There are four working groups in the PhD Network. These are the Workshop group, Blog group, Teaching group and Networking group. Each working group has a coordinator and several actively engaged members. In addition to the working groups, there’s a team responsible for social media platforms, and an advisory team made up of former members.
Together, the working groups, the teams, and the Representative make up the PhD Soundboard – which functions as the board of the IMSCOE PhD Network.
PhD Representative
Maria Shaidrova
Maria Shaidrova is a PhD researcher (NWO funded Research Talent Grant) based at the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands. She holds MSc in Sociology of Migration and Ethnic Studies from the University of Amsterdam (Cum Laude). Maria is focusing her research on understanding the life of the Nigerian community both in Benin City and Palermo.
Workshop Group
The aim of the IMSICOE PhD workshop is to provide helpful advice, insight and inspiration for PhD’s in the field of international migration, integration and social cohesion. The workshop is organized by PhD students for PhD students, and they take place at the IMISCOE Annual conference. The Workshop Committee seeks to make the workshop useful for PhDs’ both as part of their projects and for their future careers.
Since the initial workshop in Geneva 2015, the IMISCOE PhD workshop has been a growing success, with a steadily growing number of participants and very positive feedback. All PhD students attending the Annual Conferences can register for the PhD Workshop free of charge.
If you have any questions about the PhD workshop or the workshop committee you can contact the committee at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Workshop coordinator
Members Workshop Team
Blog Group
The IMISCOE PhD blog forms a platform to share PhD relevant insights from the field of migration research. It is completely run and written by PhD students from the Network. The content varies from interviews with scholars, reports on the latest conferences and meetings and theoretical contributions from our members. If you’re up for an interesting read, you can check out some of the blogposts at www.imiscoe.org/news-and-blog/phd-blog
If you’re interested in contributing to the blog, get in touch here.
Coordinator Blog Group
Members Blog Team
Teaching Group
Several PhDs are or will be engaged in teaching activities, although they have little opportunity to reflect on this part of their academic lives. This may particularly be the case in interdisciplinary or international contexts. The Teaching group is therefore established to think about ways PhDs can exchange, learn, inspire and motivate each other to improve their teaching and mentoring skills. The group focuses in particular on teaching that deals with migration and integration, although it is not restricted to teaching in these thematic fields.
Coordinator Teaching Group
Member(s):
Stephen Asafo Agyei
The Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning of the University of Lisbon (IGOT) and Centro de Estudos Geograficos, Portugal
Networking Group
The Networking group aims at connecting all PhD students working on the broader themes of migration beyond the annual IMISCOE conference. In order to collectively support each other, exchange our experiences and widen our network on migration studies we aim at establishing two goals:
We intend to give the possibility to all PhDs (inside and outside the member institutes of IMISCOE) to network around specific topics and/or within their regions.
Through the ‘Intergenerational Feedback’ (IF) sessions organised at the annual conference, we aim at bridging PhD students with experienced scholars for constructive critique in an interdisciplinary and international context. Besides the sessions organised during the conference, we encourage long term collaborations that can continue beyond the IMISCOE events.
Coordinator Networking Team
Members Networking Team
Sandra Morgenstern
Universität Mannheim & Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung, Germany
Social Media and Advisory Board
The PhD Network has an active Facebook group and a Twitter account. We welcome all interested PhDs in becoming members of the Facebook group, and to follow us on Twitter. We post news that are relevant to IMISCOE, migration research and PhD life in general. The PhD Network’s Advisory Board is made up of previous PhD Representatives, and members of the Soundboard in the preceding year.