Name: Elisabeth Roura

Nationality: Spain

Graduation Year: 2018 (Cohort 6)

Mobility Path: Ahfad University for Women (Sudan) + Internship IOM Sudan

Current Job: Student Communications Manager at Kiron Open Higher Education.

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Elisabeth's story: 

EMMIR has been an eye-opening experience for me. I was looking forward to studying a program that would bring me to many different countries and would let me focus on the topics I really find interesting. My best

memories are in Stavanger because we had excellent professors and I felt that our group was cohesive and productive. We were very attached to each other and enjoyed trips, activism activities and a lot of events. 

 

To me, the main EMMIR highlight was the experience in Sudan. I lived there for five months and I learned a lot. It was super inspiring to join the regular classes at the university and meet other women from all over Sudan and other African and Arab countries. The courses were on feminism and development, so I could exchange my perspectives with other students and changed my mind on the way how I looked at feminism. During the internship at IOM Sudan, I feel my communications skills expanded and I found many challenges that I had to overcome in terms of my own ethics and having to deconstruct some stereotypes that I was not aware of. Moreover, I am really happy I opened up to my colleagues and fellow students and tried to learn some Arabic and engage to local activities, join day trips to different places, go to family reunions. That helped me grasp the Sudanese culture in a very special way. 

 

I am no longer looking at the world the same way as before. And now I feel I can tell people around me about the complexity of migration and that there are no clear cut conclusions. Coming from an academic background in media studies, I am now more prepared to participate in discussions on migration, diversity and gender studies and be critical towards what I watch or read on the mainstream media. 

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Last update: 2019