Professor Paul Statham, director of the Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR), has been awarded funding by the International Research Partnership and Network (IPRN) at the University of Sussex to develop new research on migration flows between Europe and SE Asia with a focus on a) care, wellbeing and retirement and b) marriage, sex tourism and cultural interaction. The institutions involved in the partnership are the Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR) and Mahidol Migration Center (MMC) at Mahidol University, Thailand, as well as the proposed Centre for Innovation and Research in Wellbeing at the University of Sussex.

For more information, contact Professor Paul Statham at Paul.statham@sussex.ac.uk

Dating back to 1984 the exchange involves academic exhanges between Sussex and Peking.

The School of Global Studies (University of Sussex) and the China International Electronic Commerce Centre have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of developing a collaborative relationship between members of the TRODITIES research team, and staff and experts at the Centre. The China International Electronic Commerce Center (CIECC) is an government agency operating under the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, that develops electronic information projects. 

For more information, please see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexasiacentre/partnerships/ciecc

The University of Sussex and the Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of developing a collaborative relationship between members of the TRODITIES research team, and staff and students at the College. In order to enhance this collaboration two staff members of the Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College have kindly agreed to sit on the advisory board of the TRODITIES project, as well as on the international advisory board of the Sussex Asia Centre.

The University of Sussex and the L.N. Gumilyov National Eurasian University have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of developing a collaborative reasearch and teaching relationships between members. For more information on the university and possible avenues for collaboration please contact Professor Marsden.

Professor Magnus Marsden is involved in a project on 'Islam in Kazakhstan: traditions and modern tendencies' at the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University's Department of archaeology and ethnology. The project is funded by the Ministry of education and science of Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan (http://www.aku.edu/aboutaku/akuataglance/Pages/home.aspx/). Research partners in RESEARCH CONSORTIUM ON EDUCATION AND PEACEBUILDING (http://learningforpeace.unicef.org/partners/research-consortium/) and ESRC/DFID Poverty Alleviation Grant on the role of teachers in peacebuilding.

Professor Raminder Kaur is part of the dwelling & Crossing network based at the University of Bergan.  See: http://mumbai.b.uib.no/

The European Commission has awarded Sussex Asia Centre's Director, Professor Magnus Marsden, an European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for a project entitled Trust, Global Traders, and Commodities in a Chinese International City. The ERC Advanced Grants Scheme is designed to allow exceptional research leaders to pursue ground-breaking research. The project's central focus will be on Yiwu, a dynamic city of 2 million in China’s commercially vibrant Zhejiang province. Yiwu is known by traders from countries including Afghanistan and Syria, Ukraine and Mexico, and the UK and Russia as the world’s hub for the wholesale of ‘small commodities’. Magnus Marsden and the project's team will explore the ways in which transnational trading activities are conducted in Yiwu, and document the city's connections to the wider world through networks and flows of people, commodities, and knowledge. It is anticipated that the project's findings will yield new perspectives on the precise ways in which trade facilitates the simultaneous exchange of commodities, practices, ideas, and identities.

The project team is made-up of a team of postdoctoral researchers and scholars from the University of Sussex, the University of Cambridge, Royal Holloway University of London, and the University of Copenhagen.

See: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/global/yiwu

The School of Global Studies (University of Sussex) and the Cross-Cultural Studies Unit at the Department of Regional Studies ToRS (University of Copenhagen) have signed an ERASMUS agreement to promote staff and student mobility. A key intellectual aim of the agreement is to foster cooperation in the study and teaching of the so-called 'Silk Road', both in terms of its historical and contemporary manifestations. The collaboration arises out of the TRODITIES project that is directed by Professor Magnus Marsden, and funded by an ERC advanced grant. A team of scholars, including Dr Vera Skivrskaja based at ToRs, is exploring the socio-economic dynamics of Yiwu, an international trade city in China's Zhejiang Province, and documenting its significance for modern Eurasian trade networks and routes. Both the Cross-Cultural Studies Unit and ToRs more generally are home to regional specialists with expertise directly relevant for to the study of the Silk Road. It is also anticipated that the agreement will facilitate cooperation with Danish scholars working on the Middle East, China, Modern India, Russian Studies , and religion more generally. The University of Sussex Asia Centre was established in 2015 and aims to promote the study of Asian connections, circulations, and comparisons.

The ‘Transformative Pathways to Sustainability’ project facilitates exchange of ideas and learning between researchers in Latin America, Europe, Africa, North America and Asia all of whom are applying engaged social science techniques to overcome locally-defined sustainability challenges. It is one of the activities of the Pathways to Sustainability Global Consortium, which STEPS launched in 2015.

This project is one of three ISSC 'transformative knowledge networks' funded by SIDA as part of the Future Earth. It carries out comparative research in six hubs around the world on social transformations in the context of environmental change. It covers three areas, each of which involves two hubs:

a) Sustainable agricultural and food systems for healthy livelihoods - STEPS Centre (UK) and CENIT (Argentina),

b) Low carbon energy transitions that serve the needs of the poor - ACTS (Kenya) and Beijing Normal University (China),

c) Waste and water for sustainable cities - Arizona State University (USA) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (India).

For more information, please contact:

Adrian Ely, SPRU/ESRC STEPS Centre, UK
a.v.ely@sussex.ac.uk

Following the 'Silk Road' partnership development strategy, Professor Magnus Marsden is part of the project New Afghan Men? Marriage, Masculinities and Sexual Politics in Afghanistan. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway. Collaborating institutions include the Chi Michelsen Institute in Bergen and the Peace Training and Research Organization in Kabul.