Since March 2020, Prof. Dr. Karin Scherschel is the first holder of the new KU Professorship of Flight and Migration Research at the KU Faculty of History and Social Sciences. At the same time, she is also the new academic director of the Center for Flight and Migration at the KU since April 2020. As a sociologist, Professor Karin Scherschel focuses on questions related to flight and asylum, migration, racism and social inequality and participation.
Published by Brigitte Aulenbacher, Tine Haubner, Birgit Riegraf and Karin Scherschel
Modern societies are still labour societies. Their profound transformation can be seen in how work is organised and distributed, what meaning it has and how it is associated with inequalities. The book series provides a critical social and contemporary diagnosis and deals with
The aim of the joint project is to research the significance of civil society initiatives for the public culture of remembrance. It analyzes local civil society remembrance work in three contrasting fields of activity: National Socialism, colonialism and post-National Socialist violence. Civil society initiatives do not merely apply national discourses and policies locally, but pursue an independent agency that raises neglected topics and perspectives and helps shape the discourse bottom-up. Their work is analyzed using qualitative social research methods. Based on the research results, an online platform will be developed in a bottom-up-oriented theory-empiricism-practice transfer to provide materials for educational work.
Duration: 01.01.2023-31.12.2026
Research associates: Dr. Floris Biskamp (01.01.2023 - 31.12.2023), Elisabeth Lang, Dr. Angelika Laumer
Partners in the network: Prof. Dr. Sabine Achour, Free University of Berlin
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
The joint project analyzes empirically and qualitatively the participation of young tolerated persons in training and the labour market as well as the framework conditions for the consolidation of their stay in six municipalities. Both the municipal cooperation relationships between relevant training and labor market actors and support systems (civil society, social work) as well as the subjective perspective and experiences of the tolerated persons are analyzed. Building on opportunities for good practice, recommendations will be developed that are promising for the participation processes of tolerated persons.
Duration: 01.07.2021-30.05.2024
Research associate: Marina Mayer
Collaborative partners: Prof. Susanne Spindler, HS Düsseldorf; Prof. Ilker Ataç, HS Fulda
Funding: Mercator Foundation
Sub-project B at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences empirically analyzes the perspective of politicians and journalists. Of interest is how media representations of Islam are taken up and addressed in the communication of these people and how they (from the perspective of the interviewees) flow into political decision-making processes.
The sub-projects of the research network pursue the question of a) how the topic of the 'Islamist threat' is conveyed in media representations with recourse to anti-Muslim topoi and how critical discourses are articulated and b) how media representations are taken up and addressed in the communication of politicians and journalists and how they (from the perspective of the interviewees) lead to political decision-making processes and c) how those (marked as) Muslims and Muslim communities (re)gain the power of interpretation and action in the face of the security discourse. How they balance the relationship between approval and criticism and what spaces they create for themselves in order not to leave the discursivization of the 'Muslim subject' (entirely) to others.
The sub-project is part of the BMBF joint project "Threat scenario of 'Islamist terrorism' from the perspectives of politics, media and Muslim communities - an empirical study" in collaboration with Prof. Andreas Bock (Akkon University) and Prof. Iman Attia (ASH).
Duration: 01.02.2018-31.03.2021
Project collaborator: Benedict Bazyar-Gudrich
Tutor: Ingo Bartsch
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research; funding measure "Humanities and Social Sciences" in the funding area "Strengthening cohesion in times of crisis and upheaval"
Cooperation partners:
The research project investigates the access to the labour market of highly qualified women who have fled their homes. It is a pilot study in Hesse. The following research questions, among others, guide the explorative study: How are the target group's chances on the labour market shaped? To what extent are they actually perceived as labour market policy addressees? How do labour market policy actors view this group? What strategies do migrant women develop in the context of asylum in view of their labour market situation? What experiences do highly qualified female migrants have on the labour market? How do highly qualified women manage to contribute their skills and qualifications? Qualitative interviews are used to ascertain the subjective interpretations of the women who have fled and the perspectives of various labour market actors. The study is designed at the interface of sociological labour market, gender, migration and asylum research.
Duration: 10.2016-07.2018
Project collaborator: MA Anna Krämer
Tutor: Zübeyda Elbey
Funding: Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Research Focus: Women's and Gender Studies
The book brings together (1) current research findings on the life situation of refugee women in various areas of life (e.g. education, labor market, health), (2) the positioning of refugee women and (3) an inventory of support and counseling structures. It is important for our examination of flight and gender to recognize that not only theoretically and empirically based knowledge about the life situations of refugee women is important, but also their own social positionings and self-assessments. We have therefore chosen an innovative format. In interviews, we want to offer refugee women a forum to articulate their everyday experiences. In addition, selected service structures for advising, accompanying and supporting refugee women will be included.
