LSE Fellow Returns from Panama Research Trip: Exploring International Organisations and their Response to the Migration Crisis
At the start of May, LSE Fellow Dr Seila Panizzolo, wrapped up her research visit to the Centro Internacional de Estudios Políticos y Sociales (CIEPS).
CIEPS is located in Panama’s City of Knowledge, a former US base overlooking the Canal’s Miraflores locks and now a national and regional hub for science and international organisations, including major UN agencies. This infrastructure is also at the heart of Seila's research in Panama.
Seila presented her research to colleagues at CIEPS with a talk titled 'Regions of International Organisations: between hubs and margins'.
Seila said:
"My presentation discussed both my findings on the City of Knowledge, and the current phase of my project about migration in Latin America and the Darién.
"Colleagues of CIEPS and other organisations use the City of Knowledge space every day to come to work and sometimes as residents. Therefore, this presentation took a particular value because it touched my audience directly. My key argument is that a visual analysis of the evolution of a military built environment is a powerful method for explaining why Panamanian knowledge institutions and international organisations grew closer as a hub.
"At present, my project looks at how regional organisations’ policies from this hub shaped the international humanitarian response in the Panamanian province of the Darién between 2020 and 2024.
"Retracing the physical presence of international organisations at key hotspots in the Darién and what remains of it on the ground today are part of my methodology for approaching international organisations’ response to one of the world's largest displacement crises in recent years."