CfA: MiReKoc Summer School 2015: Diasporas and Transnational Communities

The Summer School will take place in Istanbul from June 29 to July 10, 2015. The Call for Applications is now opened. Submissions are due by midnight GMT on Sunday, 25 April 2015.

This year's MiReKoc Summer School will explore the theme of “Diasporas and Transnational Communities”. Described as “awkward dance partners” by Thomas Faist, the concepts of diasporas and transnational communities have been increasingly coined together within the international migration scholarship in the last decades. While the old concept of diaspora has initially been used to characterize specific (and usually victimized) populations living outside of an (imagined) homeland, the term of transnational communities was taken into account within the larger framework of transnationalism studies, evoking continuous ties across states’ physical borders. Even though many scholars agree that both terms address cross-border linkages of certain populations, the intellectual debate lingers on how well the two terms overlap with each other.

The MiReKoc International Summer School of 2015 will be focusing on the discussions around diasporas, transnational communities and transnationalism. The Summer School will consist of two weeks of lectures and discussions led by a distinguished international faculty, combined with seminars led by NGO representatives and a field trip within Istanbul. In this year’s Summer School, the theoretical discussions will be examined along with the case studies of transnational communities from the world, as well as of communities in and from Turkey.

This program is designed for PhD and graduate students as well as junior experts in the field. Applications from all over the world are encouraged. The fee for the program is 1250 Euro (including accommodation) for international students and 550 Euro (without accommodation) for students from Turkey, and will cover lectures, course materials and field trips. For all students, merit-based scholarships will be available for selected candidates. There is not a specific form for scholarship applications, all applicants are considered for the scholarships. The summer school seminars and readings will both be conducted in English. A certificate will be provided upon successful completion of the program. Additional requirements will be imposed on those participants who are seeking course credits (5 ECTS).

Further details about the program, courses and the application procedure can be found on the MiReKoc Summer School website. If you have any further queries, check out the FAQs guide or contact the Summer School team by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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