Migrant Ethnographies

About Migrant Ethnographies

Through stories, practices, and grounded theories, Migrant Ethnographies explores the lived realities of migration and the evolving journey of ethnographic research. Each podcast episode is recorded by a Concordia University graduate student who works on a topic related to migration, with guidance from Dr. Deniz Duruiz. Our guests include academics, graduate and undergraduate research assistants, community activists, artists, curators, musicians, and other researchers who employ ethnographic and qualitative research methods.

Publisher

Migrant Ethnographies

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Apr 2025

Latest episode

20 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Sept 2026

   EP 7 - David Austin speaks on Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness

   A conversation between historian David Austin and community activist/graduate student, Stefan Christoff about the 1968 Congress of Black Writers in Montréal. David speaks about the community-driven research process surrounding his book, Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness. This interview critically frames the intersections between diverse histories of Black struggle in Montreal, as connected to community trajectories of migration, but also as interwoven with the rising consciousness of Black struggles against colonial control in Africa, the Caribbean, and beyond. David Austin is the author of the Casa de las Americas Prize-winning Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal, Moving Against the System:The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness, and Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution. Stefan Christoff is a media maker, community activist, artist, and graduate student at Concordia living in Montreal. Stefan hosts Free City Radio, makes music with many people globally, and regularly contributes to Radio AlHara in Palestine. Purchase the book from Between the Lines Books: https://btlbooks.com/book/moving-against-the-system

2. 

   19 Jul 2026

   EP 6 - Palestinian Music in Exile: A Conversation with Dr. Louis Brehony

   Guillaume Jabbour speaks with author and musician Dr. Louis Brehony about Palestinian music in exile. The conversation centers on Palestinian musical traditions, displacement, and cultural survival across the diaspora, drawing on Brehony's research and Guillaume's own work co-creating a sonic ethnography of Palestinian identity through collaborative sound walks, field recording, and soundscape composition. About the Guest: Dr. Louis Brehony is an author and musician whose work focuses on Palestinian music in exile. About the Host: Guillaume Jabbour is a Communication Studies PhD student and sound studies scholar at Concordia University, whose research-creation project co-creates a sonic ethnography of Palestinian identity across the diaspora through collaborative sound walks, field recording, and soundscape composition. Podcast Theme Music: Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcast theme music. Share your comments: We'd love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at ⁠⁠migrantethnographies@gmail.com⁠⁠ (mailto:migrantethnographies@gmail.com) Special thanks to Concordia University and the IRMS: Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast, and to the Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project.

3. 

   31 Mar 2026

   EP 5 - A Practice of Hope: The Arts in Migrant Justice, in discussion with author and organizer Mostafa Henaway

   Koby Rogers Hall speaks with author and activist Mostafa Henaway about his book Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism and Class. The conversation centers on migrant labour, capitalism, and class struggle, drawing on Henaway’s decades of organizing with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal and his collaboration with Koby through arts-based campaigns. About the Guest: Mostafa Henaway is an author, activist, and PhD candidate at Concordia University. He is a long-time organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal and has spent decades working alongside immigrant and migrant workers on struggles around labour, status, and class. About the Host: Koby Rogers Hall is a Humanities research-creation PhD candidate whose work engages migrant justice through social arts practice, anticolonial art histories, and emergent practices in social movements. Podcast Theme Music: Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcast theme music. Share your comments: We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at ⁠migrantethnographies@gmail.com⁠ (mailto:migrantethnographies@gmail.com) Special thanks to Concordia University and the IRMS: Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast, and to the Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project.

4. 

   27 Feb 2026

   EP 4 - “How Do You Learn the Movements That Steal Yourself to Freedom?” A conversation on museums and migration with curator Abigail Celis and artist Cosmo Whyte

   Katya Korableva speaks with curator Abigail E. Celis and artist Cosmo Whyte about The Catalog of Speculative Translations, Act II: Fugitivities; an exhibition presented at UdeM Gallery. The conversation centers on African material cultures displaced through colonialism and now held in European museums. Drawing on their collaborative research-creation practice, Celis and Whyte examine how objects move across institutions and histories, and how museums translate, fix, or obscure their meanings. About the Guests: Abigail E. Celis is a curator and scholar working in decolonial art history and museum studies. Her research examines migration, race, and the ethics of exhibition, with a focus on how museums produce knowledge through objects and their movement across borders. Cosmo Whyte is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans drawing, installation, and sculpture. His work engages migration, Black diaspora, and memory, often exploring fugitivity and opacity as responses to colonial and archival capture. About the Host: Katya Korableva is a social researcher and curator working across the social sciences and the arts. She is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Concordia University, with her research focusing on memory, critical migration studies, and the ethics of representing conflict-induced migration. Podcast Theme Music: Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcasttheme music. Share your comments: We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at ⁠migrantethnographies@gmail.com⁠ (mailto:migrantethnographies@gmail.com) Special thanks to Concordia University andthe IRMS: Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast, to the Ethnography Lab for studio access, and to the Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project.

