Call for Workshop Applicants: Migration, Urbanisation and Health in Southern Africa

 

Call for Workshop Applicants

Migration, urbanisation and health

 in southern Africa:

interdisciplinary conversations

 

July 27th – 29th, Johannesburg, South Africa

 

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is associated with high level of historical and contemporary population movements, a high prevalence of communicable – and increasingly non-communicable – diseases, and rapid urban growth.  Associated with a growing population of the urban poor – many of whom are recent migrants to the city, as well as increasing inequality, southern African cities and towns urgently need to address these interlinked development challenges.  This requires a new discussion:  improving research and policy responses to ensure healthy urban migration in a context of inequality and inequity requires interdisciplinary conversations and multi-level action at regional, national and local levels.

The workshop plans to explore the following questions:

·       What are the current social and political contexts shaping migrant health in the SADC?

·       What are the migration trajectories, health histories, and lived experiences of urban migrants  - with a focus on comparing long-term residents with new arrivals - within the SADC region?

·       How should what is known about the lived experiences of migrants (both internal and cross-border) shape the research agenda with regard to health?

·       How does current policy and practice (including systems of health care delivery) contribute to migrant well-being or marginality in SADC?

Application Process: We invite applications from early career scholars. The workshop will take place in July 2015 at the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Successful applicants will be expected to submit a paper related to the theme of Migration, urbanisation and health in southern Africa in advance of the workshop, which will be pre-circulated and discussed in detail in with other participants during the workshop.  Successful applicants will be paired with established scholars who will provide mentorship to early career scholars as they finalise their papers for the workshop.  It is envisaged that a number of articles from the workshop will be selected for further revision and publication in an edited collection or relevant special issue. 

Applicants must be post-graduate or early career scholars working on issues in Southern Africa that link to the workshop themes. Preferably, applicants should be pursuing doctoral or postdoctoral research. Interested applicants should submit the following documents:

1.   A detailed CV

2.   A 300 word abstract of the research paper they would like to present at the workshop.  Applicants will be expected to submit a full paper (maximum 8000 words) before attending the workshop.  The work should not have been presented or published elsewhere but we encourage current papers in progress/work in progress to be used.

3.   Indication of whether funding is required and plans to apply for/access funding to enable participation.  Unfortunately we only have very limited funds to support participation.

Applications should be sent to Jo Hunter-Adams at hunterjo@gmail.com  by 30th April 2015.

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