CMRS Winter Short Courses

January 20 – February 8, 2018

The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at The American University in Cairo (AUC) is offering the following short courses during the months of January and February 2018:

1.      Cosmopolitan Cairo: Migration, Cultural Diversity And Urban Development in The Global City Cairo (January 20  - 24, 2018) by Gerda Heck, assistant professor of Sociology, the American University in Cairo and Stephan Lanz, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) 

2.      Psychosocial Issues and Interventions for Refugees and Migrants (January 28 – February 1, 2018) by Kate Ellis, Clinical Psychologist (DClinPsy) and Assistant Professor, American University in Cairo 

3.      Migrant Citizenship in an Anxious Europe (February 4 - 8, 2018)  by Wiebe Ruijtenberg, PhD researcher, department of anthropology and development studies at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Eligibility for all courses

Requirements: These courses are offered for graduate and postgraduate students, and researchers as well as practitioners working with migrants and refugees. A minimum knowledge of displacement and migration terminologies and context is a requirement for participation in any of the three courses.

All courses are conducted in English and no translation facilities are provided.  Participants should have a very good command of the English language. Each course will run from 9.30 am till 4pm for five days.

Interested applicants can apply for one course or for all courses.

Number of Participants: minimum of 12 in each course

NB: Non- Egyptian applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early because it takes more than one month to obtain Egyptian visa.

Dates and Location:

Courses will take place at AUC Tahrir Campus. The exact location and room numbers will be forwarded to accepted participants before the start of the courses.

Courses’ Descriptions

Cosmopolitan Cairo: Migration, cultural diversity and urban development in the global city Cairo (Jan 20  - 24, 2018)

Cairo with its’ currently assumed 18 million inhabitants is and has always been in the past one of Africa´s most vibrant metropolises. According to the urban historian Nezar AlSayyad the city for millennia already is a cosmopolitan global city. However, in the last centuries, from the Ottoman Empire until present Cairo has witnessed large migratory movements, both internally and transnational, which have shaped its urban life, development and dynamics in many ways.

This short course will focus on the importance of Cairo as a junction for transnational networks, migration and cultural and religious diversity, as well as an important home for tremendous refugee movements from the neighboring Arabian and Sub-Saharan countries focusing on current and previous migrant movements and its legacy. In this way the course intends to challenge myths on Cairo´s urban realities and questions western-universalistic concepts of Cosmopolitanism and Modernity. The short course will consist of a mixture of seminars and lectures as well as guided tours by local experts and practitioners (academics, NGOs, migrant-(self)organizations).

About the Instructors: Gerda Heck is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology and the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at The American University in Cairo. Her academic work and research focus on migration and border regimes, urban studies, transnational migration, migrant networks and self-organizing, religion and new concepts of citizenship. She has conducted research in Germany, Brazil, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Morocco, Turkey and the USA. Apart from her own research projects, she has participated in various international research projects.

Stephan Lanz, Dr. Phil., is an Urbanist and a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder (Germany). His main research interests are urban governance, urban cultures, migration and urban development. Between 2010 and 2014, he was academic director of the international research project Global Prayers – Redemption and Liberation in the City.  Lanz is a founding member of metroZones – Center for Urban Affairs.


Psychosocial Issues And Interventions For Refugees And Migrants (Jan 28 – Feb 1, 2018)

In a world where nearly 20 people are forcibly displaced every minute as a result of conflict or persecution,” UNHCR (2017), the crisis became epidemic in catastrophic proportions.  It is widely recognized that the face of this crisis and the refugee landscape has changed greatly over the last decade.  Refugees are less often concentrated in the traditional camps, and more often are living in urban areas, especially large cities.  This change in landscape adds further psychosocial issues to consider, particularly, integration into communities and access to resources.  Most of the guidelines and recommendations for psychosocial interventions are directed at those refugees living in camps, and it is recognized that this needs urgent addressing.

This course aims to bring those working with refugees and forced migrants together to develop a greater understanding of the needs, experiences, psychosocial and mental health interventions available to this ever growing and under serviced population, with a particular focus on displaced individuals living in urban areas. Whilst many refugees are able to great resilience and cope effectively, others in more vulnerable situations are less able to, and are at increased risk of mental health and social problems.  Those with existing mental health issues are at great risk of the worsening and prolonging of such issues, given the circumstances in which they find themselves and a lack of access to appropriate resources.

