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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260407T190000
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DTSTAMP:20260404T035135
CREATED:20260320T173849Z
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SUMMARY:Navigating Rupture
DESCRIPTION:Navigating Rupture is cohosted by the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs. \nThis event is a follow-up to last year’s CEO Challenge\, where nearly 200 leaders from business\, government and academia came together to examine how our Region should respond to the profound geopolitical and economic shifts affecting Canada. Improving productivity gains was identified as a key challenge. Since that time\, we have launched the Waterloo Region AI Coalition together with Communitech and 17 other community partners to support firms and organisations in adopting AI and digital innovation tools to improve their productivity. \nThe urgency of this work has only intensified. Prime Minister Mark Carney recently spoke of a “rupture” in the global order in his Davos address and called on Canada to rethink trade\, investment and security in an increasingly volatile world. These challenges and opportunities are deeply relevant for Waterloo Region. \nOn April 7\, we will reconvene to discuss these issues through the lens of technological disruption and geopolitical uncertainty. We will once again welcome Balsillie Fellow Hamza Abdulbasit\, who will join us in person to share insights on the new geopolitical reality from his perspective in Washington D.C. \nThe event will include a moderated discussion with attendees\, focused on opportunities for our Region across AI\, advanced manufacturing\, quantum\, defense and health innovation\, followed by a networking reception and refreshments. \nRegister here
URL:https://balsillieschool.ca/event/navigating-rupture/
LOCATION:CIGI Auditorium\, 67 Erb Street West\, Waterloo\, ON\, N2L 6C2\, Canada
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://balsillieschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Navigating-Rupture.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260408T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260408T133000
DTSTAMP:20260404T035135
CREATED:20260306T203840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260311T135800Z
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SUMMARY:Resilient Social Networks and Mobility Strategies among Migrants in Cape Town
DESCRIPTION:Built on the “mobility turn\,” Tamuka Chekero’s book\, Resilient Social Networks and Mobility Strategies among Migrants in Cape Town\, examines how African migrants navigate precarity through dense\, diverse social networks that extend beyond state-imposed classifications of nationality or legal status. He argues that labels such as Zimbabwean migrant\, Congolese migrant\, Nigerian migrant obscure the richness of relationships migrants cultivate to sustain livelihoods\, negotiate belonging\, and respond to structural exclusion in Cape Town’s postcolonial urban landscape. Drawing on ethnographic research\, he traces migrant mobility across neighbourhoods\, workplaces\, transport routes\, and convivial spaces\, showing how social networks function as tools of survival and strategic (in)visibility. His analysis is augmented by African concepts\, including hushamwari (friendship) and kuhanyisana (helping each other to live)\, which illuminate mutual support\, solidarity\, and cooperative action within migrant communities. He combines these with ubuntu\, conviviality\, incompleteness\, and nimble-footedness to theorise everyday strategies of resilience\, gendered mobilities\, and crisis adaptation\, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. His work contributes by reconceptualising migrant agency beyond nationality\, integrating Southern African epistemologies into migration studies\, and offering evidence for policy approaches that prioritise inclusion over enforcement. By centring migrant sociality\, he shows how mobility\, resilience\, and urban belonging are co-constructed and sustained across Cape Town’s complex social and spatial landscapes. \nAbout the Speaker \nTamuka Chekero is an anthropologist and policy researcher who studies migration\, governance\, and social change in African cities. His work challenges the use of nationality as the primary lens for understanding migrants\, showing how this colonial framing obscures the density\, diversity\, and resilience of networks that migrants cultivate to survive. His work focuses on how mobility\, grassroots entrepreneurship\, and social relations shape inclusive governance and everyday life. Tamuka’s research is informed by ethnographic methods and enriched by African concepts and practices such as hushamwari and kuhanyisana\, which illuminate the ways migrants support one another and navigate complex urban environments. He is currently a Consultant at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and a Research Associate at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria)\, conducting interdisciplinary research that bridges lived experience and policy analysis. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Cape Town. He has held research positions with the World Bank Group as an Africa Research Fellow in Washington\, DC\, and with regional initiatives across Southern Africa. Tamuka has published extensively in academic journals and authored a monograph on migrant social networks in Cape Town.
