Here you can find all the reporting and resources from the ENLIGHT Thematic Network “B-MOVE: Beyond Migration: Organisms, Matter, Voices, Ecologies” that is running between 2025-2027. Please contact daniel.mossberg@cemus.uu.se with your questions.
ENLIGHT is a European university network to promote equality, increased quality of life, sustainability, and global engagement through higher education.
CEMUS in Bratislava: Experiencing B-MOVE along the Danube in Slovakia
In March, three of us from CEMUS, Ankit Jajoo, Isabela Villamizar Ariza and Udesh Fernando, course coordinators at CEMUS, took part in the ENLIGHT Thematic Network (ETN) “B-MOVE: Beyond Migration: Organisms, Matter, Voices, Ecologies” workshop in Bratislava Slovakia, hosted in collaboration with the ENLIGHT partner university, Comenius University Bratislava.
Part of the wider ENLIGHT network, B-MOVE brings together students, researchers, and educators to explore migration and mobility beyond human-centred perspectives, connecting ecological processes with cultural and creative practices.
Learning with the river
The workshop unfolded as an immersive outdoor learning experience where participants directly engaged with the Danube River, particularly at the irrigation project of the Danube River on the outskirts of Bratislava and then in the inland Danubian floodplains near Bodíky.
First we were guided at different parts of the irrigation project where we understood the larger context of the Danube water management project and its multiple uses. There we also understood the ecological impacts of this large scale project and how it continues to contest with nature.
We were fortunate to be accompanied by Mirko Bohuš and all the experts rallying on the project, who shared their deep knowledge of the Danube ecosystem with great passion. Mirko, drawing on his expertise as an ornithologist and a Danube conservationist, introduced us to bird species, their migration patterns and behaviours, and how they adapt and thrive within expanding floodplain forests.
We also explored the differences between native forest ecosystems and monocultures, opening up discussions on biodiversity, land use, power, and ecological resilience.
Movement, ecology, and immersion
Rafting through the branching waterways of the Danube, we experienced mobility in a tangible way. Navigating the river’s side channels required attention, coordination, and trust, making the idea of “movement” something lived rather than abstract. Through the experience of movement this larger immersion in the Danube made us realise and connect our theoretical know-how of how development, energy requirements, water needs, power and adaptation come into play in diverse aspects.
The guided immersions created space to reflect on our own relationship with nature, not as something separate, but as something we are constantly moving within and shaped by. Learning from each other, sharing our lived experinces and connecting that knowledge to the goals of this project was also a great experience that enabled co-learning ambitions.
Connecting policy, landscape, and imagination
Alongside field-based learning, the workshop introduced broader European frameworks shaping sustainability work today. Through in-house lectures and discussions, we engaged with the European Green Belt Initiative, the New European Bauhaus Initiative and Nature Based Solutions, exploring how ecological restoration, cultural heritage, and design intersect across the region.These perspectives highlighted how environmental and social transformations are deeply interconnected, linking local ecosystems like the Danube floodplains to wider European visions for sustainable and regenerative futures.
Art as a way of knowing
The workshop concluded with a visit to the Danubiana Art Museum, where we reflected on how sustainability and ecology can be expressed through artistic practice. Engaging with the exhibitions opened up alternative ways of representing environmental change, where storytelling, visual art, and creative expression become tools for understanding and communicating complex ecological realities.
Carrying the experience forward
As part of the ongoing B-MOVE collaboration between Uppsala University, University of Galway, Comenius University Bratislava, and Ghent University, this workshop marked one step in a longer journey of interdisciplinary learning.
For us, it was also an experience of thinking with water bodies, landscapes, and more-than-human life perspectives. Migration in that sense is not merely about crossing borders, but about the constant movement of life, matter, and meaning through the diverse spaces and realities we inhabit.
The ENLIGHT Thematic Network B-MOVE launched
Daniel Mossberg, Lead Outreach and Educational Coordinator at CEMUS, took part in the launch of the ENLIGHT Thematic Network (ETN) “B-MOVE: Beyond Migration: Organisms, Matter, Voices, Ecologies” in Galway February 23-27.
CEMUS is one of the project partners from Uppsala University, and together with the University of Galway, Comenius University Bratislava, and Ghent University, we will over two years explore the project’s themes through a series of workshops, a summer school, blended intensive courses, host an exhibition, and establish new collaborative platforms. The project is coordinated by Dr. Bianca Cataldi, University of Galway.
ENLIGHT is a European university network to promote equality, increased quality of life, sustainability, and global engagement through higher education.
About B-move
The ETN “B-MOVE – Beyond Migration: Organisms, Matter, Voices, Ecologies” guides students and scholars in the ENLIGHT network towards an interdisciplinary exploration of migration and mobility beyond human-centric perspectives. At the intersection of ecology and culture, B-MOVE reframes migration not only as a political challenge but as a multispecies, material and environmental phenomenon. This broader perspective enables students, scholars and creative practitioners to examine how the movement of people, animals, plants and materials shapes societies and ecosystems from a human and more-than-human perspective.
B-MOVE is anchored in transnational and interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars, artists, students and creative practitioners across the Arts and Humanities (languages, literatures, creative practices) and STEM disciplines (ecology, biology, climatology, animal and plant studies). It actively supports the ENLIGHT flagships “Culture and Creativity” and “Climate Change” by investigating the entanglements between ecological transformation and cultural expression. Creative practices – such as storytelling, ecoart, seed bombing and visual methods – serve both as tools of inquiry and modes of engagement, enabling participants to imagine and participate in shared futures.
The network involves staff from four ENLIGHT universities (University of Galway, Comenius University Bratislava, Uppsala University, Ghent University), coordinated by Dr. Bianca Rita Cataldi (Galway), with a core team of lecturers in modern languages, linguistics, literary and cultural studies. The network also involves researchers in the fields of geography, earth science, environmental studies, philosophy, ecoart and Art Science. The team reflects a balanced mix of disciplinary expertise (bridging Arts/Humanities with STEM), supporting the development of joint teaching activities, creative practices and public engagement initiatives.
B-MOVE aims to become a durable community of practice beyond its initial 24-month period. By fostering innovative collaborations across disciplines and institutions, it contributes to ENLIGHT’s mission of integrated, challenge-based learning and research that responds to the pressing challenges of our time.
https://enlight-eu.org/university-about-us/funded-projects/1597-b-move