The Winter Workshop was made possible by an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership and will be an annually recurring event.
We met three of the EMS students to hear about their experiences: Minna Buller from Finland, Sereina Camenisch from Switzerland and Marjaan Aslanifard from Germany.
What was the idea behind this year’s workshop?
- The main focus was on how we can use digital tools to communicate migration research, with a special emphasis on pod casting. So it was rather practical, we learned, hands-on, how to use and set up a pod cast, Minna Buller explains.
How did you like the pod cast medium?
- We didn´t have time produce a full pod cast but got familiar with different techniques, programs and how to upload a pod cast to Spotify. We also discussed how to record, sound conditions, and they also gave us a lot of advice on the journalistic aspects of pod casting: How to talk, what to include and what not to include, in order to convey main findings of research, Sereina and Minna clarifies.
Did you try out other media?
- The pod cast was the main thing, but we also had lectures on visualization and how to present research with power point and images in the most efficient way. They gave us plenty of tools and showed us various programs for how to present one´s data in alternative ways.
The students reveal that it was very intense days, even stressful, as they worked long days and learned a lot. When asked if they think they will use pod cast in the future, Marjan says she thought it was interesting to learn that one can present one´s research findings in different ways.
- It is actually a nice way to talk about a topic, not just writing about it, even in academia.
Did you get a chance to discuss and think about how pod casting can be used and adapted more specifically to your academic subject, migration studies and even your specific interests within this field?
- The organizer runs a migration pod cast, on research in this field. So that came up and examples and cases we thought about often were taken from our research field, says Sereina.
The students tell us that they also had a special session where they presented their own MA thesis ideas to each other and the professors.
- This gave us some very good ideas, empirical and theoretical work we can benefit from and include in our own projects.
When asked about the venue of the workshop, A Coruna, they all say simultaneously how beautiful this Galician Spanish city is.Seven of the eight students from the master programme in Ethnic and Migration Studies at the beach in A Coruna, Spain. Photo credit Marjan Aslanifard
- And it was warmer! I went for swimming, Minna said.
- But we were also tired from the work during the day so we couldn’t always follow the other students out for dinner. But there were a lot of nice social activities. And the professors came along!
Next year’s winter workshop will be organized by Liège in Belgium, but the theme for it is not decided as of yet, but EMS and LiU will send a new group to this exchange possibility.
