Local Community Experiences of Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey
Nedhal uses art not just as a method of recovery from trauma and pain, but as a means of showing solidarity and welcome to new arrivals, a way of connecting with people who have experience of displacement and loss, and to bridge the gap between people from different cultures, countries and generations. These are all…
In this post Hanna Schneider and her colleague Israa Sadder share an email exchange in which they discuss conducting research with Syrian refugees living in Jordan. The exchange describes the relationships developed both between researchers and intermediaries, and between researchers, intermediaries and their interlocutors. These research relationships raise multiple questions regarding how working as an…
“We will not die from Coronavirus, but from hunger.” How do state and humanitarian policies further compound the risks that refugees are facing during the Coronavirus pandemic? In this post, Jasmin Lilian Diab examines UNHCR’s response to Covid-19 and the impact of social distancing and isolation policies on Syrian refugees living in Lebanon. Thus far,…
‘The last thing they needed – I assumed – was one more researcher who wanted to ask them questions for an hour of their precious time.’ Following the ultimatum issued by Turkish authorities to unregistered Syrian refugees in Istanbul to leave the city within one month, Hanna Schneider reflects on the ethical and practical considerations…
Objective Enough to Tell the Truth This presentation was given by Dima Hamadmad at the Refugee Hosts International Conference, Without Exception: The Politics and Poetics of Local Responses to Displacement, Dima's presentation examines the importance of language within academic research and the ethics of using dominant narratives, often perceived as objective, but that can decontextualize and ignore…
Refugee Imaginaries: Research Across the Humanities ‘explores how refugees imagine the world and how the world imagines them.’ Through a collection of over 30 chapters, co-edited by Refugee Hosts Co-Investigator Prof. Lyndsey Stonebridge, and written by experts from a range of disciplines, the book places ‘refugee imaginaries at the centre of interdisciplinary exchange’ and ‘demonstrates…
‘Have I been “staring too hard” at my participants’ displacement, neglecting other aspects of their lives?’ In this blog post Wen-Yu Wu reflects on some of the ethical dilemmas and feelings of guilt experienced during her research with displaced Syrian students in Lebanon and Jordan. As a recipient of a ‘Global Challenges’ Scholarship from the…
In this post Refugee Hosts Researcher, Leonie Harsch, reflects on her soundscape of Muslim and Christian spaces in Hamra, Beirut. Harsch includes insights from interviews with members of both religious and secular communities who use these spaces for both humanitarian and religious purposes, and describes how these spaces are conceptualised by local communities. The soundscape…
In this photo essay depicting areas of shared support in Hamra, Refugee Hosts’ researcher, Leonie Harsch, reflects on informal acts of charity or giving. These ‘random acts of kindness’, which enable a fluid transition between categories of refugee and host, migrant and local also explored by the Refugee Hosts project here and here, operate without…
In this blog Professor Alastair Ager, Refugee Hosts Co-Investigator, contributes to our Reflections from the Field series by drawing on his experience of working on the project and his role as a government advisor to highlight the importance of the interface between research and policy. Ager uses the analogy of ‘bricks and visions’ to discuss…
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