3rd Summer School of the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION

Borders and Migration in Digital Times

August 16 – 27, 2021
European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
(Online)

The Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION invites 35 master and post-graduate students including Ph.D.-candidates to participate in the two-week international summer school “Borders and Migration in Digital Times” at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, which will take place from 16 to 27 August, 2021, and which is financially supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In the summer school, we deal with the rapidly developing digitalization of border and migration management. Students who intend to start exploring this emerging field are invited as well as those who have already consolidated a research interest in this direction.

Thematic focus of the summer school

The summer school “Borders and Migration in Digital Times” offers 35 master and post-graduate students including Ph.D.-candidates an opportunity to explore how policies and practices of border demarcation and migration management are influenced and changed by the availability and use of digital technologies.

Starting with this interrelationship concerning the digital dimension of migration, in this 3rd summer school of the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION (funded by the German Academic Exchange Service - DAAD) we want to generate a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the relevance and use of digital technologies in multilevel processes which reshape the notion and location of the border itself and the way in which migration is dealt with.
The summer school draws attention to the digital aspects of border surveillance and border crossing, migration management and migrant agency. The summer school scrutinizes specific concepts like border regime, digital borders, autonomy of migration and digital infrastructures.

About the program

The summer school’s program combines various formats which facilitate the acquisition and consolidation of knowledge and skills:

• In lectures by renowned scientists from the fields of border, migration and digital studies, participants will delve into the core aspects of the summer school and discuss with these scholars as well as the scientists from the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION.

• In an audio-visual workshop accompanied by small mentored working groups, participants will be taught how to design and produce digital contributions in audio or video format.

• Participants with an already developed research focus on digital borders and migration management will have the chance to share their own research projects or ideas within speed presentations 

Confirmed speakers

Public Lectures:

Sarah Green (University of Helsinki) (16.08.2021, 15.30-17.00 p.m.)
Digital Borders and the Nonhuman: on the surveillance of animal movements and zoonotic diseases across the Mediterranean
(keynote)

Annalisa Pelizza (Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies at the University of Bologna University of Bologna and University of Twente) (23.08.2021, 14.05-15.05 p.m.)
Digital migration management as “alterity processing”. Evidence from the European border(s)

Vassilis Tsianos (Applied University of Kiel) and Brigitta Kuster (Humboldt University Berlin)  (25.08.2021, 14.05-15.05 p.m.)
Technologies of Flight. On Recognition, Denial, Capturing and the (Under)Commons of Migration and the European Borderregime

Further Lectures:

Philipp Hacker (European New School of Digital Studies, European University Viadrina)
Algorithmic Discrimination and Algorithmic Fairness

Bastian Vollmer (Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz)
The unsmart application of smart border control technologies

Götz Herrmann (University of Paderborn)
Sociotechnical imaginaries of the border

Estela Schindel (European University Viadrina)
Human/Non-human hybrids at the border: The racializing assemblage

Kira Kosnick (European University Viadrina)
Why gender and sexuality matter in European migration and border management

Norbert Cyrus (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, European University Viadrina)
Contested Migration – A Review of Conflict Lines

Carolin Leutloff-Grandits (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, European University Viadrina)
The Management of borders and migration in Europe's Southeastern "Backyard"

Jan-Hendrik Passoth (European New School of Digital Studies, European University Viadrina)
"Digital Infrastructure, State Power and Power beyond the State"

Benefits of the summer school specifically consist of:
• An encounter with cultural and social science perspectives on borders and migration in digital times.
• Imparting and deepening the knowledge about basic theoretical approaches and concepts such as migration and border regimes, migration infrastructure, securitization, externalization of controls, digital bordering, border complexities, digitalization of migration management and control, differential inclusion, algorithm-driven decision-making, autonomy of migration.
• Getting to know an interdisciplinary perspective on border and migration research and (first) experiences of interdisciplinary cooperation.
• Gaining an understanding of what the prerequisites are for a multidimensional application of analytical concepts which explain complex social processes and structural formations.
• Acquisition of practical digital knowledge through the creative, guided development of audio-visual contributions tackling self-selected questions, which are presented at the end of the summer school and published on the summer school website.
• Discussion of the ethical dimensions of the use of digital technology for border control and border crossing.

The European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION
The European University Viadrina has the highest degree of internationalization among students in the German higher education landscape. It is located at the very east of Germany, in the German-Polish twin city of Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice, just about 80 km from Germany’s capital Berlin. The Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, a research institute of the European University Viadrina, is internationally renowned in the field of border research and innovatively links border and migration studies. The thematic topics of the summer school also relate to the newly founded European New School of Digital Studies (ENS) at the European University Viadrina, which promotes an innovative interdisciplinary graduate education in digital studies