Ethnography as guesthood, or doing research in (semi)domestic spaces: prospects, dilemmas and lessons learnt from HOMInG’s fieldwork (17 November)

8th Migration Research Lab

Guest: Prof. Paolo Boccagni (Department of Sociology and social research, University of Trento)

Moderation, Idea and Concept: Friedemann Yi-Neumann (from the research project: On the materiality of (forced) migration) & H. Pınar Şenoğuz (DaMigra e.V.).

Date: 17 November 2022, 14:15 – 15:45 CET

Venue: Verfügungsgebäude (Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7), VG 4.105

Registration: Please register via e-mail (cemig@uni-goettingen.de) and briefly introduce yourself and your research as well as your specific interests in this Migration Research Lab in a few sentences. You will then receive suggested readings for preparation. Or do not hesitate contact Jelka Günther (CeMig, jelka.guenther@uni-goettingen.de) if you have any more questions

In this Migration Research Lab Paolo Boccagni revisits a way of doing ethnographic fieldwork that has informed several of his research sites, including some related to forced migration, along the fieldwork experience of ERC HOMInG: The Home-Migration Nexus (2016-2022).
Drawing also on a forthcoming edited collection, „Migration and Domestic „Space“ (Boccagni & Bonfanti, Springer, 2023), he briefly illustrates the potential, limitations and dilemmas of fieldwork done after having access, as a guest, in the home of someone else. This is not meant to set any methodological benchmark, but rather as a way to share expertise, experience and food for thought with participants, in an interactive format.

The Migration Research Lab is aimed at empirical/ ethnographic researchers of all levels (Bachelor, Master, PhD, Postdoc) who seek exchange about research designs, methodological approaches but also fieldwork issues with a view to one’s own research in topics related to (forced) migration.

Paolo Boccagni is a guest of the research project  „On the materiality of (forced) migration„. In the evening he will give a lecture as part of the accompanying program of the exhibition “Moving Things”, a special exhibit at the Forum Wissen by the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Museum Friedland, the exhibition agency “Die Exponauten. Ausstellungen et cetera” and Kunstverein Göttingen.

In the evening Paolo Boccagni will present:

„What do objects do in an asylum centre? Unpacking forced (im)mobility, (dis)connectedness, inertia and potential futures through the semi-domesticity of refuge“

Date: 17.11.2022, 18:30-20:00 CET
Venue: Forum Wissen, Berliner Straße 28, 37073 Göttingen