Performing memory & memorialising conflict at a distance: innovative approaches to understanding the views of displaced people & receiving communities
Lead Research Organisation:
Birmingham City University
Department Name: ADM Birmingham School of Media
Abstract
The project explores our understanding of global conflict as it relates to the European refugee crisis, which has been framed simultaneously as a humanitarian emergency and a security threat. We are examining how this understanding is constructed through media representations, official and popular discourses, and institutional and citizen-led initiatives. In doing so, we wish to explore how people understand both population movement and the role of local, national and European institutions in relation to conflict. We are exploring how this understanding in turn shapes institutional and popular responses in receiving countries, ranging from hostility, such as the framing of refugees by politicians, as 'economic migrants' who are abusing the asylum system; to solidarity, as in grassroots citizen initiatives, using social media to host refuges and send donations to Calais. We are also interested in examining how experiences and perceptions of conflict are remembered and memorialised by displaced people and the role this can play in peace-building and conflict resolution. We are focusing on the UK and Italy as two countries that have experienced mistrust towards European institutions (intertwined with debates around migration in relation to conflict), connected to disaffection with mainstream politics, but where, despite this, there are simultaneously numerous local citizens' initiatives in solidarity with refugees, often organized through social media.
Our project will explore this situation through an interdisciplinary approach in which we apply arts methodologies to social issues. This includes mapping official and media discourses used to construct the refugee crisis in the UK and Italy; mapping citizen initiatives both in solidarity with refugees and those which express hostility towards them; conducting interviews in collaboration with organisations supporting migrants asylum seekers in the UK and Italy; a study of social media responses to the refugee crisis, and a survey of attitudes to the refugee crisis and the role of political institutions. We will also carry out 'critical memory work' workshops for people who have fled conflict. Critical memory work is a method which uses performance and other creative approaches for people to reflect on their experiences and to explore how conflict is remembered and memorialised.
The material gathered from this research will be disseminated to several audiences. We develop publications for academic audiences (a book and several journal articles) and will present our work at conferences. We will also create a report summarising findings for organisations and policymakers. Working with Implicated Theatre (a theatre company with experience in community theatre and participatory arts), we will develop an ethnodrama script. Ethnodrama is a method for incorporating social sciences research findings (quotes, survey data, ethnographic fieldnotes) etc. into a theatrical script and/or performance. The script will be shared with community organisations. The report and ethnodrama script will be translated into Italian to share the results of our research to Italian audiences. At the end of the project, we will hold a public event at Nottingham Contemporary in which we share research findings, and hold a public reading of the ethnodrama script. A smaller-scale parallel event will be held in Italy at an alternative theatre, working in collaboration with Cantieri Meticci, a theatre company with experience working with asylum seekers. The material will also be used to develop an online archive which will be hosted by the University of East London as part of their Social Sciences Living Refugee Archive.
Our project will explore this situation through an interdisciplinary approach in which we apply arts methodologies to social issues. This includes mapping official and media discourses used to construct the refugee crisis in the UK and Italy; mapping citizen initiatives both in solidarity with refugees and those which express hostility towards them; conducting interviews in collaboration with organisations supporting migrants asylum seekers in the UK and Italy; a study of social media responses to the refugee crisis, and a survey of attitudes to the refugee crisis and the role of political institutions. We will also carry out 'critical memory work' workshops for people who have fled conflict. Critical memory work is a method which uses performance and other creative approaches for people to reflect on their experiences and to explore how conflict is remembered and memorialised.
The material gathered from this research will be disseminated to several audiences. We develop publications for academic audiences (a book and several journal articles) and will present our work at conferences. We will also create a report summarising findings for organisations and policymakers. Working with Implicated Theatre (a theatre company with experience in community theatre and participatory arts), we will develop an ethnodrama script. Ethnodrama is a method for incorporating social sciences research findings (quotes, survey data, ethnographic fieldnotes) etc. into a theatrical script and/or performance. The script will be shared with community organisations. The report and ethnodrama script will be translated into Italian to share the results of our research to Italian audiences. At the end of the project, we will hold a public event at Nottingham Contemporary in which we share research findings, and hold a public reading of the ethnodrama script. A smaller-scale parallel event will be held in Italy at an alternative theatre, working in collaboration with Cantieri Meticci, a theatre company with experience working with asylum seekers. The material will also be used to develop an online archive which will be hosted by the University of East London as part of their Social Sciences Living Refugee Archive.
