivities – structures of politics and loss. She completed a Ph.D. (LSE) thesis on the politicisation of Turkish= minority identities in Greece in 2002. She carried out research at Wolfson College, Cambridge between 2001 and 2003 and at St Peter’s and St. Antony’s Colleges, Oxford, between 2003 and 2006. She has recently completed the Migrant Cities Research, Nicosia South as part of the Living Together Project of the Institute for Public Policy Research and British Council.

Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (FMSH)

The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH)’s objective is to promote studies of human societies that focus on current social realities and contexts. FMSH’s primary goal to be to only act through the subsidiary principle: the Foundation initiates, supports, sponsors research projects that are intended to become independent. The FMSH is creative in that it “listens” to the major questions about society, to researchers, and to decision-makers and then takes the risk of supporting innovative projects. Its second mission is to promote hybrid operations that combine disciplines.

54, boulevard Raspail 75270, Cedex 6 Paris, France
Institute web page: www.msh-paris.fr

Dana Diminescu (senior researcher) is Sociologist, Associate Professor at Telecom Paris Tech (Paris) and scientific director of the Research Programme on the Use of ICT in Migrations. Her Field of research is: Communication practices and uses in mobility situation, ICT uses by migrants (mobile telephone, voice IT, Internet, money transfer). She has coordinated the projects: ANR (contenu et interactions), “E-diasporas atlas”, Migrinter (University of de Poitiers), INA (National Audiovisual Institute, Paris), Bridge IT, CIPthematic Network, CE, the potential of ICT for the promotion of cultural diversity in the EU, the case of economic and social participation and integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities, a study on Social Computing and Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities and an ongoing research on the uses of Skype by the migrants (ENST/ FMSH).

Mathieu Renault (researcher) is engineer, PhD candidate in philosophy and research attaché at the project on the Use of ICT in Migrations. His field of research is on ICT and Migrations, notably on Social Computing and migrations, Immigrant’s Political Activism and the Internet, Migrations, marriages and gender in the Web and Postcolonial Studies (race relations, racism and psychoanalysis and colonialism).

Mathieu Jacomy (researcher) is engineer, PhD candidate in information science R&D, coordinator of the Research Programme on the Use of ICT in Migrations. He is researcher at WebAtlas. His research is on: Creation and experimentation of tools to act in a digital space, Mobilization of theoretical or technical elements to explore the Web, Mobilization of theoretical or technical elements to map the Web, Social data mining.

Sylvie Gangloff (researcher) is Political Scientist (PhD, Sorbonne), Development Coordinator of the Research Programme on the Use of ICT in Migrations. Her field of study is: e-Government and migrants, e-inclusion and promotion of digitalization (public and private actors), Immigrant’s political activism and the Internet.

Christophe D’Iribane (researcher) is Engineer, Physicist (PhD) R&D and researcher at the programme on the Use of ICT in Migrations (FMSH, Paris).

University of Hamburg, Institute for Sociology (UHH)

The Institute of Sociology at the University of Hamburg is dedicated to gender studies, governance, and migration studies. Several professors from the Institute of Sociology and other units of the Faculty are participating with their international research projects in the Centre of Excellence founded in 2002 have formed a research network on processes of globalisation, comparative analysis of the transformation of social welfare systems and the question of governance. The research team of the UHH focuses on issues of gender, migration, and governance and methods of empirical research and visual studies.

Allende-Platz 1, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
Institute website: http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de

Prof. Marianne Pieper (senior scholar) studied sociology, economics, politics, psychology and educational sciences. She is Associate professor of sociology at the University of Hamburg (1991-1992); researcher at the University of Hamburg (1990-1995) and visiting professor in qualitative methods of social research at the University of Kassel (1994-1996). Since 1996 she is Professor of Sociology (Gender Studies, Social Inequalities and Methods of Social Research) at the University of Hamburg, Institute of Sociology. She conducted research on the production of subjectivity under conditions of poverty and marginalisation and on non-adult African refugees. She conducted a project on New forms of Intimacy and Family Life and coordinated two international projects with partners from several European Member States: (a) “From welfare to work-poverty and social exclusion in a migration society” and (b) “Housework and Caretaking: Strategies of reconciliation in different family units (Gender, class and ethnic inequalities)”.

Vassilis Tsianos (senior researcher) holds a BA in Sociology and a MA in Sociology of migration and racism. His PhD thesis discusses the relationship between new Migration and Precarity in the EU. He teaches theoretical sociology and migration studies at the University of Hamburg. He also worked as a Fellow Researcher in the project “Transit Migration” (2003-2005) investigating European border regimes and new forms of migration in South Eastern Europe (financed by the German Federal Cultural Foundation).

