Shadows and Echoes in/of Displacement

Shadows and Echoes in/of Displacement: Temporalities, spatialities and materialities of displacement by Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Refugee Hosts In line with our project's Spaces and Places not Faces approach to representation, a key question arising in Refugee Hosts is how we can represent, and conceptualise, the 'field-sites' where we are conducting research. Through diverse media -…

Historical Photos of Hamra, Beirut

Refugee Hosts local researcher, Leonie Harsch, has encountered an archive of photos during her extensive mapping of the Hamra neighbourhood in Beirut. In this piece, Leonie reflects on some of these photos, which form the archive of Mukhtar Michel Bekhazi, as a way of approaching questions of hospitality, refugee-host encounters and 'the local'. In particular,…

Mobility, Hope and the ‘Appropriation’ of Space: Reflections from a PhotoVoice Project

Typically, photographs of and about displaced peoples focus on individual suffering victims, acts of individualised resilience, or tropes that resonate with the wider genre of humanitarian narratives. As a result, the Refugee Hosts project has adopted what Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh has termed a "Spaces and Places, Not Faces" approach to refugee-photography. As Michelle Lokot explores in…

Photographing Religion and Displacement: UNHCR’s 30 Days of Faith

Introductory reflections by Prof Alastair Ager, Refugee Hosts Co-I (Queen Margaret University) and Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Refugee Hosts PI (UCL) Humanitarianism is marked by a commitment to principles of impartiality and neutrality. Agencies have often shied away from engagement with religion and its role in the lives of refugees for fear of compromising these principles. However, religion is not just…

‘Refugees. Present/Absent.’ Escaping the traps of refugee (mis)representations

In this piece, Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek explores the problematics of photographic representations of singular suffering refugees and their impact on political discourse in Poland. In a challenge to this, Dominika reflects on her own approach to representations, reflected in her "Refugees. Present/Absent" exhibition, which sought to focus on the materiality of everyday experiences and the refugee journey as a…

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…

Invisible (at) Night: space, time and photography in a refugee camp

by Dr. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, UCL and PI of Refugee Hosts Invisible (at) night: space, time and photography in a refugee camp If our perceptions of refugees’ experiences of displacement were based on photographs produced and disseminated by the UN, NGOs and the media, we could be forgiven for assuming that refugees’ daytimes are either seemingly…

Call for Submissions: Write for our Representations of Displacement Series

Call for Submissions: Representations of Displacement  We invite individuals or groups to submit pieces, including art, photographs, creative writing and academic research findings, for inclusion in our upcoming series on Representations of Displacement, which will run from September 1 to November 30. About the Series:  This series draws on Refugee Hosts’ aim of disrupting mainstream…

Pictures Speak Louder Than Words: The Impact of Photography on Perceptions of Refugees

Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, PI of Refugee Hosts, will be contributing to a side event of the 69th meeting of the UNHCR Standing Committee. The event will be moderated by Ms. Shahrzad Tadjbakhsh, Deputy Director, Division of International Protection, UNHCR Thursday, 29 June 2017, 13:15 – 15:00 Palais des Nations – Room XXIV Journalists and photographers around the…

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…