Planned Impact
Academic impact:
Beneficiaries include postgraduates and early career researchers and researchers in the fields of Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Migration, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Political Sociology, in the UK, Italy and Europe.
The project will benefit these academic stakeholders through developing new knowledge and insights about perceptions of conflict, particularly those of citizens and displaced people. In doing so, it will address timely and important issues: the European 'refugee crisis' and faith in political institutions, which have implications for the UK, Italy and Europe. The research will develop interdisciplinary, arts-based approaches (drawing on Cultural Studies and Media Studies) and test arts-based methodologies (specifically ethnodrama and critical memory work) and their use in combination with conventional social science methods. This will enable the project to contribute to academic debates in conflict research, and in research methodologies, and also to develop new models for conducting conflict research, which can be shared with postgraduates and early career researchers within research training and professional development contexts.
The project will build links between disciplines (involving research from Cultural Studies, Sociology and Peace Studies) and between organisations (BCU, UEL, University of Pisa, Nottingham Contemporary and the collaborating organisations in the UK and Italy), and will develop the careers and skills of the early career researchers involved with the project, including the P-I, who is an Early Career Researcher and will be mentored by one of the Co-Is (Prof. Gargi Bhattacharyya), and by a mentor based at the P-I's institution (Prof. Paul Long). The research team will also be advised on the specific methodologies by advisory group members Prof. Molly Andrews (on critical memory work) and Prof. Joe Kelleher (on ethnodrama).
Societal impact:
Beneficiaries include: community organisations supporting migrants and refugees; migrants and refugees in the UK and Italy; policy-makers in the fields of community cohesion and of global governance; and representatives of regional, national and transnational political organisations in the UK, Italy and Europe with responsibility for communicating security and humanitarian policy.
The project will benefit community organisations supporting migrants and refugees and policymakers in the UK and Italy by providing evidence, analysis and insights on public and official debates on conflict and migration, citizen responses, and the perceptions and experiences of those who have fled conflict.
The project will also benefit policymakers and representatives of political organisations in the UK, Italy and Europe through the insights developed on popular attitudes towards regional, national and international political institutions, and the relationship between migration, institutional responses to global conflict and political dis/engagement.
Through producing a final report summarising key findings, an online archive, an ethnodrama script and related educational materials, the project will provide research evidence, tools and resources that community organisations in the UK and Italy can use in their work, thus benefitting and potentially changing practice in the voluntary sector.
The project will enhance the research capacity of Nottingham Contemporary through involving Janna Graham (Head of Public Programmes and Research) as consultant in the initial conceptualization, and dissemination and impact activities.
Refugees and migrants in the UK and Italy will benefit through their involvement in a process of sharing and reflecting on experiences of conflict in the critical memory workshops, and memorializing their experiences through the online archive.
Finally, the project will contribute to public awareness and understanding of migration and conflict through sharing insights and key findings.
Beneficiaries include postgraduates and early career researchers and researchers in the fields of Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Migration, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Political Sociology, in the UK, Italy and Europe.
The project will benefit these academic stakeholders through developing new knowledge and insights about perceptions of conflict, particularly those of citizens and displaced people. In doing so, it will address timely and important issues: the European 'refugee crisis' and faith in political institutions, which have implications for the UK, Italy and Europe. The research will develop interdisciplinary, arts-based approaches (drawing on Cultural Studies and Media Studies) and test arts-based methodologies (specifically ethnodrama and critical memory work) and their use in combination with conventional social science methods. This will enable the project to contribute to academic debates in conflict research, and in research methodologies, and also to develop new models for conducting conflict research, which can be shared with postgraduates and early career researchers within research training and professional development contexts.