Duration: 2018-2021
Project collaborator: Prof. Karin Scherschel, Prof. Schahrzad Farrokzhad, TH Cologne
Committees
Networks/Specialist groups
Lecture Racism as a flexible symbolic resource: The usefulness of the concepts 'symbolic violence' and 'undoing differences' for the analysis of racism at the Sussex European Institute of the university of sussex (Brighton, on 26.02.2025)
Podcast episode "Mit kühlem Kopf: Reden über Migration" in the podcast "Der Tag. Ein Thema, viele Perspektiven" by Hessischer Rundfunk (hr) (online, on 10.02.2025)
Speaker at the roundtable on the 'Handbook on Flight and Refugee Research' at the 5th conference of the Network Flight Research together with Dr J. Olaf Kleist (DeZIM Institute), Dr Dana Schmalz (Max Planck Institute for International Law) and Dr Benjamin Etzold (bicc) (Bonn/Hybrid, on 18.09.2024)
Co-organisation of the panel ‘Teilhabe trotz Duldung - Lebenssituationen, Vernetzungen und good practice Ansätze’ at the 5th Conference of the Network on Refugee Research together with Prof. Dr. Ilker Ataç (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) and Prof. Dr. Susanne Spindler (Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences) (Bonn/Hybrid, on 17.09.2024)
Input ‘Defining the relationship between racism and anti-Semitism. Reconstruction of memory policy controversies and civil society perspectives in the EZRA research project.’ at the WinRa workshop on racism and antisemitism at Hamburg Bucerius Law School organised by Prof. Mehrdad Payandeh and Prof. Jürgen Zimmerer (Hamburg, on 03. & 04.06.2024)
Organisation of the working group Lane change and right of residence for the conference Facets of Immigration (Erfurt, on 11.04.2024)
Expert in the Bundestag zur Debatte on the debate about social benefits for asylum seekers (Berlin, on 08.04.2024)
Co-organisation of the conference on the research project Participation despite toleration at the conference Shaping the city, opening up access, securing residence (Düsseldorf, on 18. & 19.01.2024)
Lecture Remembering racism and anti-semitism. On the relationship between memory, postcolonialism and antisemitism together with Dr. Floris Biskamp for the lecture series Critical Nexus - Tensions between antisemitism criticism and postcolonialism of the FIST Colloquium Cologne (Cologne, on 17.01.2024)
Panel discussion on the film Homelands of the daughters of the Intercultural Week together with director Uli Bez, protagonist Agata Dukat und district administrator Alexander Anetsberger (Eichstättt, on 29.09.2023)
Panel discussion on the reading Nathan Reloaded? Religions, fanaticism and tolerance together with Feridun Zaimoglu, Prof. Dr. Martin Kirschner, Prof. Dr. Isabelle Stauffer and Clemens Hermann Wagner (Eichstätt/online, on 28.06.2023)
Panel discussion Standing for freedom – Portraits of scientists in exile together with Pierre-Jérôme Adjedj (photographer of the exhibition) and Dr. Zekeriya Aktürk (TU Munich/University of Augsburg) as part of the photo exhibition of the same name by the Centre for Flight and Migration (Eichstätt, on 20.06.2023)
Lecture Antimuslim Racism - Reflections on the Culturalisation of Religion at the 2nd ZRKG Conference Performing Christianities – Differentiation of the Christian in a Global World Scoiety (Eichstätt, on 16.06.2023)
Lecture Between welcome culture and defence. Current flight dynamics and social reactions of the VHS Altenburg (Altenburg, on 3.04.2023)
Lecture FlightMigration: Social science perspevtibes and current dynamics on the lecture series FLIGHT MIGRATION AID Reflections on the question of solidarity and the organisation of social aid on the occassion of the war in Ukraine at the University of Hamburg (online, on 28.02.2023)
Panel discussion Everyday racism in Germany together with Dr. Tareq Sydiq, Cemal Bozoğlu and Karl Straub on the question Is insecurity thought racist? organised by the RISK Research Centre (Munich, on 13.02.2023)
Lecture „Political participation without german citizenship“ for the series Political education in a post-national socialist society: sensitive to diversity - critical of discrimination - inclusive by the Berlin State Centre for Political Education (on 07.02.2023)
Lecture Central developments in refugee policy - Flight and asylum in Germany for the series Future of refugee policy of the Domberg Academy (online, on 31.01.2023)
Panel discussion Standing for freedom - Portrais of Scientists in Excil together with Prof. Dr. Pascale Laborier, Pierre-Jérôme Adjedj (photographer) and Prof. Dr. Zekeriya Aktürk on the occasion of the exhibition opening (Munich/online, on 12.12.2022)
Lecture Stand with Ukraine | Push back the Others: Media narratives in the contemporary refugee debate together with Tanja Evers as part of the discussion series In Society of the Centre for Flight and Migration (online, on 09.06.2022)
Discussion article Solidarity together - How Augsburg is taking in refugees from Ukraine on Agenda Deutschlandfunk (online, on 20.04.2022)
Keynote Challenges in the labour market integration of women from third countries at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Immigration and Labour Market Integration. Experiences and perspectives from science, politics and practice of the Labour Market Mentors Saxony (online, on 08.10.2021)
Panel discussion Challenges posed by right-wing populism and racism at the annual conference Idealism, pragmatism and futurism? Work and Life in Women's and Gender Studies of the DGS Section Women's and Gender Studies (online/Jena, on 30.09.2021)
Lecture So I can see that we make differnces- Journalistic perceptions of Islam at the annual conference of the Section for European Ethnology and the Section for Sociology of the Görres Society (online, on 25.09.2021)
Expert discussion Geeting-along – the tension between aspiration and reality together with Asmara Habtezion and Wiebke Judith organised by the Working community for Church Refugee Work (hamburgasyl) and the Hamburg Refugee Initiatives Alliance (BHFI) (online, on 23. - 29.08.2021)
Lecture „Islamist threat scenarios? New study on the media discourse" togther with Benedict Bazyar Gudrich for the Intercultural media dialogue (on 05.07.2021)
Lecture Social inequality relations: Racism and Flight at the conference Education in the context of Flight*Migration: Subject-related and power-critical perspectives of the PH Freiburg (online, on 13.05-15.05.2021)
Opening lecture Refugee migration between defence, racism and solidarity - Current social dynamics for the virtual prepatory conference of the intercultural week #offengeht (online, on 19.02.2021)
Lecture „It is of course already the case that society is creating facts, so to speak, with the participation of the AFD, the resentment about migration policy“ on Racism theory reflections on group discussion together with joruanlists, research colloquium Reiner Keller and Lisa Riedner (Augsburg)
/ Research semester