Migration and Intercultural Communications Through Visuals: Exploring East Asian Studies and Beyond (Summer workshops, IIT Hyderabad) 

This yearly two-day workshop focuses on the migration trends in East Asia and efforts made by the host and migrant communities in bridging the cultural gap. It investigates the importance of understanding cultural nuances in communication.  By the end of this two-day workshop students created short videos in groups and used visuals to  express their view on their migration experiences. 

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QuaMaFA and Free University of Berlin Workshop – 13 – 17 December 2024

The scholars, students, and practitioners during this workshop engaged in critical discussions on migration, visual research methods, and evolving policy challenges in Asia. Organized as part of the BMBF-funded project Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia with focus on Japan, this event was hosted by the Institute of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, Free University of Berlin in collaboration with Sophia University Tokyo (ICC) and with support from Goethe University Frankfurt.

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Online lecture Series 2024, (co- organizer with David H. Slater) 

‘Migration, Memory, and the Art of Storytelling on Film, Institute of Comparative Culture, Sophia University x Free University of Berlin, June-November 2024 (once in a month): This lecture series provides a chance to delve into the complex fabric of human migration and memory through the lens of film. Renowned directors and storytellers will discuss the art of filmmaking as a unique medium for narrating the complex experiences of displacement, longing, and identity. This project is a part of BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany) funded project – Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia and supported by Free University of Berlin, Goethe University Frankfurt and the ICC Collaborative Research Unit “Visual Studies and Displacement in/to Japan”, a Joint Research Unit between Institute of Comparative Culture of Sophia University Japan and Free University of Berlin. 

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Annual VSJF Conference 2023, (co-organizer with QuaMaFA team members)

‘Labour and (Im)mobility in Japan and East and Southeast Asia: Transnational, Regional and Rural-Urban Perspectives’, 3-5 November 2023, Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) – The conference was organized as a part of project ‘Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia’ in cooperation with JDZB and VSJF. 

 

Graduate Student Summer School ‘Innovative Research Designs and Methods in Asian Migration Research’ 18-19 July 2022, Goethe University Frankfurt.

The event was part of the project ‘Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia’ and was co-organized together with the project team. The workshop was led by all the project members collectively. 

 

Filming Fieldwork: Megha Wadhwa in conversation with Andy Lawrence’ followed by Film screening, 24-25 June 2022

A two-day filming workshop was organized at Free University of Berlin, 24-25 June 2022, as a part of the research project ‘Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia,’ supported by Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The purpose was to discuss the why and how of the filming process and the challenges on this path. It was followed by film screening of a documentary ‘Finding their niche: Unheard stories of migrant women’. On 25 June 2022, one day workshop was conducted to further train the research team for fieldwork filming by Dr. Lawrence and Dr. Wadhwa. The workshop was organized and led by Dr. Wadhwa. 

 

Filming Workshop for fieldwork training’ was conducted at Free University of Berlin, 12-14 July 2021

To train the members of a research project in the ‘Qualification and skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia, supported by Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The purpose of the workshop was to train the team in the skills of filming their fieldworks and introduce them to methods of visual ethnography. The videos made by the team members would later be made into a documentary to present the research results to the larger audience. The workshop and training were led by Dr. Wadhwa. 

 

Migrant Stories of Indian Cooks and Afghani Women in Japan’, 15 November 2019

Organized a workshop at Sophia University. And also presented a paper, ‘Labor laws vs the reality: Reflecting on the narratives of Indian cooks and Indian restaurant owners in Japan’ and Documentary Screening of ‘Daughters from Afghanistan’ by Megha Wadhwa in collaboration with Masako Tanaka and David H. Slater.

 

Uprooting, Redefining, Resettling: A Graduate Student Workshop on Women Migrant Lives in Japan, 16 January 2016

Organized a workshop at Sophia University and also presented a paper title, ‘Striking a Balance in Negotiating Identities – Indian Migrant Women Creating New Spaces in Tokyo, Japan’, Workshops of Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University, 16 January 2016. Workshops of Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University.