The project will build links between disciplines (involving research from Cultural Studies, Sociology and Peace Studies) and between organisations (BCU, UEL, University of Pisa, Nottingham Contemporary and the collaborating organisations in the UK and Italy), and will develop the careers and skills of the early career researchers involved with the project, including the P-I, who is an Early Career Researcher and will be mentored by one of the Co-Is (Prof. Gargi Bhattacharyya), and by a mentor based at the P-I's institution (Prof. Paul Long). The research team will also be advised on the specific methodologies by advisory group members Prof. Molly Andrews (on critical memory work) and Prof. Joe Kelleher (on ethnodrama).
Societal impact:
Beneficiaries include: community organisations supporting migrants and refugees; migrants and refugees in the UK and Italy; policy-makers in the fields of community cohesion and of global governance; and representatives of regional, national and transnational political organisations in the UK, Italy and Europe with responsibility for communicating security and humanitarian policy.
The project will benefit community organisations supporting migrants and refugees and policymakers in the UK and Italy by providing evidence, analysis and insights on public and official debates on conflict and migration, citizen responses, and the perceptions and experiences of those who have fled conflict.
The project will also benefit policymakers and representatives of political organisations in the UK, Italy and Europe through the insights developed on popular attitudes towards regional, national and international political institutions, and the relationship between migration, institutional responses to global conflict and political dis/engagement.
Through producing a final report summarising key findings, an online archive, an ethnodrama script and related educational materials, the project will provide research evidence, tools and resources that community organisations in the UK and Italy can use in their work, thus benefitting and potentially changing practice in the voluntary sector.
The project will enhance the research capacity of Nottingham Contemporary through involving Janna Graham (Head of Public Programmes and Research) as consultant in the initial conceptualization, and dissemination and impact activities.
Refugees and migrants in the UK and Italy will benefit through their involvement in a process of sharing and reflecting on experiences of conflict in the critical memory workshops, and memorializing their experiences through the online archive.
Finally, the project will contribute to public awareness and understanding of migration and conflict through sharing insights and key findings.
| Title | Online exhibition |
| Description | The online exhibition consists of videos and images developed out of our research, which are hosted in the repository of University of East London's Refugee and Migrant Archive. The materials are in UEL's repository at http://data.uel.ac.uk/216/. These are linked to the project website at http://conflictmemorydisplacement.com/online-exhibition/ |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | There are no impacts as yet. |
| URL | http://conflictmemorydisplacement.com/online-exhibition/ |
| Title | Performance |
| Description | A performance was developed through a collaboration by project participants, Implicated Theatre (a theatre company using Paulo Friere's approach to theatre as popular education. The performance was presented at Nottingham Contemporary art gallery as part of Refugee Week. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | It sparked debate amongst the audience about the experiences of asylum seekers. |
| Title | Performing memories. Performative reading on conflicts, migrations and media |
| Description | "Performing memories. Performative reading on conflicts, migrations and media", is a mise en espace staged in Bologna, on November 10, 2017, based on the results of our ethnographic research with asylum seekers. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | About 30 people attended the first representation of the mise en espace. It sparked debate amongst the audience about the expertise of asylum seekers in relation to conflicts and the reception system, presenting them as active subjects rather than just "victims". Further spectacles are in the program, addressing the specific audiences of reception centres, universities and schools. |
| Description | 1. The mainstream media only covers some of the conflicts in the world. Several conflicts and regions (such as Eritrea or Colombia) receive almost no coverage, or only in relation to people seeking asylum. When there is coverage, there is no context given for the conflicts - news coverage tends to be about day by day military operations, "terrorist" incidents or individual examples of suffering, but little about the history or geopolitics of the region, or the causes of the conflicts. This may lead audiences to feel confused and disempowered. 2. Mainstream media coverage of conflicts is generally filtered through an idea of 'Western interests'. The notion of "Western interests" may vary according to the situation, including the involvement of "our troops" on the ground, the kidnapping or killing of fellow citizens, the impact on "our national security", "our economy", "our access to natural/energy resources", etc. In recent years conflicts, and in particular in Syria, have been represented as of interest to Western audiences because they result in "mass migrations" towards Europe, producing the so-called "refugee crisis". 