URL:https://balsillieschool.ca/event/resilient-social-networks-and-mobility-strategies-among-migrants-in-cape-town/
LOCATION:Virtual\, Balsillie School of International Affairs\, 67 Erb Street West\, Waterloo\, ON\, Canada
CATEGORIES:African Forum,Migration, Mobilities, and Social Politics Research Cluster
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260409T121500
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260409T134500
DTSTAMP:20260404T035135
CREATED:20260326T192326Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260326T194315Z
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SUMMARY:Rewriting the Rules: How Migrant Experiences can Transform Migration Policy Design
DESCRIPTION:Migration policies across Africa continue to be designed around assumptions about why people move\, how they move\, and what would stop them. These assumptions rarely reflect the lived experiences of migrants themselves\, and this disconnect has a real consequence for policies that will miss their mark including protections that fail to protect the migrants. This presentation argues that placing migrant voices and experiences at the centre of policy design\, implementation\, and reform is not a matter of preference but of necessity. When policies are built without meaningfully engaging the people they target\, they have a high chance of experience systematic challenges. \nThrough AMADPOC’s contribution to the DYNAMIG project (2023–2025)\, we conducted in-depth interviews with over 150 aspiring and actual Kenyan migrants\, complemented by digital diaries\, social media analysis\, and choice experiments. What emerged was a picture of decision-making far more complex than prevailing policy frameworks acknowledge shaped by layered calculations around income\, risk\, gender dynamics\, social norms\, and information accessed through informal networks rather than official channels. \nThe research revealed structural gaps between how policymakers perceive migrant behaviour and how migrants describe their own experiences. Drawing from my work with governments\, Regional Economic Communities\, and the African Union\, I have observed repeatedly how institutional assumptions about why people migrate\, what deters them\, and what protections they need differ from migrants lived experiences. Addressing this gap is an academic exercise and precondition for effective policy reform. \nEvidence alone does not change policy\, and my presentation argues for institutional commitments to centring migrant voices and experiences through sustained\, structured engagement between researchers\, policymakers\, and migrant communities. Only when the people most affected by migration policy have a genuine role in sharing it can governance frameworks move from assumption to accountability. \nAbout the Speaker \nLinda Adhiambo Oucho is the Executive Director of the African Migration and Development Policy Centre (AMADPOC) in Nairobi and a Part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre\, the European University Institute\, Florence\, Italy. With a PhD in Ethnic Relations from University of Warwick focusing on African women’s migration agency\, her research spans migration governance\, labour migration\, regional integration\, free movement in Africa\, irregular migration and forced displacement. She collaborates with organizations like IOM\, IDRC\, and GIZ\, working closely with African governments and the African Union Commission\, international agencies and academic institutions to develop evidence-based migration policy solutions. She has supported the Governments of Kenya\, Malawi\, Zambia\, Zimbabwe\, Mauritius to develop migration policies informed by evidence. As well as led migration profiling exercises for the Government of Seychelles. \nThis seminar is co-hosted by the MiFOOD Network\, the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC)\, and the Africa Forum. \n  
URL:https://balsillieschool.ca/event/rewriting-the-rules-how-migrant-experiences-can-transform-migration-policy-design/
LOCATION:Room 2-33\, Balsillie School of International Affairs\, Waterloo\, ON\, N2L 6C2\, Canada
CATEGORIES:African Forum
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260413T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260413T130000
DTSTAMP:20260404T035135
CREATED:20260217T154532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260217T173529Z
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SUMMARY:PhD Dissertation Defence: "Higher Education Sustainability Governance: The Bidirectional Flow of Ideas\, Influence\, and Power in University Sustainability Efforts"
DESCRIPTION:Brandon Dickson‘s dissertation defence. \nGiven our present sustainability crisis\, there is a need for actors across levels to become actively involved in sustainability action if meaningful changes are to be made. Past work has noted that universities recognize their important societal role as sustainability actors and research has also begun to emerge which investigates the role and impact of universities in sustainability. While the literature is evolving in this area\, research on the role of universities and the international organizations which govern them in the broader context of global sustainability governance remains a relatively unexplored area of study. \nAs such\, this dissertation explores the two-way exchange of global sustainability governance agendas between international groups and universities. It asks: Across various levels of governance\, how and why do universities engage with global sustainability agendas and regimes and what are the implications for universities’ priorities and actions in sustainability? \nThis dissertation adopts a multiple manuscript approach which includes three empirical articles\, each of which answers a piece of the above question. Both individually and taken together\, these chapters make a substantial contribution to the field of higher education sustainability governance. The first manuscript combines a thematic policy analysis with executive interviews to investigate the sustainability priorities and drivers of these priorities in universities across Canada. The second manuscript offers a quantitative evaluation of the submission patterns of 1\,960 universities to the largest global higher education ranking organization\, the Times Higher Education Impact ranking. The third combines a discourse analysis of sustainability reports and surveys to investigate discursive transfer between universities and the largest global university sustainability rating program the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS). Together the findings from these manuscripts point to two major contributions to the higher education sustainability governance literature: 1) International organizations and directives have an impact on universities’ sustainability action through soft governance; and 2) Global higher education sustainability governance is not solely determined by one organization\, and priority areas and action in sustainability are not just top down\, but also reflect universities’ input\, interpretation and responses to the global sustainability regime complex. \nThis dissertation provides important context to the way that global governance is carried out in the higher education sustainability regime and also explores the unique two-way and contested flow of norms and rules between actors and the global sustainability regime. This work will be of interest to scholars of global governance\, higher education and sustainability\, as well as practitioners and policy makers in the higher education and sustainability spaces. \nSupervisor: Dr. Dan Gorman\nInternal: Dr. Ian Rowlands and Dr. Jennifer Clapp\nInternal/External: Dr. Dan Henstra\nExternal: Dr. Steven Bernstein\, University of Toronto \nIf you are interested in attending virtually\, please email events@balsillieschool.ca. Please note that virtual spaces are limited. Confirmation will be sent to selected attendees prior to the defence date.