Brigitta Kuster (researcher) is artist, author and filmmaker. Her works focuses issues such as the representation of work, gender and sexual identity, migration and (post)colonialism. She was part of the project Transit Migration, a transdisciplinary research, film, art, and sound project that builds on the collaborative efforts of academics, filmmakers, media activists, and artists. It examined the ways in which actual trans-national migration movements are transforming Europe and asked how, and whether, it is possible to represent this reality in academic discourse, in the media, and in art. Actually she is working on a film project together with Moise Mabouna on Cameroon/German/Swiss colonial memories and their respective disrupts.

Utrecht University, Department of Media and Culture Studies/Graduate Gender Programme (UU)

The Department of Media and Culture Studies (MCW) contains the programmes in Theatre, Film and Television Studies, New Media and Digital Culture, Communication and Information Studies, Gender Studies (GgeP) and Musicology.The Graduate Gender Programme (GGeP) of Utrecht University distinguishes itself for its international and interdisciplinary research programme which focuses on transitional justice, post-colonialism, post-humanism, and post-secularism and adds to the gender debates on ethics and aesthetics, citizenship, cosmopolitanism, migration, human rights in its entanglement with other axes of socio-cultural differentiation such as ‘race’/ethnicity, sexuality, and age. GGeP is involved in various European projects like the Erasmus Mundus GEMMA; the EU Socrates Thematic Network ATHENA3; the EU FP6 Marie Curie EST; the EU Lifelong Learning Programme – Erasmus Intensive Programme NOISE. The Gender Graduate Programme hosts the High Potential Programme “Wired up. Digital media as innovative socialization practices for migrant youth” (2007-2012) which is an international, interdisciplinary project carried out by media and postcolonial critic Sandra Ponzanesi (Humanities, UU) in collaboration with intercultural psychologist Mariëtte de Haan (Social Sciences, UU) and literary ethnographer Kevin Leander (Vanderbilt University, USA, Education and Human Development). The project focuses on how new digital media practices involving the Internet (e.g., information seeking, instant messaging, chat, web logs, the production and distribution of multi-media) impact on the lives, identities, learning and socialization of migrant youth. The project aims to locate the study of the effects of digital media in relation to socio-cultural configurations mediated by nationality, gender and ethnicity. See: http://www.uu.nl/wiredup

Muntstraat 2A, 3512 EV Utrecht, the Netherlands
Institute webpage: http://www.genderstudies.nl

Sandra Ponzanesi (senior scholar) is Associate Professor of Gender and Postcolonial critique at Utrecht University (NL), at the Department of Media and Culture Studies/Graduate Gender Programme. Her previous research has focused on comparative postcolonial literatures, in particular on Italian postcolonial writings and on the reception of postcolonial literature in relation to the literary award industry. Her most current interests focus on postcolonial cinema studies and on the exploration of digital literacies of migrant youth in transnational contexts. She works also on the understanding of “Europe” from a postcolonial perspective by taking into account issues of empires, migration, multiculturalism, religion and citizenship. She is “project leader of the High Potential Programme Wired Up: Digital media as innovative socialization practices for migrant youth”; project investigator of the AHRC research network “Postcolonial Europe” (Leeds, Munich and Utrecht) and coordinator of the European wide working group “Postcolonial Europe” under Athena3, the European Advanced Thematic Network in Activities in Women’s Studies in Europe.

Eva Midden (senior researcher) is lecturer in Gender Studies, at the Media and Culture Studies Department, at Utrecht University. She has a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Leiden (Netherlands) and has recently finished her PhD thesis ‘Feminism in Multicultural Societies. An Analysis of Dutch Multicultural and Postsecular Developments and their Implications for Feminist Debates’ at the University of Central Lancashire (United Kingdom). For this thesis she did a media analysis (on the Dutch feminist magazine Opzij) and focus groups with women from women’s organizations and combined this empirical work with a more theoretical analysis of the relationship between multiculturalism and feminism. Her research interests include feminists theory, postcolonial theory, intersectionality, (post)secular(ism), whiteness and media analysis. She is also assistant editor of the new online journal Religion and Gender.

Koen Leurs (researcher) is a PhD student in Gender Studies, at the Media and Culture Studies Department at Utrecht University (NL). He holds a master’s degree in Media Studies from Utrecht University with a minor from the National University of Singapore. He participates in the international and interdisciplinary research project “Wired Up, Digital media as innovative socialization practices for migrant youth”. His dissertation addresses how Dutch-Moroccan migrant youth use digital media to create a space and mediate their journeys at the crossroads of cultures of origin, global youth cultures, and cultures of immigration. He takes part in ‘Intergender’, a Research school in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies and has participated in ‘Network Of Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies in Europe’ (NOISE) and Oxford Internet Institute summer schools. Earlier he was an editor for the Dutch literary journal ‘Vooys’. He is a member of the AHRC research network “Postcolonial Europe” (Leeds, Munich and Utrecht) and the “Postcolonial Studies Initiative” (PCI, Utrecht University). His research interests include feminist technoscience, new media theory, postcolonial theory, intersectional thinking and (virtual) ethnography.

The Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies (PI)

Peace Institute of the Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, established in 1991, is a non-profit research institution, located in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The PI work addresses five thematic focuses: Contemporary political studies (historical, topographical and phenomenological dimensions of politics), gender studies (political participation, history of women’s and feminist movements, education for women in politics), human rights and minorities (communication building and increasing educational and employment opportunities), the media (monitoring, studying and reporting on media practices and media policy, democratization of media) and cultural policy (development trends, material conditions of cultural institutions and the effects of their operation). Special attention is devoted to cultural industry (mass products of popular culture and their economic, political and social implications). The PI is coordinator and partner to EU research projects (FP5 MAGEEQ on Gender Mainstreaming: Policy Frames and Implementation Problems, FP6 FeMiPol on Integration of Female Immigrants in Labour Market and Society and FP6 QUING on Quality in Gender and Equality Policies).

Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Institute web page: www.mirovni-institut.si

Mojca Pajnik (senior researcher) holds a PhD in Communication Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana) and works as a scientific counsellor at the Peace Institute in Ljubljana. She is assistant professor at the Department of Communication (Media Studies) and was a lecturer in social practices of communication at the International School for Social and Business Studies (Celje, Slovenia). She has been a project coordinator to several national and international initiatives on media, gender, migration and citizenship including FP6 FeMiPol. Her recent research project is on Active Citizenship (funded by the Slovenian Research Agency, 2007–2009). She is programme director at the Open Society Institute that funds international projects on civil society issues and the media (i.e. Mainstreaming/Empowering Minorities in the Media in Multicultural Societies).

Veronika Bajt (senior researcher) is a researcher at the Peace Institute and holds a PhD in Sociology (University of Bristol, UK). She has been involved in several international research projects on migration, gender and media (FP6 FeMiPol and a project funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

Admir Baltic (researcher) holds an M.A. in political science. He works as a cultural project manager at the Bosniac Cultural Union in Slovenia. His work primarily includes activities related to media presentation of the Bosniac community in Slovenia. He has (co)organized and moderated a number of workshops dedicated to the promotion of media activism of members of ethnic minorities in Slovenia, pursuing in broader sense the empowerment of Slovenia’s ethnic communities.

University of Hull, Department of Humanities

The University of Hull is a traditional, first division research-led University, providing a diversity of courses, from Bachelors to Masters and Doctorate level. Founded it 1927, the University has a range of international relationships with partner institutions and also engages in joint research projects and post graduate delivery. Other partnerships include University faculties and colleagues working with sub-regional partners in local authorities, schools and colleges in fields, such as progression to HE, teacher training, professional development, and ‘Every Child Matters’ policy subgroups. Similarly, health and NHS partnerships, as well as business groups and network-based trainers, are also important areas of engagement for the University. Media, Culture and Society is an interdisciplinary and iconoclastic programme. It provides a distinctive education by interrogating a wide variety of identities and institutions. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that distinguishes it from both ‘Cultural Studies’ and ‘Media Studies’, our innovative programme develops a set of critical skills that enable a better understanding of how our society is shaped and how it has developed.

Cottingham Road Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
Institute web page: http://www.hull.ac.uk

Athina Karatzogianni (senior researcher) has studied international relations, international conflict analysis and her PhD research was on the theoretical significance of the network forms of new technologies on the phenomenology of social protest and resistance and on the formation of identities and differences. Her field research was on the impact of new technologies on social and political communication in a variety of settings (including the Iraq war protests, the anti-globalisation movement, Chinese cyber-dissidents and the Israeli- Palestinian conflict). Current research expands these concerns attempting to develop a broader appreciation of the theoretical implications of networked forms of communication and organization and the Cyberconflict agenda.

Oksana Morgunova (Petrunko) is a full-time research fellow at Mig@net. She holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. During last 10 years she has lead an interdisciplinary research of Post-Soviet migration and the Internet of the Russian diaspora. She authored a number of articles and published a book on the Russian migration and its cultural legacy in Britain. Originally from Moscow, she worked as an international journalist before starting her academic career. She continues contributing to various programmes of the BBC World Service and Russian TV as an expert on migration and the Russian-language Internet.