3. Where direct Western intervention has been a central factor (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya), mainstream media have often presented conflicts as resulting from the failures of 'great men'. In the UK much coverage of the Iraq war returns to the allegedly flawed character of Tony Blair and his personal responsibility for the military intervention. A similar interpretation occurs also in the coverage of Libya, in relation to his rapidly changing relations with the country and its former leader Gaddafi. In Italy, this focus on the flawed personalities of "great men" overshadows any other deeper explanation of ongoing wars. 4. Mainstream media coverage offers almost no route to understanding histories of Empire, i.e. colonialism and neo-colonialism, as a factor in contemporary conflicts and the management of human displacement. In addition, asylum seekers and refugees feel that UK and Italian populations know little about their countries, in general, and about the histories of Empire in particular. They also argue that this absence of knowledge hampers their understanding of the causes of contemporary migration and also reinforces the sense of Western entitlement. 5. While mainstream media sources were consulted by many of the respondents of our survey, people are increasingly looking to alternative news sources in order to understand global conflicts, including social media and news comedy programmes. Both in the UK and in Italy young people expressed suspicion of the media and its "hidden agendas", due to media ownership, and/or political interference. In Italy, the suspicion extends to online content, because of the perceived widespread of "fake news" and the fear of manipulative practices such as clickbait. In general, people chose to consult a range of news in order to piece together accounts that could be verified by multiple sources. In the UK, people use alternative media to 'check' international news, especially from countries that they know or to which they are connected. 6. Global and national institutions are increasingly seen to be ineffective in the resolution of conflicts and the management of human displacement, which produces radical distrust. In the UK, Eurosceptic mainstream media coverage framed European and British foreign aid as supporting corrupt regimes and as conning the British taxpayer. In the Italian mainstream media, the main targets of criticism are EU institutions, who are accused of "leaving Italy alone" in face of unprecedented number of arrivals by sea. This radical distrust was also present in the initiatives studied in our online ethnography. In the UK, local populations who want to help refugees engage in mutual aid practices (such as donating necessities or raising money for charities) in the absence of lack of state support but also to counter perceptions of the British government as uncaring and intolerant. In Italy, critical attitudes to the EU are also present in comments on some Italian Facebook groups of NGOs providing reception to asylum seekers or supporting the establishment of "humanitarian corridors" from Lebanon open to Syrian refugees. In the UK and in Italy, for those with strong anti-immigration views, this radical distrust can be filtered through a conspiratorial frame in which immigrants, particularly from Muslim countries, are seen to threaten social cohesion and governments who let them in as either deliberately or unwittingly facilitating social breakdown. In Italy, popular distrust has extended to NGOs engaged in search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean, as a result of a large media and political campaign (a viral video, posted on YouTube and Facebook by a blogger attacking the "big business" of rescuing and welcoming migrants, has been taken as a case study for this trend). 7. Migrants are stereotyped as tellers of sad stories by the media, the government and the voluntary sector. Both media and the immigration process demand that people present themselves as 'deserving victims' and that they share stories of personal pain. Migrants recognise this but also question the benefits to them of repeatedly retelling their stories to every audience - and migrants are concerned about what will be done with their stories (including by researchers). At the same time, respondents especially in the UK were unwilling to identify times they have had fun, due to the fear that this could be used to undermine their claim to be 'deserving'. In effect, this expectation forces those seeking status to constantly retell their 'story' in order to 'prove' their case to every person they meet. 8. There is a blur between being "made a migrant" and racialisation - and even being a "model immigrant" is no protection against this. However, although many respondents spoke of facing racism on the grounds of how they looked, they also described additional or distinct experiences as a result of their immigration status. In our initial view, the processes of migrantification and racialisation reinforce each other at key moments, but remain distinct. 9. Faith, music, comedy, self-organisation and knowledge of history (including legacies of colonialism and anti-colonial struggles) can be important resources in challenging injustice and dehumanisation. These resources both undo migrantification, by forwarding different ways of being, and provide a politicised critique of Eurocentrism and the limited knowledge within Western society of other parts of the world. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings can be used by journalists in terms of reporting on asylum and international conflicts, particularly in relation to media ethics and the role of the media in informing audiences (particularly important in a climate of populist politics and media distrust). Our survey and interview material is also of interest to journalists in terms of changing habits of media consumption and audience perceptions of international conflicts, and in terms of making links between international conflicts and colonial legacies. Our findings are also of use to community organisations and advocates for refugees, in terms of finding ways for refugees and asylum seekers to make their voices heard in the media and the public sphere. Our interview material in particular includes some useful insights about the experiences of asylum seekers. Our findings are also of use to arts organisations, as we have developed methods for refugees to share their experiences and express themselves creatively in ways that go beyond the stereotypical "sad story" or the testimonial of the migration journey. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://conflictmemorydisplacement.com/ |