URL:https://balsillieschool.ca/event/phd-dissertation-defence-higher-education-sustainability-governance-the-bidirectional-flow-of-ideas-influence-and-power-in-university-sustainability-efforts/
LOCATION:Hybrid – Zoom and room 123\, 67 Erb Street West\, Waterloo\, ON\, N2L 6C2\, Canada
CATEGORIES:PhD Dissertation Defence
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260428T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260428T130000
DTSTAMP:20260404T035135
CREATED:20260326T194557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260326T195745Z
UID:65067-1777370400-1777381200@balsillieschool.ca
SUMMARY:The ‘Appification’ of Borders: Political and Technical Stakes
DESCRIPTION:This seminar focuses on what we call the ongoing ‘appification’ of borders. We examine contemporary trends in the governance of borders and migration in which mostly smartphone-based software has become a prominent tool. How have apps changed borders and the bodies that cross them? How does the use of border apps contribute to blurring the line between public and private? To what extent do the use of outward facing apps by border agencies render the mobile phone\, both its use and its search and seizure\, a normal part of border crossing? To what extent do app stores emerge as a site for democratic deliberation about border and immigration policy? What are some research challenges associated with investigating apps? We explore these questions through a close analysis of the technical and political context of several border apps and digital travel processes including CBP One (USA)\, ArriveCan (Canada)\, and Travel to Europe (EU). We highlight how appification shifts the functioning and location of the border itself\, and functions through both care and control and discuss some of the political stakes of this trend. We also discuss the challenges of studying technologies from the standpoint of the humanities and social sciences. These are challenges of a methodological and theoretical order with which we have grappled since the start of our engagement with biometrics and surveillance in borders and mobility. \nAbout the Speakers \nPhilippe M. Frowd is an Associate Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa\, Canada. His research draws on critical security studies and focuses on emerging transnational forms of governance of security in the Sahel region of West Africa. His research has primarily focused on irregular migration and border control in the region and has been the focus of his latest book Security at the Borders: Transnational Practices and Technologies in West Africa (2018\, Cambridge University Press). Philippe also works on the politics of non-state security provision and dynamics of militarization and intervention in the Sahel more broadly. His work has most recently appeared in Third World Quarterly\, Geopolitics\, and African Affairs. He is an associate editor of Security Dialogue. \nBenjamin J. Muller is Professor of Migration and Border Studies at King’s University College at Western University\, in London\, Ontario\, Canada\, and a faculty member in the Centre for Theory and Criticism at Western University. Dr. Muller has published widely in books and academic journals and has for the past two decades provided countless academic presentations and guest lectures on issues of borders\, sovereignty\, security\, surveillance\, and biometrics. Consulted as an expert by Canadian Parliamentary committees\, NATO\, the European Science Foundation\, INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization\, Dr. Muller has also held several visiting research fellowships in North America and Europe. Dr. Muller has also served as an active executive member in the King’s University College Faculty Association for more than a decade\, including serving as Chair for 5 years\, and was the inaugural co-recipient of the KUCFA Copplestone-Csiernik Service Award in 2025. \nCan E. Mutlu is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Politics at Acadia University in Wolfville\, Nova Scotia. He holds a PhD from the University of Ottawa\, alongside a BA and an MA from the University of Victoria. His research critically examines the intersections of sociology\, technology\, and global security. His current research investigates how international borders are becoming “smarter\,” more digital\, and more aesthetically “invisible.” Supported by the SSHRC\, he works on projects examining the datafication of border security and the use of architectural design to mask security infrastructures. My work seeks to uncover how these socio-technical shifts—ranging from facial recognition kiosks to “ferocious architecture”—reshape the boundaries of citizenship and the daily experience of mobility. Dr. Mutlu is the co-editor of Research Methods in Critical Security Studies: An Introduction (with Mark B. Salter and Philippe M. Frowd) and Architectures of Security: Design\, Control\, Mobility (with Benjamin Muller).
URL:https://balsillieschool.ca/event/the-appification-of-borders-political-and-technical-stakes/
LOCATION:Migration and Technology Hub\, 67 Erb Street West\, Waterloo\, Ontario\, N2L 6C2\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Migration+Technology Hub
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