Norma Schemschat
Geography
Migration Geographies; Social and Urban Geographies; Queer Geographies; Peripheralization; Arrival Experiences of Refugees in Smaller Localities; Migration futures; Qualitative Methods
Since 2025, I have been a member of the IMIS and currently serve as a postdoctoral researcher in the Lower Saxony research cluster FuturMig, coordinated by Prof. Helen Schwenken. In this capacity, I lead research activities across the network on how and with what consequences knowledge about migration futures is produced and by whom. The project focuses on educational actors, which is why my research will explore actors and practices in political education in peripheral places.
Prior to my affiliation with the IMIS, I was a member of the program group Power, Place, and Difference at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), where I held a postdoctoral position within the EU-funded Twinning project BROAD-ER. My research during this period focused on the informal and grassroots practices of undocumented migrant domestic workers, as well as the theoretical exploration of the intersection between urban and migration dynamics. During that time, I was a guest fellow at the Social Justice working group at Université Grenoble Alpes, and at the MireKoç research lab at Koç University in Istanbul.
From 2019 to 2022, I served as a Marie Curie Early-Stage Research Fellow at the École normale supérieure (ENS-PSL) in Paris, where I completed my dissertation (cum laude) on the arrival and place-making practices of refugees in cities experiencing decline. During my doctoral research at the ENS-PSL, I was also a guest researcher at Cambridge Architectural Research, the Department for Urban and Regional Planning at RTPU Kaiserslautern, and the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.
In addition to my role at IMIS, I am affiliated with the ARC-M migration research center at the UvA, the SCiRN – Shrinking Cities International Research Network, the IMISCOE Standing Committee on Forced Migration Research, and the Center of Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
Before joining academia, I worked for several NGOs and foundations, including Plan International, Greenpeace, and the German Children and Youth Foundation.
Peer-reviewed Articles
- Brill, H., Schemschat, N., Heinhörster, H., Ramos Lobato, I., Neßler, M. & L. M. Hartig (submitted). Revisiting the Concept of 'Left-Behindness’? Spatial Patterns, Narratives, and Local Responses in the Context of Migration. Urban Planning.
- Arfaoui, R. & N. Schemschat (forthcoming) Recomposition des espaces non-métropolitains et accueil des personnes réfugiées en France. Espace & Société.
- Schemschat, N. (2024) From the ‘Former Rubber Capital of the World’ to City of Hope? Refugee Arrival and Urban Transformations in Akron, Ohio. Transatlantica.
- Schemschat, N. (2024) Multiscalar and In/formal: Infrastructuring Refugee Arrival in Disempowered Cities, Urban Planning Vol. 9.
- Schemschat, N. (2024), Hwee-Hwa Chan, Felicity. 2022. Tensions in diversity: Spaces for collective life in Los Angeles. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 264 . Int Migr, 62: 242-244.
- Schemschat, N. (2024). Welcoming. Revitalizing. Re-Growing? The Contested Role of Refugees in Urban Development of Shrinking Cities. Insights from France, Germany and the US. Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales REMI.
- Schemschat, N. (2022) L’agriculture urbaine dans l’ancienne “locomotive du Midwest”: défis et opportunités des stratégies locales de revitalisation dans une ville en déclin de la Rust Belt », Urbanités, Lu, March 2022, online: https://www.revue-urbanites.fr/lu-schemschat-rousseau-beal/
- Schemschat, N. (2021) Refugee Arrival under Conditions of Urban Decline: From Territorial Stigma and Othering to Collective Place-Making in Diverse Shrinking Cities? Sustainability 13, no. 23: 13301. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313301.
- Pinoncely, V. & Schemschat, N. (2021) Être représentée et se présenter : comparaison de la couverture médiatique et des discours institutionnels des villes, Revue Marketing Territorial, 6/hiver 2021.
Book chapters
- Schemschat, N. (revisions). Chapter 18: Urban Shrinkage and International Migration. In: Rath, J. & de Graauw, E. Handbook on Migration and Cities. Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Schemschat, N. (2024) Refugee (Social) Entrepreneurship and Activism in the Context of Urban Shrinkage: The Example of a US-City of Akron (OH) In Ranabahu, N., de Vries, H. & B. Hamilton (eds.) Refugee Entrepreneurship: A Research Companion. Routledge Publishing.
- Schemschat, N. (2022) Refugees in shrinking cities: the role of place and belonging, In Pallagst, K., Cunningham Sabot, E., Bontje, M. & R. Fleschurz (eds.): Handbook on Shrinking Cities. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Other publications
- Schemschat, N. & E. Hessek (2024). Le pouvoir de l’intime : Une approche queer-féministe pour appuyer la capacité d’agir des personnes exilées accueillies hors-métropole. Écarts d’identité.