CERC Migration Chair awarded prestigious STIAS Fellowship

In the first term of 2025, Anna Triandafyllidou and colleagues, Igor Grossman (University of Waterloo) and Faisal Garba (University of Cape Town), will take up fellowships at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) to continue work on the Future of Human Mobility and Migration project, which was the focus of a two-day workshop at CERC Migration in September 2023.

STIAS was established in 1999 as the first institute in Africa to provide a creative space for great minds to incubate new thinking in an interdisciplinary environment. While in residence at STIAS, leading researchers are supported in advancing new ways of understanding complex research problems affecting humanity, and in making new connections and collaborations with other experts from different disciplinary backgrounds and from across all regions of the world, particularly Africa and southern Africa. 

Over the six-week fellowship (external link) , Anna and her colleagues will be immersed in the STIAS environment, with the goal of further developing their understanding of how mobility may affect the future wellbeing of people and the planet. The researchers assert that, while mobility has the potential to advance social and technological innovation and support growth in economic productivity and wealth, it may also exacerbate social inequalities and socio-political tensions. While at STIAS, the researchers will examine questions such as:

• How can Advanced Digital Technologies (ADTs) be harnessed to create greater agency in mobility-decision making and migrant pathways?, and
• What are the ethical and political considerations to ensure equitable use of ADTs in mobility and migration, with a special focus on the digital divide and application of ADTs in government regulation of human mobility?

“The STIAS fellowship is a true honour,” said Anna Triandafyllidou. “The fellowship will provide a rare opportunity to connect with scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds. I am particularly excited about the opportunity to connect with fellows from the broader Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that I feel we need to engage with intellectually much more than hitherto has been the case.”