A few months ago a group of colleagues and I at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (El Colef) and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico created an online seminar series on diaspora studies, called the Seminario Permanente de Estudios sobre Diásporas.

During this initial year the presentations have focused primarily on Mexico and its diaspora in the US and the sessions have been held in Spanish. The videos of the first three sessions can be consulted on our Facebook site for anyone interested:

This Thursday, September 28th at 12pm CST (Mexico City / Chicago time) we are happy to announce the participation of Katrina Burgess of Tufts University who will present part of her upcoming book Courting Migrants: How States Make Diasporas and Diasporas Make States, in which she compares the diaspora policies of states such as Turkey and Mexico. Alexandra Délano of the New School will be her commentator.

As mentioned, the seminar is virtual and anyone interested in joining can do so using the following link:

Future sessions will be held in both Spanish and English and will seek to cover cases in both Latin America and in other geographical contexts. Ultimately, we hope to promote collaborative comparative research and dialogue between researchers working on diaspora studies.

For anyone interested in joining our mailing list or in presenting their research within the seminar cycle, please send a brief message to seminariodiasporas@gmail.com or contact me directly at bpbruce@gmail.com or bbruce@colef.mx.

Best,

Benjamin Bruce