Activities
Internship at Zivdem
Nina Arndt (B.A.) will be working as an intern at ZivDem for the next six months. As part of her internship, she will be analyzing documentary films on civilian sea rescue from a frame-analytical perspective.
Fellowship with the research group "Internalizing Borders" at the ZiF in Bielefeld
Since October 2023, Mareike Gebhardt is a fellow of the research group "Internalizing Borders: The Social and Normative Consequences of the European Border Regime" at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University. From February 2024, she will work there for six months as a fellow in residence with a scholarship on the topics of ZivDem's sub-project III.
Click here for the webpage of the research group Internalizing Borders
Workshop: Social and Legal Sciences on the High Seas
On April 5 and 6, 2023, the workshop "Social and Legal Sciences on the High Seas" took place at the University of Münster in the Karl Bender Hall of the Juridicum. The workshop was hosted by the ZivDem research group, the Chair of Public International Law and International Human Rights Protection, and the Junior Professorship of Political Theory. The main purpose of the workshop was for the three teams to get to know each other and to identify common research interests and intersections in order to explore further collaboration.
The participants were Svenja Ahlhaus, Iman Al Nassre, Sebastian Benedikt, Fabian Endemann, Mareike Gebhardt, Lena Laube, Nora Markard, Eva Schmidt, Sarah Spasiano, Marlene Stiller, Pia Storff, and Maria Ullrich.
Kick-off Events
The ZivDem project was launched in the summer of 2022. Two events represented ZivDem’s kick-off:
At the 28th International Conference of Europeanists CES “The Environment of Democracy,” on June 20-22, 2022, at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Mareike Gebhardt, Lena Laube, and Maria Ullrich presented the research group’s initial preliminary assumptions in a panel on “Migrant Rights Activism and Legal Support: Contestation or Conformation?” (organized by Saskia Bonjour and Sonja Evaldsson Mellström, both University of Amsterdam).
For its official kick-off, all members of ZivDem met on August 24, 2022, at FIW Bonn.
The Open ZivDem Research Colloquium invites (prospective) scholars on migration and border politics in different stages of their academic careers. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we discuss the relationship between Search and Rescue Missions, border politics, and democracy.
The research colloquium is a platform and extended network of ZivDem. It is open to interested researchers from different disciplines who want to present their works, BA or MA theses, or research projects and discuss literature together.
The colloquium takes place on Thursdays, from 14:00-15:30. Registration for participation or the presentation of your research ideas and work is possible at any time under zivdem-foko@uni-bonn.de. If required, individual sessions can also be held in English. The link to the respective Zoom meeting and possible reading texts will be sent by e-mail to all interested parties before the meeting.
Click here for the program
Social actors in different European places argue over Search and Rescue Missions in the Mediterranean Sea. Based on these conflicts, broader disputes crystallize in which the right to mobility and (the sovereignty over) borders of inclusion and exclusion are negotiated. According to the thesis of the research group ZivDem, the future shape of European democracy is thus up for discussion.
With this lecture series, we look at Search and Rescue Missions in the central Mediterranean and situate them in general social and political negotiations about migration movements to Europe. For this purpose, we invited experts from different disciplines to discuss these topics at the University of Bonn in the summer semester of 2023.
Mareike Gebhardt opened the series on April 26, 2023 with her lecture "Un-Mögliche Solidarität: Zivile Seenotrettung als kommende Demokratie". A detailed program as well as recordings of further lectures by Prof. Nicole Doerr and Dr. Benjamin Etzold can be viewed here.
September 11 - 14, 2023 | Doctoral Colloquium "The Future of Democracy in Europe" | Villa Vigoni, Loveno di Menaggio
Sarah Spasiano participated in the Four Nations Doctoral Colloquium (Germany, France, Italy and Poland). Click here for the webpage of the colloquium
September 4 - 8, 2023 | ECPR General Conference | Prague
Mareike Gebhardt presented the paper "Beyond Contestation: SAR NGOs in the Mediterranean Border Assemblage", co-authored with Lena Laube and Maria Ullrich.
March 23–24, 2023 | Meeting of the Working Group Democracy and Forced Migration of the German Network for Forced Migration Studies | Kiel University
View the webpage of the working group
September 28–30, 2022 | 4th Conference of the German Network for Forced Migration and Refugee Studies | TU Chemnitz
The research group ZivDem presented a poster on their central thesis and research goals.