This course will also familiarize participants with the Inter Agency Standing Committee Guidelines on mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings.  The levels of interventions will be explored focusing on psychological first aid, basic counseling skills and the identification and sharing of referrals and cases.

About the Instructor: Kate Ellis is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and the Graduate Director of the Psychology Department at the American University in Cairo.  She is a qualified clinical psychologist who completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University, in England.  Dr Ellis works predominantly with refugees and individuals who have experienced trauma.  Her research focuses on the impact of violence and conflict, with a particular focus on young people, which was the focus of her first PhD awarded by the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.  Dr Ellis is also the course coordinator of the Leadership in Mental Health course, Eastern Mediterranean Region, held annually at the AUC.  This course was developed in collaboration with the WHO, in order to provide training to mental health professionals in the region, with the aims of up-scaling mental health services and putting mental health on the national health agenda in under resourced countries low economic status countries.

 
Migrant citizenship in an anxious Europe (Feb  4 - 8, 2018)

Across Europe, the figure of the migrant has taken center stage in anxious debates about the present and future of the nation-state. Against this backdrop, a range of laws and policies regulating migrants’ relation to the nation-state – or ‘migrant citizenship’ – have been adopted and implemented. This course investigates these laws and policies as well as migrant experiences of, and responses to them. As a starting point, the course introduces different perspectives on Europe, such as a post-colonial and a post-industrial perspective, as well as different understandings of citizenship and belonging. From there, the course traces the unfolding of neoliberal welfare reforms and the culturalization of citizenship of the past few decades. The course then delves into the actual laws and policies regulating migrant citizenship, emphasizing in particular how migrants’ negotiation of these laws and policies are shaped by intersections of gender, class, and race. It does so through a series of in-depth, ethnographic studies that show the contours of migrant citizenship in everyday life.

About the instructor: Wiebe Ruijtenberg is a PhD researcher at the department of anthropology and development studies at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His research explores the Dutch welfare state through the experiences of Egyptian migrant families in Amsterdam. Previously, he graduated from the Research Master Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam with a dissertation on social life in gated communities in Cairo, Egypt. He has also taught as a visiting fellow at the Cairo Initiative for Liberal Arts and Sciences. During the spring semester of 2017-2018, Wiebe will spend a month at the American University for a teaching visit sponsored by the mobility program of the international office at Radboud University.

Deadlines
•       Deadline for submitting applications for all courses: 22 of December, 2017
•       Deadline for paying course deposit (30% of the course’s fee): 5 days after receiving the notification of acceptance 

Tuition Fees:
1)     The fee for International participants is $ 500 per course. Participants are expected to pay a 30% of the total fees ($150) as a deposit.
2)     The Fee for Egyptians and residents in Egypt is EGP 4000. Participants are expected to pay a 30% of the total fees (EGP 1200) as a deposit.

Please pay attention to the deposit deadline and kindly note that the deposit is non-refundable.  More information on payment method will be provided to accepted participants.

Tuition fees will cover course materials and two coffee breaks per course per-day. Participants are responsible for securing their visa, and cover the expenses of their travel to Egypt, as well as their accommodation and local transportation in Egypt.

Independent researchers and students from Egypt and the global south can apply for a limited number of scholarships for tuition waiver. The accepted participants for tuition waiver would still be responsible for their travel expenses and accommodation in Cairo. Tuition waiver is not intended for participants who can be funded by their own institutions.

Application Information:

To apply for the courses:

1. Fill out the application form. The form is available on CMRS website:  http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/cmrs/outreach/Pages/ShortCourses.aspx

2. Send the application form to [log in to unmask] with your most recent C.V; Att. Naseem Hashim

Applicants may apply to and be accepted in more than one course. Please do not hesitate to contact [log in to unmask] if you have any difficulty with the application process.
Applicants accepted for the course will be notified by email within a week after the deadline for submitting the application.

-- 
Regards, 
-----------------------
Naseem Hashim
MA, Migration & Refugee Studies
Outreach Coordinator
Center for Migration and Refugee Studies 
American University in Cairo
[log in to unmask]

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