5. 

   1 Dec 2025

   EP 3 - On the Arabs and Wayuu People in Colombia: A Brief History of Contraband and the End of the XX Century in the Colombian Caribbean

   This episode follows Franklin Reynel Bonivento van Grieken as he narrates two connected stories from his family history. Franklin guides listeners through his mother Asseneth’s moves from La Guajira to Medellín and then Bogotá, placing her experiences within the political climate of 1990s Colombia. Asseneth's parts are voiced by Franklin’s friend Manuela Ochoa. Franklin explores the commercial and migratory dynamics of Maicao, including the presence of Arab merchant communities and their ties to the region. The episode outlines how these histories shaped his mother’s path and eventually the circumstances he grew up in.⁠ (https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/political-undesirables) About the Host: A Humanities PhD candidate at Concordia with a background in anthropology and history, Franklin explores themes of migration, cultural identity, and displacement. As a Wayuu Indigenous descendant and experienced podcaster, his work combines personal narratives with interdisciplinary inquiry. Podcast Theme Music: Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcast theme music. Share your comments: We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at ⁠migrantethnographies@gmail.com⁠ (mailto:migrantethnographies@gmail.com) Special thanks to Concordia University and the IRMS: Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast, to the Ethnography Lab for studio access, and to the Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project.

6. 

   31 Oct 2025

   EP 2 - Dr. Zainab Saleh - Imperialism, memory, and the evolving meanings of Iraqi identity in exile

   In this episode of Migrant Ethnographies, Benin Alman speaks with anthropologist Dr. Zainab Saleh about her ethnography Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia. Through life histories and accounts of Iraqi exiles in London, Dr. Saleh explores how imperial interventions, from British colonialism to the U.S. occupation, continue to shape diasporic identities and notions of a “home.” The conversation also introduces Dr. Saleh’s forthcoming book, Political Undesirables: Citizenship, Denaturalization, and Reclamation in Iraq, which examines how citizenship laws have been used as tools of exclusion, particularly against Iraqi Jews in the 1950s and Iraqis of Iranian origin in the 1980s. Together Benin and Dr. Saleh discuss imperialism, memory, authenticity, and the evolving meanings of Iraqi identity in exile, reflecting on how ethnographic research can provide a critical inquiry into displacement and belonging. About the Guest Zainab Saleh is an anthropologist and associate professor at Haverford College. Her work focuses on empire, colonialism, migration, diaspora, and the ways power shapes subjectivity,belonging, and knowledge production. Across her work, Saleh emphasizes how imperial and colonial entanglements shape experiences of displacement and how people create networks of resistance and imagine alternative futures. She is the author of Return to Ruin, which won the 2022 Arab American BookAwards. Saleh’s new book project, Political Undesirables, explores citizenship, deportation, and the legacies of colonialism in Iraq and is set to be released on December 9th, 2025. Links and resources: ⁠https://www.haverford.edu/users/zsaleh⁠ (https://www.haverford.edu/users/zsaleh) ⁠https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/return-ruin⁠ (https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/return-ruin) https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/political-undesirables (https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/political-undesirables) About the Host Benin Alman is a Masters student in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. Her thesis explores the collective memory of Iraqi Rafha refugees and how it intersects with power and identity. Her work is informed by postcolonial, migration, and Middle Eastern studies. Podcast Theme Music: Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Recordsfor allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcast theme music. Share your comments: We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, orproposals at migrantethnographies@gmail.com (mailto:migrantethnographies@gmail.com) Special thanks to Concordia University and the IRMS: Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration andSociety (IRMS) for hosting the podcast and to Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project.

7. 

   11 Apr 2025

   Ethnography as a Clinical Tool: Cultural Psychiatry and the Asylum Process

   Grace Davis and G. Eric Jarvis, cultural psychiatry experts, discuss with host Nathan Ferguson the use of patient-centered ethnography as a clinical tool within the asylum process, highlighting its therapeutic potential in clinical interviews in this interview episode.

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Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100

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Quality

83

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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