Furthermore, Maria Ullrich and Mareike Gebhardt were discussants of the roundtable “Research on Forced Migration as Democracy Research,” which took place during the conference and was organized by the working group Democracy and Forced Migration.
June 20 - 22, 2022 | 28th International Conference "The Environment of Democracy" | Instituto Universitário de Lisboa
Mareike Gebhardt, Lena Laube, and Maria Ullrich presented the first preliminary ideas of ZivDem at the Council for European Studies (CES) conference in a panel on “Migrant Rights Activism and Legal Support: Contestation or Conformation?” (organized by Saskia Bonjour and Sonja Evaldsson Mellström, both University of Amsterdam).
01.11.2023 | Bremen Conversations on Global Solidarity | Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) & online
"Deconstructing Solidarity" Lecture by Mareike Gebhardt.
September 28, 2023 | International Congress "Political Theory in Times of Uncertainty" | University Bremen
"To flee or not to flee: Crisis Narratives and Fugitive Subjectivities." Lecture by Mareike Gebhardt.
September 27,2023 | International Congress "Political Theory in Times of Uncertainty" | University Bremen
"Prekäre Subjektivierung. Kritische Perspektiven auf Semantiken der Krise." Panel with Mareike Gebhardt (Chair).
September 21, 2023 | 5. Kongress der deutschsprachigen Rechtssoziologie-Vereinigungen | Innsbruck
"Beyond Borders and Citizenship: The Conceptual Potential of “Access” in Interdisciplinary Research on Forced Migration." Presented by Barbara von Rütte, Lena Laube und Maria Ullrich.
September 15, 2023 | International Conference "Futuring Critical Theory, Institut für Sozialforschung, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
"Deconstructing Solidarity: Towards a New Critical Theory of the Common." Lecture by Mareike Gebhardt.
July 3–6, 2023 | Warschau & online.
"Search and rescue in the Mediterranean and the struggle over European democracy." Presentation by Lena Laube and Maria Ullrich at the 20th IMISCOE Annual Conference "Migration und Ungleichheiten. Auf der Suche nach Antworten und Lösungen".
March 3, 2023 | German Sociological Association (DGS), Bamberg.
Joint conference on “Comparing Recent and Older Refugee Migration in and to Europe – Sociological Perspectives” of the DGS sections “Sociology of Europe” and “Migration and Ethnic Minorities.” Lena Laube and Maria Ullrich presented their work on “Search and rescue in the Mediterranean and the struggle over the reception of refugees in the EU.”
February 15, 2023 | STS-MIGTEC Circle Event, online
Mareike Gebhardt, Lena Laube, and Maria Ullrich presented their paper (work in progress) “Beyond Orchestration and Contestation: SAR NGOS in the Mediterranean Border Assemblage.”
January 31, 2023 | FIW Bonn, online
Lena Laube and Sarah Spasiano presented the outline of ZivDem’s sub-project II „Zivile Seenotrettung als Teil des mediterranen Grenzregimes. Eine juridico-politische Analyse europäischer Migrations- und Asylpolitik auf Hoher See.“
(): Über die Rettung Flüchtender hin zu politischer Inklusion? Handlungsfelder von SAR-NGOs im zentralen Mittelmeer. In: Identität und Repräsentation: Analysen über den Zustand der Demokratie, herausgegeben von Rebecca Pates and Deniz Oğuzhan.
Mareike Gebhardt (in Vorbereitung):
Un-Mögliche Solidarität. Zivile Seenotrettung als Praxis der kommenden Demokratie? (Arbeitstitel). In: Geneaology+Critique/Special Collection: Krisen der Solidarität, hg. von Michaela Bstieler und Sergej Seitz
Gebhardt, Mareike / Laube, Lena / Ullrich, Maria (in Vorbereitung):
Beyond Contestation: SAR NGOs in the Mediterranean “Border Assemblage”
Mareike Gebhardt / Daniel Kersting / Moritz Riemann / Maria Becker / Lena Laube / Maria Ullrich / Christin Younso (2022): Fluchtforschung als Demokratieforschung: Ein Dialog zwischen politischer Philosophie und empirischen Sozialwissenschaften. In: Zeitschrift für Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung 6 (2): 284-302. Link