Written by Refugee Hosts Co-I, Prof. Lyndsey Stonebridge, took part in BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed series, discussing migrants and refugees with Laurie Taylor.
Prof. Stonebridge discusses her new book, ‘Placeless People’, Writing, Rights and Refugees’ which examines how writers and political thinkers understood and wrote about refugees. The book traces their work from the mid 20th century to the present day, starting on the German/Czech border and ending in Baddawi refugee camp, a key research site for the Refugee Hosts’ project. The book also includes critical reflections on the poetry of Refugee Hosts’ writer-in-residence, Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, whose work you can read here.
In Lyndsey’s participation in BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed series she discusses the work of Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil, who problematized and challenged accepted dominant terminology and ideas relating to refugees, including the idea of universal human rights based on the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights.
Prof. Stonebridge argues that, while the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in theory, recognised what every human being should have, in reality it is unable to legislate appropriately for the rights of refugees. The 1948 UDHR, through focusing on human rights, rather than political or citizenship rights, served to de-citizen people who were, and are, already de-citizenised through their status as a refugee.
Listen to this and other ideas and arguments relating to refugees here:
Prof. Stonebridge’s other recent radio piece can be found here. It discusses Hannah Arendt alongside Frisbee Sheffield and Robert Eagleton, also on Radio 4.
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For writing on this and other topics by Prof. Stonebridge, please see the readings below:
Stonebridge, L. (2016) ‘Poetry as a Host‘
Stonebridge, L. and Qasmiyeh, Y.M. (2017) ‘Time Machine: Stereoscopic Views from Palestine, 1990.‘
Stonebridge, L. (2018) Undoing the meaning of the world
Stonebridge, L. (2019) Memory as Host: Poetry and History in Baddawi
Stonebridge, L and Qasmiyeh, Y.M. Archives of Resistance: Cosmopolitanism, Memory and World Literature
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Please also see the related suggested readings below:
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) Hospitality and Hostility towards migrants: Global Perspectives – An Introduction
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2016) ‘Refugee-Refugee Relationality: Hospitality and ‘Being With’ Refugees‘
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2016) ‘Palestinian and Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Sharing Space, Electricity and the Sky‘
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. and Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2018) ‘Refugee Neighbours & Hostipitality‘
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. and Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2017) ‘Refugee-Refugee Solidarity in Death and Dying’
Qasmiyeh, Yousif M. 2016. ‘Writing the Camp’
Maqusi, S. (2017) ‘Photo Gallery: Baqa’a Camp‘
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