Welcome to migART

Over the past few years we participated in dozens of workshops and conference panels on the use of creative and collaborative methods in migration research. Each time we were amazed and inspired by the sheer variety of methods people invented, developed, questioned, revised, and reinvented to research migration: participatory theatre, digital storytelling, drawing, photography, psychogeography, sonic walks, quilt making, and many more. We would write down the names of the researchers, activists, and educators and later look them and their projects up on the internet. We started compiling private lists of projects and initiatives of work which makes use of creative and collaborative methods. When talking to each other and comparing notes, we thought it would be grand to have an open-access website showcasing all the amazing work that is currently being done. We searched for one, but couldn’t find it, so we made it ourselves in order to provide an updated account of what is being done and inspire further work in this exciting field.

Our immediate goal is pretty straightforward: to showcase past and ongoing activities (research projects, social initiatives, syllabi) and share information about upcoming events, grant opportunities, and new publications. Our larger goal is more ambitious: to help build a community of researchers, activists, and educators and to stimulate collaborations. The website you are visiting now is a repository of research, activist, and teaching projects that employ creative and collaborative methods to serve migrant communities, better understand migration, and communicate research findings in accessible and, when possible, interactive ways.

For the sake of clarity, we divided the website into several main sections. The first three sections – Activism, Research, Teaching – are devoted to ongoing and past projects that employ creative and collaborative methods. We recognize, of course, that migration research, activism, and teaching often overlap and cannot be bound to only one of these categories. You will therefore find some projects cross-referenced. In the following section, People, you will find a list of academics, activists, and educators whose projects are showcased here. You will be able to contact them directly through the hyperlinks included in their brief profiles. The News section will be regularly updated to include information about upcoming workshops, conferences, exhibits, grant opportunities, as well as new publications and university courses. If you are interested in having your project, seminar or initiative showcased here, please get in touch with us via the Contact section and follow us on twitter.

We hope you will find this website useful for the work you are doing or planning to do.

– Agata Lisiak and Elena Vacchelli