DEMOS AAU

A seminar on Migration, Labour and Belonging was held last week, organized by Tomislav Pušić, Ferhat Demirag, and Mashudu Salifu as part of the DEMOS research group.

The seminar brought together several distinguished PhD candidates and Postdoctoral researchers.

Carola Vasileiadi (PhD Candidate, Erasmus University Rotterdam) presented her fieldwork in Thessaloniki, focusing on solidarity practices toward people on the move within deteriorating infrastructures.

Hannah Kay (PhD Candidate, Erasmus University Rotterdam) discussed her fieldwork in Trieste, examining intersecting patterns of mobility and immobility by tracing four distinct narratives emerging from urban life.

Carola and Hannah are undertaking a two-week research stay at Aalborg University within the DEMOS research group, where they will further discuss their ongoing projects. Further details about their project can be found at https://urbimm.eu/

Konstantinos Floros (Postdoctoral Researcher, AAU) presented his project on Autonomous Cartographies of Migrant Platform Work in Denmark, highlighting the use of counter-mapping to explore how migrant cleaners collectively document their spatial and social realities in Copenhagen.

Ferhat Demirağ (PhD Student, AAU) presented a thematic literature review addressing forced migration and the fragmentation of belonging in Scandinavia.

Franz Bernhardt (Dr) (Research Assistant, AAU) discussed his research on legal activism as a preventive strategy, with a focus on housing activism and litigation challenging the Danish Ghetto Law.

Gülnur Demirci (PhD Student, Malmö University) addressed the methodological challenges of conducting research in authoritarian contexts, discussing how she navigates boundaries, risks, and ethical dilemmas in her project on the transnational construction of Circassian cultural memory across Turkey, Russia, and Germany.

Professors Martin Bak Jørgensen and Óscar García Agustín offered critical perspectives on migration through the lens of Gramsci and social theory, examining hegemony, solidarity, and the potential for counter-hegemonic movements across borders.

Tomislav Pušić (PhD Fellow, AAU) presented research on the opacity of migration infrastructure along the Balkan route, analysing how smuggling networks, migrants, humanitarian actors, and states produce opacity as an infrastructural tactic to navigate and circumvent surveillance.

Mashudu Salifu (PhD Fellow, AAU) presented a patchwork ethnography on the formation of migration corridors from the ground up, drawing on fieldwork in the Canary Islands to examine how migrants repurpose infrastructures of endurance to sustain movement along the Western Atlantic route.

The two-day seminar concluded with a workshop on fieldwork ethics and methodology, followed by a collective discussion among participants.

🎙️ May the 4th be with you!

Today we’re celebrating Star Wars Day, the fan-created holiday built on the iconic phrase “May the Force be with you” — but also asking what this galaxy far, far away tells us about power much closer to home.

In our latest episode of POP-POL, host Frida Selim Williams is joined by Óscar García Agustín and Martin Bak Jørgensen to unpack Star Wars — from the fall of the Republic to the rise of the Empire, and the everyday realities of resistance in series like Andor.

We talk about authoritarian drift, rebellion, and why staying out of politics is rarely an option — because as the episode title suggests:
if you don’t do politics, politics will do you.

So whether you’re rewatching the originals, diving into Andor, or just here for the memes — today’s a reminder that even in fiction, power, fear, and resistance are never just fantasy.

🎧 Listen now: https://open.spotify.com/episode/30CnWLWXVsUdWL3a4oPbXt?si=f6eefccaa94e4055

POP-POL — where pop culture meets politics, no jargon needed.

🎙️ New episode alert!

What if belonging came with a cost?

We’re back with another episode of POP-POL — where pop culture meets real politics.

This time, host Frida Selim Williams is joined by Óscar García Agustín and Martin Bak Jørgensen to unpack Sinners — the genre-bending film that blends horror and music to explore identity, culture, and power.

We talk about assimilation and what it means to “fit in,” the role of the blues as cultural memory and resistance, and how visibility can quickly turn into erasure. We also dive into who gets labeled a “sinner,” and how race, gender, and power shape those judgments.

From seductive promises of unity to the loss of identity, Sinners asks a simple but uncomfortable question: what do you have to give up to belong?

🎧 Listen now on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Nipw0I4ERqxprKDMIclwj?si=4Sn-oWllR0egfC8-eVDL-Q

POP-POL — where pop culture meets politics, no jargon needed.