Session Abstract

The field of migration studies has prospered over the last several decades within numerous departments.  Sociologists, historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and lawyers have all brought their expertise and their questions to understanding the structures and agency of mobilities past and present, not to mention economists trying to quantify the push, the pull, and the transfer payments.  While many scholars have often worked across disciplines and borrowed concepts from one another, this roundtable seeks to engage in a frank interdisciplinary discussion around a series of questions.  How have migration studies developed within each discipline and what does each discipline do best? What are the methodological or epistemological problems or imperatives of engaging in interdisciplinary research?  What are the best (or worst) practices of interdisciplinary endeavors for migration studies?