Diaspora Studies Specialist Group

Convenor
Dr Feargal Cochrane, Director, Richardson Institute for Peace and Conflict Research, Department of Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University, Lancs. LA1 4YL, United Kingdom. tel: +01524 594253, fax: +01524 594238. E-mail: f.cochrane[at]lancaster.ac.uk

PSAI Committee Liaison
TBC

Aims
The Diaspora Studies Specialist Group of the PSAI will have the following objectives.

1. The first will be to bring together scholars (from post-graduates to established academics) working on research that relates to issues surrounding diasporas and migration. While the primary focus will be on the Irish Diaspora, the aim will be to encourage comparative studies where the Irish Diaspora is one case within wider analyses of international migration and transnational movements. Ideally, this would involve researchers specialising in other regions such as Africa, Eastern Europe North America and the Middle East, as well as Ireland. The group would also hope to involve political theorists with an interest in the role of Diasporas in relation to globalisation, democratization, cosmopolitanism and citizenship. Finally, the group would also be interested in the impact of other Diaspora communities on the political, economic, legal and cultural fabric of Ireland itself.
   
   
2. The second aim of this group is to promote interdisciplinary research, bringing together scholars with backgrounds in political science, history, sociology, geography, economics law, literature, and anthropology. Diaspora communities, by their very nature, cross geographical, political, economic and cultural boundaries and it would be the expectation that research in this area would also cross-cut the traditional academic disciplines. Ideally, the specialist group would bring together researchers from across these disciplines and act as a forum for interdisciplinary networking, debate, publication and grant application.
   
   
3. The third aim of the group will be to attract a membership from beyond those who are currently members of the PSAI, and it is hoped that this notice can be distributed to academic partners and their distribution lists, e.g. the Political Studies Association, BISA etc, to attract in those who are not already members of the PSAI.

Ideally, (and if there is sufficient interest) the specialist group would evolve in such a way that it would meet during other conferences in addition to the PSAI, such as the PSA and especially the ECPR. Members of the Diaspora specialist group would be encouraged to submit panel suggestions for the PSAI and other conferences as research collaborations develop.

Activities
As indicated above, three sets of interrelated activities would be developed.

1. Firstly, it would be expected that members of the group would offer papers to a panel at the PSAI conference which focused on Diaspora Studies. Ideally this would evolve as the membership of the group expands, to include panels at ECPR and other international conferences.
2. Secondly, the group would be a forum for professional networking between those working in the area, its inter-disciplinary nature bringing together those who might normally attend different conferences.
3. Thirdly, flowing from the first two activities, there would be a possibility for research collaborations leading to publications.
4. Fourthly, ideally all of the above would allow members of the group to identify research partners to put together bids for research funding from the ESRC, AHRC the Leverhulme Trust etc.

Members
As suggested above, the Diaspora Studies Specialist Group would welcome members from across disciplinary areas including Political Science, History, Economics Anthropology, Sociology, Law, Geography and other cognate disciplines. To become a member of the Group you must be a member of the PSAI, which you can join here. You do not have to belong to an Irish university to be a PSAI member or to join the Group.