Finished Summary Workshop “Experiences of migrants and narratives” (Dec. 23)
2021.12.07
Category： Workshop
Research Group： A03 Migrants & RefugeesB01 State Systems
The workshop “Experiences of migrants and narratives” will be jointly organized by Group A03 “Migrants, Refugees, and Community Building”and Group B01 “The Ideas of the Muslim Community and State Systems” with a presentation of Sayoko Numata, guest researcher of the Asian Cultures Research Institute, Toyo University.
Islamic Trust Studies Workshop “Experiences of migrants and narratives”
Date & Time: December 23, 2021, 10:00-12:00
Presentation: Sayoko Numata (Asian Cultures Research Institute, Toyo University)
“Considering connectivities from the viewpoint of oral history: Turkey, Japan and East Asian-born Tatar migrants”
Discussant : Norihiro Naganawa (SRC, Hokkaido University / ILCAA, B01 Co-investigator)
Moderator: Hidemitsu Kuroki (ILCAA / SRC, Hokkaido University, A03 Principal investigator/Area Organizer)
Language: Japanese
Venue: Open to the public, Admission free, Onlin via Zoom / Pre-registration required
Pre-registration : https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqf-Curz8uE9Ya_AD6CBGfM3SpT5Zb2_20
Co-organizer:
Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A)
“Migrants, Refugees, and Community Building” (Principal Investigator: Hidemitsu KUROKI (ILCAA / SRC) Project Number: 20H05826)
“The Ideas of the Muslim Community and State Systems” (Principal Investigator: Nobuaki Kondo (ILCAA) Project Number: 20H05827)
Contact
Erina Ota-Tsukada e.otatsukada[at]aa.tufs.ac.jp
Summary
In this workshop, we explored the potential of oral history in order to consider “Islamic connectivities” based on the narrated experiences of migrants. Initially, I made a presentation that showed the history of Tatar migration from the Volga-Ural region of Russia, through East Asia, to Turkey and the US. In addition, I also presented the linkage between positionality and connectivities based on the narratives by East Asian-born Tatar migrants. Firstly, I argued that we must locate the narrator’s positionality within the different dimensions of social relations: individuals, migrant communities, host societies and nation-states. Secondly, we must take a critical view of the researcher’s own positionality. By doing so, we could visualise the vertical relations that affect individuals as they try to make horizontal relations, i.e. the power relations surrounding their connectivities.
Furthermore, Norihiro Naganawa, the commentator, gave wide-ranged comments which included the analysis of narratives and written materials, the use of identity as an analytical term, and the relationship between nations and migrants. We also received some questions from the floor, such as, an enquiry about the transmission of language and culture to the younger generation. Finally, in response to my question as to what is the interpretation of Islamic connectivities, Hidemitsu Kuroki, the moderator, pointed out that Islamic connectivities would not directly be deduced from Islamness itself, but rather constructed on a huge variety of examples inductively and synthetically. (Sayoko Numata, uploaded on Jan. 24, 2022)