About
Founded in 2018, the Media+Migration Lab (M2Lab) is a platform for multimedia projects engaging thinkers, writers, media-makers and the broader community to open up fresh pathways of creativity and dialogue about migration. Housed in the School of Media Studies at The New School in New York City, the lab is steered by student researchers and fellows who co-lead the lab with Dr Sumita S. Chakravarty. The M2Lab has its beginnings in its ongoing foundational project, Migration Mapping, launched in 2016 as a living digital archive for media and migration.
Using the prism as a guiding metaphor, M2Lab focuses on the processes and conditions of alternative world-building. Our multimedia projects participate, directly or obliquely, in the larger cultural conversations about immigration, belonging, identity, culture, and citizenship. They explore geographies of difference through the ethic of interactivity inherent in stories. By tapping into the enabling power of stories, we hope to build, over time, models and prototypes of the prismatic consciousness.
To contribute to the M2Lab, please find out more by scrolling down to the "Become a Contributor" section below.
Instagram: @migrationmapping
Facebook: @mediaandmigration
Twitter/X: @migrationmappng
Email: chakravs[at]newschool.edu
Lab Leads
Past Research Assistants
Become a Contributor
Sinha Memorial Fellowship
The annual Bishwanath and Sandhya Sinha Memorial Endowed Fellowship at the School of Media Studies in The New School is a year-long funded graduate research assistantship in the area of Media Studies, with an emphasis on the intersections between media and migration. The Sinha Fellow will be affiliated with the Media+Migration Lab to run projects such as the Migration Mapping digital archive. Depending on the selected student’s interests, opportunities for Fellows include creating or curating multimedia projects about media and migration for the M2Lab platform, writing short media analyses or reflections on migration, pursuing networks and collaborations, maintaining and managing digital databases, engaging in online outreach efforts, and organizing on-campus events.
This endowed fellowship was established by Dr Sumita S Chakravarty to honor the memory of her parents, Bishwanath and Sandhya Sinha, and their deep love of learning. Prof. Chakravarty says of her parents: “They were incredibly kind, generous, and loving people. They were also very forward-looking and open-minded. I cannot think of a better way to share their legacy than to extend it to coming generations of our students.”
The fellowship is open to M.A. students at The New School studying in Media Studies or related programs. Applications are now open for the 2024-25 academic year, please click here for more details.
Project Submissions
We accept proposals for innovative media projects year-round. Email chakravs[at]newschool.edu with your proposal specifying the project format, alongside your CV and bio. Accepted projects will be hosted on the M2Lab website, with the M2Lab team providing editorial and technical assistance in presenting the project in its most ideal form online.
These projects may take the form of text, sound, video, images, and any other combinations of digital media that may be hosted on this website. We advise you to take a look at past M2Lab projects to get a sense of how such projects may be experienced online. These projects should address themes such as:
State and Nationalism
– Borders
– The rise of new nationalisms
– Identity and nationalism
– Media policies of inclusion/exclusion
Infrastructures of Migration
– Detention centers
– Places of refuge
– Migrants in the educational system
– Papers, please: documents and discrimination
– Climate migration and migratory ecologies
Data and Migration
– Information gathering
– Interview techniques
– Surveillance systems
– Mapping identities
– Migration and AI
Migration and Creative Thought
– Migration and contemporary art
– Identity and representation in media (literature, films, sound, games, etc)
– Linguistic fusion and confusion
– Migration of media
If instead, you have an idea for a media analysis article that examines specific pieces of media and its relationship to migration, click here to view the submissions page for Migration Mapping.
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