YOUTH ON THE MOVEPerforming Urban Space in the Global Southinvites applications forDoing Mobile Ethnography: Learning from the Other ‘Other’an early-career scholars’ training Workshop in Urban MethodologyShanghai, 2024
The ‘Youth on the Move: Performing Urban Space in the Global South’ (YOTM) research initiative invites applications for an Early-career Scholars’ Training Workshop to be held in Tongji University, Shanghai, during May 2024. We invite young scholars across the Global South to reflect on their ethnographic experiences and methodologies in the shifting southern urban contexts.How does one conduct ethnography in/across the rapidly shifting South urban spaces? How can the mobile youth within the Southern urbanisation be seen/heard? How can one learn from the Southern ‘other’ from a comparative perspective? What are the practices and mediums of South-South collaboration from below? This methodology workshop titled “Doing Mobile Ethnography – Learning from the Other ‘Other’” collectively explores Southern young scholar’s challenges, experiences, and reflections in doing field-based research within other Southern urban contexts beyond their home country.During this workshop, young scholars will be working together with a set of senior scholars in urban studies on their proposed papers. The workshop considers mobile research with youth and marginal communities as open-ended collaboration in / beyond the field—not only between the interlocutor(s) and the researcher(s) but also among Southern scholars. Learning from the “Other ‘Other’” indicates mutual references within the Souths, rather than solely relying on ‘the West’ as the source of references or theories. It also means collaborative research, teaching modalities, art exhibitions, and other forms of knowledge production and transmission. In coming together, they may strengthen networks amongst the different intellectual traditions of the Asian and African continents.This two-day methodologies workshop will be held at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. Under the Urban Studies Foundation, YOTM will provide limited fully funded scholarships for earlier career scholars from Africa and Asia. Through such collective thinking and discussion, we aim to contribute to a special issue in the leading journals in urban studies. The workshop is part of an enlarging Asia-Africa scholarly network with subsequent events in the near future.MENTORSProf. Loraine Kennedy, CNRS Research Director, Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH), EHESS, Paris, FranceProf. Tatiana Thieme, UCL Geography, UKProf. Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, NorwayELIGIBILITYThe workshop invites earlier career scholars from the Global South, who have already conducted fieldwork in another Southern context.Early career scholars include: final year PhD students; Postdocs and lecturers who have obtained their PhD in no more than 5 years.The language of the workshop will be English.APPLICATION PROCESSPlease fill in the Google Form and send the following documents for application: 1. CV in English (max. 2 pages) 2. A detailed-abstract (500 words) or full paper (if ready) that responds to the call’s main focus. The selected participants are expected to submit a draft paper (no less than 3000 words) at least two weeks before the workshop date. 3. A motivation statement based on the outline provided below (max. 2 pages) * Briefly introduce yourself, your academic/disciplinary background, and why/how did you start to engage with the “other” Southern context for your previous/current research? Please also introduce the theme and research question(s) of your past/current research project. * Why do you want to participate in the workshop and how would you benefit from it? * What specific methodological perspectives, experiences, and challenges would you bring into the discussion during the workshop? * Please provide the name and full contact details (including email addresses) of two academic referees who know you well, and specify your link to them. * Indicate if you need to apply for the scholarship.KEY DATESSubmission Deadline: 15 March 2024Announcement of Outcomes: 20 March 2024Dates of Workshop: 13-14 May 2024, ShanghaiFor correspondence and queries, contact asiaafricayouth@googlegroups.comSubscribe to Asia-Africa Mailing List‘Youth on the Move: Performing Urban Space in the Global South’ observes emerging socio-spatial practices of youth in African and Asian contexts, and examines their modes of moving and meaning-making through an embodied politics of performance. The project gathers urban scholars, architects, artists, curators and local youth groups from Asia and Africa for a collective contemplation through in-depth dialogues on unpeeling the multi-layered, mobile ‘Southern urbanity’.more on www.asiaafricayouth.comOPEN CALL PDF GOOGLE FORM