91¸£Àû

(PAIS, 91¸£Àû), with Co-Is Dr Dallal Stevens (Law, 91¸£Àû), Professor Nick Vaughan-Williams (PAIS, 91¸£Àû), Dr Angeliki Dimitriadi (ELIAMEP, Athens), and Dr Maria Pisani (Malta), have been awarded over 150K for an project entitled 'Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by boat: Mapping and documenting migratory journeys and experiences.’

While migrant deaths en route to the European Union are by no means new, the level and intensity of recent tragedies is unprecedented. More than 1850 deaths were recorded January-May 2015, demanding swift action on the part of EU Member States. This project produces a timely and robust evidence base as grounds for informing policy interventions developed under emergency conditions across the Mediterranean. It does so by assessing the impact of such interventions on those that they affect most directly: migrants or refugees themselves. This project undertakes such an assessment by engaging the journeys and experiences of people migrating, asking:

• What are the impacts of policy interventions on migratory journeys and experiences across the Mediterranean?
• How do refugees or migrants negotiate complex and entwined migratory and regulatory dynamics?
• In what ways can policy be re-shaped to address migrant deaths at sea?

The project focuses on three EU island arrival points in Greece, Italy and Malta. Qualitative interview data, both textual and visual, is produced through an interdisciplinary participatory research approach. The project contributes: an interdisciplinary perspective on the legal and social implications of policy interventions in the region; a comparative perspective on migratory routes and methods of travel across the Mediterranean; a qualitative analysis of the journeys and experiences of refugees and migrants; and methodological insights into participatory research under emergency conditions.

The booklet below is an account of the development of the Department of Politics and International Studies at 91¸£Àû from the opening of the University in 1965 to the end of the 1970s. It has been written as part of the University’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2015.

The Founding of a Politics Department Politics at the 91¸£Àû - Wyn Grant

In an , PAIS PhD researcher argues Michel Platini is unlikely to be willing or able to substantially reform Fifa, and that it might be time for creating a new World Football Organisation.

Prof Chris Hughes, Head of Department, was recently interviewed by Peter Ennis for Dispatch Japan in an article entitled 'Abe Doctrine Marks a Radical Shift in Japanese Security Policy.'

A virtual special issue of the prestigious international journal Political Geography has been published on the topic of 'the Politics of Migration' featuring PAIS academics.

Of the selected ten articles written between 1989 and 2015 are two by researchers in the cluster in PAIS:

• '"Desert trash"': Posthumanism, border struggles, and humanitarian politics', by
• '"We are not animals!" Humanitarian border security and zoopolitical spaces in EUrope', by

The virtual special issue reflects the internationally-renowned expertise in borders and migration research within the Department.

Available for free until 16 October 2015, the virtual special issue can be accessed here: