Dear all,

CMRB is delighted to announce that the Affect, Borders and Bordering seminar that was cancelled due to the academic strike in February, will now be taking place on Monday 28th April, 4-6pm.

It will be held in EB.G.18, Docklands Campus, University of East London, E16 2RD, nearest tube: Cyprus DLR (http://www.uel.ac.uk/campuses/docklands/).

The event is free but spaces are limited so please reserve a place by following this link http://affectbordersandbordering.eventbrite.co.uk

All details can be found on the attached flyer. [Moderator's note: Please see the flyer pasted below.]

Best,

Jamie


CMRB (The Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging) at the University of East London is pleased to announce as part of its Borders and Bordering Seminar Series:

Affect, Borders and Bordering

This seminar will take place in EB.G.18, Docklands Campus, University of East London, E16 2RD
Nearest tube: Cyprus DLR (http://www.uel.ac.uk/campuses/docklands/)

4-6pm, Monday 28th April 2014

Feeling the Paradox:
Experiences of refugees and social workers living the asylum cycle
Virginia Signorini (International University Institute for European Studies)

Polygonal Hope: Migrant mothers in Higher Education
Ron Cambridge (London Metropolitan University)

The event is free but spaces are limited so please reserve a place by following this link: http://affectbordersandbordering.eventbrite.co.uk

See www.euborderscapes.eu for more information on the EU Borderscapes project, www.uel.ac.uk/cmrb/borderscapes for details of the UEL Borderscapes team and www.uel.ac.uk/cmrb for information on CMRB


Abstracts and Biographical notes

Virginia Signorini, Feeling the Paradox: Experiences of refugees and social workers living the asylum cycle

The time of asylum is cyclical, frequently based on the creation of paradoxes. When asylum seekers apply for protection, they have to dig into their traumatic past, in order to be allowed to stay and access a new present and have the possibility to turn towards the future. Once refugees are into the asylum system, they can access reception projects, which are expected to activate inclusion policies and practices to support the reconstruction of refugee lives. But when the time of these projects ends, there is often a high risk that refugees will move back to the starting point. This process of deterioration affects both refugees and social workers, feeling the paradoxical "non-sense" inscribed in the fragility and temporariness of those practices of inclusion, whose disappearance can signify marginalized living in the new country of asylum. Therefore, in this particular type of migration, the provisional is in the fluctuating border existing between being refugee and becoming citizen, and in the experiences of who is involved in the attempt to overcome this border. This paper will explore the cyclical nature of the asylum-system in Italy, on the one hand through the permanent sense of uncertainty felt by refugees, and on the other by analysing the sense of unhelpfulness lived by social workers in their everyday professional and personal experience in the asylum system.

Virginia Signorini finished her M.A. in Public Relations at the University of Udine (I) in 2004. From 2004 till 2010 she worked as a social worker for the "System of Protection for Asylum seekers and Refugees" of Prato (I). In 2006 she attended the Masters Program in "Gender, citizenship and cultural pluralism: processes of exclusion and inclusion for migrants and refugees" at the University of Florence. Since 2011 she has been a Ph.D. student in "Transborder policies for daily life" at the International University Institute for European Studies (http://www.iuies.org/) of Gorizia and Trieste University (I); the focus of her doctoral research is on refugees' access to social rights. Virginia's major areas of research are migration and refugee studies.


Ron Cambridge, Polygonal Hope: Migrant mothers in Higher Education

The paradox between contended objectives of social justice in education policy and actual practice in HE has been highlighted in the past. Research into `Student-Parents' as 'non-traditional' students has taken an instrumental approach with an emphasis on describing experiences. Taken from a broader qualitative analysis this study draws upon the narratives of six undergraduate migrant mothers in HE, by drawing upon affect theory, and in particular, the notion of `Hope', as an analytical theoretical framework. This study underlines the importance of a reciprocal relationship between material experiences and affective understanding which enables what may seem vulnerable yet strong individuals, to act and progress. This study argues that the central theme attributed to hope in the individual's experiences is significant in their motivation and achievement both in their migration and education. Here, the complexity of hope is presented in a multifaceted complex praxis which points to the extent to which hope, although polygonal, allows for things to be different from how they are.

Ron Cambridge is a Senior Lecturer at London Metropolitan University. In the earlier part of her career, after graduating with a first class honours in BA Accounting & Finance and being awarded the Silver medal of the Institute of Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) award, Ron worked as an accountant for the Institute of the Legal Accounts. She has developed her academic career after graduating on the MSc Financial Services Management, focusing on management ideas such as human capital, organisational management as well as feminism and post-structuralist social theories. It is through her research and role as Personal Academic Adviser (PAA) that Ron developed a less linear understanding of both management concepts and social theories, and developed a strong interest in student affairs, social justice and widening participation in higher education.
Applying theory to practice, Ron has fostered a unique on-going working relationship with the Adab Trust and State Street Global Services Bank, for the purpose of bridging the gap between the corporate business world and her own non-traditional students. Ron participated in many conferences in Europe and the US, and was also a visiting lecturer at the University of East London and City of London College. Ron is currently completing her Doctorate of Education (EdD) at the Institute of Policy Studies in Education (IPSE) at London Metropolitan University.


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