Migrant Ethnographies

Koby Rogers Hall speaks with author and activist Mostafa Henaway about his book Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism and Class.The conversation centers on migrant labour, capitalism, and class struggle, drawing on Henaway’s decades of organizing with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal and his collaboration with Koby through arts-based campaigns.About the Guest:Mostafa Henaway is an author, activist, and PhD candidate at Concordia University. He is a long-time organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal and has spent decades working alongside immigrant and migrant workers on struggles around labour, status, and class.About the Host:Koby Rogers Hall is a Humanities research-creation PhD candidate whose work engages migrant justice through social arts practice, anticolonial art histories, and emergent practices in social movements.Podcast Theme Music: Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcast theme music.  Share your comments: We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at ⁠[email protected]⁠ Special thanks to Concordia University and the IRMS: Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast, and to the Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project. 

Katya Korableva speaks with curator Abigail E. Celis and artist Cosmo Whyte about The Catalog of Speculative Translations, Act II: Fugitivities; an exhibition presented at UdeM Gallery. The conversation centers on African material cultures displaced through colonialism and now held in European museums. Drawing on their collaborative research-creation practice, Celis and Whyte examine how objects move across institutions and histories, and how museums translate, fix, or obscure their meanings. About the Guests:Abigail E. Celis is a curator and scholar working in decolonial art history and museum studies. Her research examines migration, race, and the ethics of exhibition, with a focus on how museums produce knowledge through objects and their movement across borders.Cosmo Whyte is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans drawing, installation, and sculpture. His work engages migration, Black diaspora, and memory, often exploring fugitivity and opacity as responses to colonial and archival capture.About the Host:Katya Korableva is a social researcher and curator working across the social sciences and the arts. She is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Concordia University, with her research focusing on memory, critical migration studies, and the ethics of representing conflict-induced migration.Podcast Theme Music:Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcasttheme music. Share your comments:We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at ⁠[email protected]⁠Special thanks to Concordia University andthe IRMS:Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast, to the Ethnography Lab for studio access, and to the Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project.

This episode follows Franklin Reynel Bonivento van Grieken as he narrates two connected stories from his family history. Franklin guides listeners through his mother Asseneth’s moves from La Guajira to Medellín and then Bogotá, placing her experiences within the political climate of 1990s Colombia. Asseneth's parts are voiced by Franklin’s friend Manuela Ochoa. Franklin explores the commercial and migratory dynamics of Maicao, including the presence of Arab merchant communities and their ties to the region. The episode outlines how these histories shaped his mother’s path and eventually the circumstances he grew up in.⁠ About the Host: A Humanities PhD candidate at Concordia with a background in anthropology and history, Franklin explores themes of migration, cultural identity, and displacement. As a Wayuu Indigenous descendant and experienced podcaster, his work combines personal narratives with interdisciplinary inquiry. Podcast Theme Music: Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcast theme music.  Share your comments: We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at ⁠[email protected]⁠ Special thanks to Concordia University and the IRMS: Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast, to the Ethnography Lab for studio access, and to the Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project. 

In this episode of Migrant Ethnographies, Benin Alman speaks with anthropologist Dr. Zainab Saleh about her ethnography Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia. Through life histories and accounts of Iraqi exiles in London, Dr. Saleh explores how imperial interventions, from British colonialism to the U.S. occupation, continue to shape diasporic identities and notions of a “home.” The conversation also introduces Dr. Saleh’s forthcoming book, Political Undesirables: Citizenship, Denaturalization, and Reclamation in Iraq, which examines how citizenship laws have been used as tools of exclusion, particularly against Iraqi Jews in the 1950s and Iraqis of Iranian origin in the 1980s.Together Benin and Dr. Saleh discuss imperialism, memory, authenticity, and the evolving meanings of Iraqi identity in exile, reflecting on how ethnographic research can provide a critical inquiry into displacement and belonging. About the Guest:Zainab Saleh is an anthropologist and associate professor at Haverford College. Her work focuses on empire, colonialism, migration, diaspora, and the ways power shapes subjectivity, belonging, and knowledge production. Across her work, Saleh emphasizes how imperial and colonial entanglements shape experiences of displacement and how people create networks of resistance and imagine alternative futures. She is the author of Return to Ruin, which won the 2022 Arab American Book Awards. Saleh’s new book project, Political Undesirables, explores citizenship, deportation, and the legacies of colonialism in Iraq and is set to be released on December 9th, 2025. Links and resources: ⁠https://www.haverford.edu/users/zsaleh⁠⁠https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/return-ruin⁠ https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/political-undesirablesAbout the Host:Benin Alman is a Masters student in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. Her thesis explores the collective memory of Iraqi Rafha refugees and how it intersects with power and identity. Her work is informed by postcolonial, migration, and Middle Eastern studies.Podcast Theme Music:Many thanks to Moneka Arabic Jazz and Lulaworld Records for allowing us to use the song Mail Shougle as our podcast theme music. Share your comments:We’d love to hear from you! Share your comments, ideas, or proposals at [email protected] thanks to Concordia University and the IRMS:Special thanks to the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) for hosting the podcast and to Concordia University Faculty Research Development Program (FRDP) for funding this project.