Migration and Diasporic Citizenship

This part of the CEELBAS agenda concentrates on the experiences and diverse representations of diasporic cultural life in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bulgaria. While for the ancient Greeks, from whose language the word originated, diaspora meant the dispersal of population through migration and colonisation, for diasporic people this expression meant something more evil and brutal, as for them it often signified a collective trauma. In recent years, however, the concept of diaspora has been criticized for being antiquated and out of touch with contemporary diasporic social life. Thus, qualitative research conducted in the migration and diasporic citizenship strand explores the changing meanings of diaspora and the contemporary diasporic condition in the post-socialist space.

Furthering the Agenda: Research

In February 2009, Dr Ulrike Ziemer was appointed Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Social Sciences Department of UCL SSEES. She is responsible for research activities, workshops and other academic activities in the field of ‘Migration and Diasporic Citizenship in Eastern Europe’ as part of the CEELBAS programme. Ulrike’s background is in Social Sciences and Russian Studies with an undergraduate degree in Russian and Politics from the University of Bath and an MA degree and PhD, funded by the ESRC, from the Centre of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham (for further details, please see profile).

As Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Ulrike continues her research on young Armenians through a comparative ethnographic study on youth cultural identities in Rostov (Russia) and Varna (Bulgaria). In particular, she is interested in the ways young Armenians engage with transnational cultural products in their search for social and spatial identities in the post-socialist context.

The project is designed to complement the wider CEELBAS agenda through its inherent language-based interdisciplinarity. In adopting an ethnographic approach, the research aims to establish the active ways in which young Armenians negotiate their minority status and the ways their diasporic/transnational identities are constructed. The research will explore the extent to which young Armenians utilise the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ in their transnational experiences. Within this exploration, the research will focus on classed, gendered and ethnic dimensions that form youth cultural identities and the ways these are reproduced both through macro-levels as well as micro-levels of belonging (see: Postdoctoral Research Project Outline).

Profile and Publications

Events and Activities

CALL FOR PAPERS: DIASPORAS AND COSMOPOLITANISM IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Papers are solicted for a two-day conference on 'Diasporas and Cosmopolitanism in Central and Eastern Europe: From Theory to Practice' to be held at UCL School of Slavonic Studies from 18th-19th September 2010. Full details available here.

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