Busy time

I’ve been rather quiet on this blog lately. A (quick) update on my recent whereabouts hopefully will dispel any doubts on this being a sign of disaffection from the medium. Actually, following conversations with fellow colleagues and social media enthusiasts (@bengidley, @mobilitymuse, @JenniferAllsopp), some interesting development are in the pipeline – but I leave them for another post. For now, I just want to list three things that have occupied my time in the last few weeks (besides getting married at the beginning of the month):

The special issue of Identities on Diversity, Ethnography and Urban Space I co-edited with Mette L. Berg and Ben Gidley is now completed and submitted and, providing a quick turnaround in production, it may be out in August 2013. It includes a long introduction by Mette and myself,  fantastic ethnographic articles by Ben Gidley, Alex Rhys Taylor, Ole Jensen, Lars Meirs, Susanne Wessendorf, Ben Rogaly and Kaveri Qureshi, and an online photo-gallery. The special issue collects papers that were initially presented at the conference we organised at COMPAS in September 2011. The introduction which critically reflects on the ‘diversity turn’ and the emergence of ‘superdiversity’ was finally accepted for publication today.

The Oxford Handbook on Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, a mammoth collection of 50 plus original articles by internationally renown academics, policy makers and practitioners in the field, is now almost ready for submission. I am fortunate to be sharing the task of co-editing with great and well organised (better than I am) colleagues: Elena Fiddian Qasmiyeh, Katy Long and Gil Loescher.  All but one chapter are ready (no name-and shame!) and the introduction is going through a final round of tweaking. Given the size of the task, production will take some time, publication expected in 2014!

 The new issue of Migration Studies (2/2013) is now freely available online. The line-up includes excellent articles by: Julia O’Connell Davidson, Peter O’Brien, Lisa Schuster and Nassim Majidi, David Bartram, and Rahel Kunz and Julia Maisenbacher. The journal is receiving some great submissions and the number of downloads of the articles in Advance View is extremely encouraging.