Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielefeld
It is our pleasure to announce the upcoming symposium Shifting grounds: Rethinking and navigating the uncertainty of migration trajectories, governance regimes, and research. The one-day event will take place on 8th October 2025 at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielefeld and is organised in the scope of the ERC-funded Consolidator Grant project INTER.SECT in collaboration with the Center for Uncertainties Studies at Bielefeld University.
The aim of INTER.SECT is to investigate the effects of social, economic and political contexts on human health and mortality at small-area level, drawing on resettlement refugees as an example and by using methods for data linkage and distributed computation techniques. The project is implemented by the School of Public Health at Bielefeld University together with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Research Data Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF-FDZ) and the Technology and Methods Platform for Networked Medical Research (TMF e.V.).
Sparked by geopolitical tensions and fundamental shifts in migration governance at both national and international levels, increasing attention is being paid to how uncertainties shape and are shaped by migration. Building on our conceptual insights and practical experiences in INTER.SECT, the symposium seeks to draw on uncertainty as a lens through which to examine, and eventually better understand, contemporary and future migration dynamics and related responses.
It will offer a space for science, policy, and practice to engage with uncertainties on three interlinked levels: 1) Subjectivities across the migration trajectory, 2) Migration regimes and global governance, and 3) Evidence generation.
For more information on the symposium theme, please find attached the concept note, which can also be retrieved from the recently launched INTER.SECT project website.
We cordially invite scholars, practitioners, policymakers and individuals with relevant experience in the context of migration to join us for this timely and important discussion. The symposium will offer an engaging and interdisciplinary space for knowledge exchange, debate, and collaborative thinking on the meanings and implications of migration-related uncertainty.
If you are interested in participating in this one-day event and would like to receive further information, please contact the INTER.SECT team via
[email protected]. We also welcome abstract submissions for poster presentations related to the symposium’s theme or uncertainties in other contexts.
We look forward to a stimulating exchange this October in Bielefeld!