Ceri Oeppen is Lecturer in Geography at the University of Sussex, UK, and a guest researcher at PRIO. She is currently working with the Migration Research Group on the RCN-funded PREMIG project, where she leads the Afghan case study.
Dr Oeppen has been conducting ethnographic research with Afghans in a variety of diaspora locations for over a decade, including India, the USA, UK, and now Norway. Her PhD thesis looked at the interactions between transnationalism and integration for the Afghan elite living in California and the UK. She is Co-editor of the book Beyond the “wild tribes”: Understanding modern Afghanistan and its diaspora.
In this seminar Dr Oeppen will reflect on her research with the Afghan diaspora in the USA and UK, as well as some initial observations from her fieldwork in Norway. She will describe the kinds of transnational activities the Afghan diaspora are involved in and discuss the ways in which those transnational activities interact with Afghans’ experiences of integration and their negotiation of membership in their country of settlement.
Dr Cindy Horst, who heads the Migration Research Group and has worked extensively on diaspora engagments in (post)conflict situations, will act as discussant.
