Culture and belonging are key ideas and empirical concerns of Claudia Tazreiter’s research. She trained as a sociologist and research in the fields of political sociology, social theory, visual cultures, race, ethnicity and migration.
She is a new professor at the Department of Culture and Society since 2021. On November 24 she gave her inaugural lecture with the title The future of Migration and Borders.
What is your research about?
The focus of my research ison the social and affective impacts of forced and irregular migration on human rights culture, the role of civil society in social change, and visual cultures of dissent. I am interested in the manifestations of exclusions at the heart of racialized capitalism and the various systems that circulate to entrench this history and contemporary realities. I use ethnographic, visual, qualitative and mixed methods in studying the effects migration movements have on human societies and the complex responses to migrant arrivals. I am interested in working across traditional disciplinary boundaries in searching collaboratively for solutions to social and political problems, as well as their manifestations in environmental and ecological risks.
What about this area do you find interesting?
The field of migration studies is broadly defined and in a state of constant flux and renewal. This is partly due to the contemporary currency of migration as a ‘hot topic’ and one that is easily politicised, but from my point of view also points to the critical role that reflecting on the learning states, societies and individuals can glean from migration flows and from the stories and experiences of migrants. Migration studies is not only about movement and border crossing, but can teach us about home, staying put, about the value of community and of place.
Why is research in ethnicity and migration so important?
Migration studies and its intersections with race, ethnicity and indigeneity are critical fields of research for the problems the contemporary world faces.
Is there something within your area you would want to explore or study more in the future?
My future research agenda is articulated along the lines of active collaboration with visual and creative artists in devising new methodological and epistemological approaches to considering human societies and the close relations with non-human animals and other living entities.
