Sounds from Hamra, Lebanon

Below you can listen to two soundscapes recorded during Prof. Alastair Ager's recent fieldtrip to Hamra, a vibrant neighbourhood in Beirut which is home to a dynamic commercial and social scene in addition to many refugees from Syria. Such soundscapes offer an invaluable entry point to engage in a multi-sensory analysis of the social, economic and political…

Summer Newsletter

Our Summer newsletter is now available to view online. This issue highlights our activities over the summer, as well as our recent Faith and Displacement series, which you can read in full on our website. Please follow the link below for important project updates, including blog highlights and information on recent and forthcoming events: Newsletter…

Thinking and Friendship in Dark Times: Refugee Hosts Co-I Lyndsey Stonebridge Discusses Arendt with Krista Tippet

May 18, 2017: Lyndsey Stonebridge, Professor of Modern Literature and History at UEA, and Refugee Hosts Co-I, has been interviewed by Krista Tippett, of On Being, about the relevance of Hannah Arendt’s work to today’s political challenges. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE. During the interview, Professor Stonebridge reflects on Arendt’s ideas about statelessness and violence,…

Refugee-Refugee Solidarity in Death and Dying

Exhibited as part of the 2017 Venice Biennale, Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Refugee Hosts' PI) and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh (Refugee Hosts' Writer in Residence) were commissioned to co-author this photo-essay for the Tunisian Pavillion's exhibition space, The Absence of Paths. You can see the original publication on The Absence of Paths here, and read Yousif's poem, 'In arrival, feet flutter…

Time Machine: Stereoscopic Views from Palestine, 1900

This March, the Middle East Studies department at Brown University, Rhode Island is hosting an exhibition - Time Machine: Stereoscopic Views from Palestine, 1900 - that invites spectators to become time travellers. Drawing on 100 images taken in 1900 of Palestine and the surrounding 'Holy Land', the collection - curated by Ariella Azoulay and Issam Nassar…

Spring Newsletter

Our Spring newsletter is now available to view online. Please follow the link below for information on the project, including blog highlights, updates and information on how you can get involved: 2017 01 Spring If you have any questions, or would like to get involved in the project, please get in touch by visiting our…

Space of Refuge: Opening Night

  On 10th March, the P21 Gallery hosted the Opening Night of Samar Maqusi's remarkable spatial installation, Space of Refuge. Samar is a PhD student at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), whose research in Lebanon and Jordan investigates the spatial production and evolution of Palestinian refugee camps since the 1940s. The installation implements a series of spatial interventions…

Space of Refuge: Installation and Symposium

Between 10th - 15th  March, the P21 Gallery in Somers Town, London will be hosting a spatial installation, Space of Refuge, which has emerged out of extensive fieldwork by Samar Maqusi, a PhD student at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), who has also contributed to the Refugee Hosts blog (see here and here). Samar's research in Lebanon and Jordan investigates…

Q&A with Yousif M. Qasmiyeh

In this piece, which is a re-posting from the Asymptote blog, Theophilus Kwek interviews the Refugee Hosts writer in residence Yousif M. Qasmiyeh about his work, and the themes of displacement, exile and belonging that inform his poetry and writing. Read Yousif's poetry for the Refugee Hosts project here.  Q&A with Yousif M. Qasmiyeh  By…

Urban Warfare, Resilience and Resistance

Urban Warfare, Resilience and Resistance: Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi (2015) by Dominic Davies, University of Oxford How can different kinds of cultural performance and production reconstruct new forms of social cohesion across cities scarred by physical and psychological boundaries? Comics (often known in an academic context as ‘graphic novels’), are becoming an increasingly popular form through…