Master Class – Université de Montréal

“Diasporas as Transnational Actors: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics in Conflict and Peace”

Dr. Maria Koinova, Reader in International Relations, University of Warwick, and Senior Research Fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame

Abstract:
This Master class discusses the importance of diasporas as transnational actors in the context of conflict and peace dynamics. It moves the conversation from simplistic notions considering diasporas only as agents of war or peace, and shows how the global contexts in which diasporas are embedded, including diaspora relationships to host-states, home-states and other global locations, shape mobilizations. The class presents spatial contexts where such activism takes place beyond nation-states, namely in online spaces, refugee camps, supranational organizations or sites of global visibility. It also demonstrates how positionality of diasporas in transnational social fields, translocal relationships and centrain temporalities – such as critical junctures, transformative events, durability of conflicts and simultaneity of interactions – become important. Empirically the course draws evidence from findings of the large-scale European Research Council Project “Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty,” discussing the Albanian, Armenian, Bosnian, Iraqi, Kurdish and Palestinian diasporas. It also includes evidence from the Ukrainian, Tamil, Somali and other diasporas generated by conflicts, and compares “long-distance diasporas” to those of the “near abroad,” including Russian diaspora in Europe and in the post-Soviet space.

The Master Class will take place on February 1, 2018, at 4 pm in the Michel Fortman room (530-1) – 3744 Rue Jean-Brillant.