2025 CRS Summer Course Program, Climate Migration Futures

For over two decades, York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies has run an internationally acclaimed, non-credit professional development Summer Course that brings together practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to learn together about the most pressing forced migration and refugee issues.

All participants who complete the full course receive a York University Centre for Refugee Studies Summer Course Certificate.

Please note, in order to participate in the Summer Course, you must apply on our website, https://www.yorku.ca/crs/programs/summer-course/. Acceptances will be sent on a rolling basis until April 25, 2025.

The nexus of climate change and human mobility is rapidly transforming, demanding new, innovative research that anticipates the challenges and impacts of the coming decades. Climate Migration Futures: Shaping the Research Agenda for 2050 challenges conventional approaches and pushes the boundaries of how research can support our response to climate-induced migration. This cutting-edge summer course focuses on bold, forward-thinking research priorities and methods that can help to address the framing of climate migration, the governance of climate migration, ethical strategies for climate adaptation and relocation, and envisioning climate migration in 2050.

Leading international academics will provide introductory keynotes on themes critical to climate migration research. Participants will engage with case studies and research findings from climate frontlines, exploring how research scenarios address these questions and reveal both successful interventions and the unintentional, but often time intentional, creation of new vulnerabilities.

Through an immersive combination of expert-led sessions, collaborative design-thinking workshops, and innovative scenario planning, the course will help to: 1) redefine the research agenda on climate migration; 2) explore what research is needed to tackle the impacts of climate migration; 3) advance the appropriate research methods that can inform policy development.

Learning outcomes of this course will empower participants to:

• Redefine Research Approaches: Develop innovative frameworks and methods to address the challenges of climate migration, focusing on resilience, climate justice, and ethical adaptation strategies
• Enhance Policy and Governance Understanding: Explore the intersection of language, governance, and human rights in shaping adaptive policies and addressing vulnerabilities
• Foster Collaborative Visioning: Engage in scenario planning and interdisciplinary collaboration to envision transformative solutions for climate migration by 2050

This course is designed for scholars, policymakers and practitioners who are ready to push the boundaries on current research thinking and praxis, bridging interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary tools to address the current and unforeseen factors that will define climate migration by 2050. Participants will leave prepared to advance a transformative research agenda rooted in resilience, climate justice, and innovation in the face of global climate change impacts.

Host or Publisher Centre for Refugee Studies, York University