Skip to main content

Migrations: A World on the Move is a podcast that seeks to understand our world through the interconnected movements that shape it. 

With each episode, Eleanor Paynter speaks with experts who highlight how multidisciplinary, multispecies perspectives on migration help us understand key global issues. Subscribe to the show so you don't miss an episode.

Episodes

Crossing Foodways

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

In our final episode of the season, we talk to guests Philip Gleissner, Harry Eli Kashdan, and Reem Kassis about their book of essays and recipes called Resilient Kitchens: American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis, Essays and Recipes. Philip and Harry are editors of the book, which features immigrant restaurateurs, chefs, scholars, food writers, and activists.

Crossing Racial Borders

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

E. Tendayi Achiume is a professor of law at UCLA. Her research focuses on international migration, refugee displacement, and especially the role of international law in shaping the way that borders work. Today’s episode covers a broad scope of Achiume’s work, including colonialism, human rights, and migration. 

Crossing Cultures

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

In a visit to Novellara, Italy last summer, our host Eleanor Paynter and guest host Elena Bellina learned about the community of Sikh Indians who began migrating to the area in the 1980s. The Sikhs are one of more than 50 different immigrant communities among the town's residents, but they've played an important role in shaping the region.

Out Now: The Next Monsoon

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

The next episode of Migrations: A World on the Move is coming soon! In the meantime, enjoy this introduction to a new podcast from our colleagues at the South Asia Program, available now wherever you get your podcasts. 

Crossing Dance

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

Our guest today is Momar Ndiaye, assistant professor of dance at Ohio State University (OSU) and a celebrated choreographer. Momar’s work in African dance and contemporary dance is internationally recognized, and he’s toured across the U.S. and abroad. In our conversation, we view migration through the lens of dance and recognize it as an embodied experience. 

Crossing Memory

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

This summer, hosts Eleanor Paynter and Elena Bellina visited the Fondazione Archivio Diaristico Nazionale in Italy, an archive of stories and writing ranging from diaries to handwritten notes on loose slips of paper. Eleanor and Elena spoke with the director of the archive, Natalia Cangi, and researcher Giorgia Alù for this episode about the migrant stories present in the archive. 

Thanks to Isabella Corletto for her translation and voice acting for this episode. 

Crossing Language

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

This season, we're thinking about crossing, not only the physical crossing of national borders, but various forms of encounter and exchange that happen because of those migrations. Several episodes this season will look closely at crossing in the context of Italy, exploring how language and culture cross borders, how the focus on historical migrations helps us understand the present, and more.

Bonus: Refuge, Refusal, Rights

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

In this episode, we share a conversation with Dr. Lamis Abdelaaty and Dr. Rebecca Hamlin about refugee status in policy and in discourse, and more broadly about the categories and labels we use to talk about migration. We talked to Lamis and Rebecca last fall on Cornell’s campus after an event where they presented from their new books.

Waiting in Exile

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

How has a Tibetan community come to call Ithaca, New York home? Cornell student Daniel Bernstein produces this special episode in search of an answer.

Waiting for the Future

Migrations: A World on the Move cover art with globe graphic

"The camp is time and time is the camp," reads poet Yousif M. Qasmiyeh in our latest episode. Waiting for the Future is both a conversation and a poetry reading, featuring not only Yousif and his work but migration scholars Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Shahram Khosravi. The conversation is guided by four of Yousif's poems from his book Writing the Camp and we talk about themes of time, memory, and the camp.