This collaborative project, funded by the European Commission from 2021-2025, brings together researchers, NGOs and artists from Austria, Belgium, France, Ghana, Germany, Italy, Mauritania, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Senegal. The goal is a critical revision of European migration discourses since the refugee "crisis" in 2015, and a fair narrative on migration.
The Horizon 2020 project “Crises as OPPORTUNITIES: Towards a Level Telling Field of Migration and a New Narrative of Successful Integration,” funded by the European Union, is located at the Interdisciplinary Center for Narrative Research, where humanities scholars conduct research on the topics of narrative and migration under the scientific coordination of Prof. Dr. Roy Sommer.
The international team, consisting of Dr. Moustapha Diallo, Ida Fábián, Dr. Carolin Gebauer, and Dr. Mariam Muwanga, investigates media representations of forced displacement and migration in order to model the dynamics of European migration debates by combining approaches from narrative theory and discourse analysis. In fostering a joint exchange between scientists, non-governmental organisations, and migrants, OPPORTUNITIES seeks to develop and test new discourse rules for a fair dialogue on migration and integration.
The international and interdisciplinary consortium of the project includes universities, research institutions, and non-governmental organisations from eleven European and African countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Mauretania, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Senegal. Toward the end of the project, the Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg KVS theatre in Brussels will translate the project’s findings into a travelling stage production. The ensemble will tour through several European countries, including Germany; it will also visit Wuppertal.
For further information, please visit the website of the OPPORTUNITIES project or watch this video on Youtube.
Recent publications of the project:
Gebauer, Carolin, and Roy Sommer. “Crises as Opportunities – For a Fair Narrative on Migration.” BUW.OUTPUT 27.1 (2022): 30-35.
Gebauer, Carolin, and Roy Sommer, eds. Migration and Narrative: Key Terms and Concepts. Wuppertal: University of Wuppertal, 2021. [Glossary of the OPPORTUNITIES project 101004945 – H2020.]
Sommer, Roy. “Migration and Narrative Dynamics.” In The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory, edited by Paul Dawson and Maria Mäkelä, 498–511. New York, NY and London: Routledge, 2022.
Sommer, Roy. “Narrative Dynamics and Migration: Centrifugal vs. Centripetal Forces.” Wuppertal: University of Wuppertal, 2022. [Working paper of the OPPORTUNITIES project 101004945 – H2020].
The OPPORTUNITIES-project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement n°101004945.
