BIMI Summer Institute in Migration Research Methods
As immigration scholarship is inherently interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary training in methods can be helpful. The Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI) Summer Institute in Research Methods provides a venue to learn new methods. The 10-day workshop (July 25-August 3) features presentations from visiting faculty and interactive workshops for a cohort of graduate students and early career professors (by application).
Topics for 2022 focus on methodology and layer on a substantive focus on climate migration. Here is the schedule:
Monday July 25 – Introductions, ethics and frameworks for understanding migration
Irene Bloemraad: https://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/irene-bloemraad
Jenny Van Hook: https://sociology.la.psu.edu/people/jxv21
Sara Curran – https://sites.uw.edu/scurran/
Tuesday July 26 – climate migration – how to model? – retrospective understandings
Fernando Riosema – https://www.colorado.edu/geography/fernando-riosmena-0
What are the analytical strategies to model the effect of past environmental shocks on migration flows? Discussion will include difference-in-difference models, matching procedures, and using climate as an instrument to predict climate-induced crop loss and then the effect of crop loss on migration.
Wednesday July 27 – climate migration – how to model? – future-oriented projections
Mathew Hauer – https://coss.fsu.edu/sociology/faculty/mathew-hauer/
What are the analytical strategies to model the projected climate migration flows, in the future? Discussion will include considering age and migration and using machine learning-like approaches to create and estimate environmental displacement models.
Thursday July 28 – messy (and “big”) data in the study of forced migration
Lisa Singh http://forcedmigration.cs.georgetown.edu/
Katharine Donato – https://isim.georgetown.edu/profile/katharine-m-donato/
How can we use “big data” to study forced migration? How do we draw sound conclusions from messy data? What ethical issues do researchers need to keep in mind when using trace data (e.g., social media information, cell phone data, etc.)
Friday July 29 – migrant flows – development, climate, and mechanisms
Sara Curran – https://sites.uw.edu/scurran/
How do we conceptualize the complex range of mechanisms that link climate change, development and migration? We will consider issues of research design for multi-method, team-based science and individual research projects.
The second week of the training institute shifts to students presenting their own projects that apply the skills they learned during week one.
MHC