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Exploring Superdiversity: A Critical Roundtable Discussion
As part of the UNIC European University initiative, UCC’s Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), in conjunction with the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Unit and Access UCC, is hosting a seminar series focused on the theme of superdiversity. One of the aims of UNIC is to explore what superdiversity means for the higher education space as well as our wider city and communities. This first seminar explored the concept of superdiversity, examined its potential and limitations, and considered some of its implications for practice within the university.
Papers:
The Origins, Complexities and Challenges of Superdiversity: Done Deal or Proceed with Caution? Dr. Claire Dorrity, School of Applied Social Studies
This presentation explores the concept of ‘superdiversity’, how it emerged and what it represents. However, the paper also cautions to the ever-increasing and widening usage of the term and its failure to interrogate modes of privilege, precarity, and power. This paper argues that capturing and describing new urban and global complexities requires a focus on ‘transnational contentious spaces’ (Steinhilper, 2018), linking the lived and emotional experience of mobility with the relational qualities of space in host societies as a way of promoting solidarity, participation, and the political agency of migrants.
The ‘critical’ role of education in understanding, and engaging, ‘superdiversity’: learning together about key principles and cultural practices across the university space. Dr. Steve O’Brien, School of Education.
What is the ‘critical’ role of education in understanding, and engaging, ‘superdiversity’? This presentation sets out some key critical theory insights – especially from Critical Multicultural Education (CME) and Critical Global Citizenship Education (CGCE) perspectives - and invites methodological discussion on how these might inform inclusive cultural practices within and outside the ‘superdiverse’ academy.
Panellists: Dr. Avril Hutch, Director EDI Unit; Dr. Naomi Masheti, Coordinator, Cork Migrant Centre; Dr. Denis Linehan, Department of Geography.
A recording of the seminar is available here
For more on this story contact:
Dr. Susan Calnan in ISS21: susan.calnan@ucc.ie