| Description | Training/educational developments |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Aims, methods and first results of the research were presented and discussed during a high-level professional development course on the access to rights by asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, organised by the University of Pisa. The course targeted volunteers of NGOs and workers of social cooperatives enroled in the reception system of asylum seekers and refugees in the Tuscany Region. The presentation provided new analytical tools for understanding the link between media/public discourses on conflicts and media/public discourses/attitudes on/towards asylum seekers. It helped volunteers and workers to better understand how several representations of conflicts producing asylum seekers and of the "refugee crisis" influence their daily work and may obstacle the full access of people to their rights. |
| Title | Conflict, Memory, Displacement |
| Description | Conflict, Memory, Displacement explores our understanding of global conflict as it relates to the European refugee crisis, focusing on the UK and Italy. We examined how this understanding is constructed through media representations, official and popular discourses, and institutional and citizen-led initiatives. We explored how this understanding in turn shapes institutional and popular responses to population movement. The project also explores how asylum seekers can offer a collective analysis of the institutional processes of 'becoming migrant', at the hands of the state and members of society. This collection of materials, including slides, images, and video, form an 'online exhibition', which arose from the research project, 'Performing memory & memorialising conflict at a distance: innovative approaches to understanding the views of displaced people & receiving communities', a project funded by The Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (PaCCS), through the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The material in the exhibition (UK) arises from: analysis of UK media; a survey of 130 people; 25 individual interviews; and arts workshops in Birmingham and Nottingham. Research team: Kirsten Forkert (School of Media, Birmingham City University); Gargi Bhattacharyya (Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging, University of East London); Federico Oliveri (Sciences for Peace Interdisciplinary Centre, University of Pisa); Janna Graham (Goldsmiths, University of London) Partners: Birmingham Asylum and Refugee Association (Birmingham, UK); The Women's Cultural Exchange (Nottingham, UK); Implicated Theatre (London, UK); and Cantieri Meticci (Bologna, Italy) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Description | Ethnodrama and performing memories of displaced people |
| Organisation | Cantieri Meticci |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | One of the aims of the project has been to develop alternative accounts of conflicts, displacements related to conflicts and migration governance in Italy. Memories of migrants and asylum seekers have been explored through in-depth interviews and memory workshops. The ethnographic materials resulting from these qualitative inquiries provided inspiration and contents for a mise en espace entitled "Performing memories. Performative reading on conflicts, migrations and media", inspired by the methodology of ethnodrama. The mise en espace has been developed by "Cantieri Meticci", a well established Italian theatrical company with a long experience in working through arts and performances with asylum seekers on highly disputed issues such as migration, labour and sexual exploitation, conflicts, arms trade, etc. |
| Collaborator Contribution | "Cantieri Meticci" supported in many ways the fieldwork of the project. In cooperation with the Italian co-researcher the company: 1. selected 10 people with a migration background from countries experiencing situations of conflicts and violence, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea, Nigeria, Libia, Siria; 2. supported the organisation of the interviews and the memory workshops; supported the analysis of ethnographic materials, including media outlets, pictures, social media related to conflicts and migrations, etc.; 3. wrote the script for the mise en espace of the ethnographic materials; 4. provided the actors and produced the spectacle in its theatrical space in Bologna. |
| Impact | "Performing memories. Performative reading on conflicts, migrations and media", script for a mise en espace staged in Bologna, on November 10, 2017. The collaboration with Cantieri Meticci has been multi-disciplinary as far as the following disciplines have been involved: political theory, sociology of migration, media theory, media sociology, performing arts. The fieldwork with Cantieri Meticci also generated material for a book (under contract with Manchester University Press). |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Global Sistaz United (formerly Women's Cultural Exchange) |
| Organisation | Global Sistaz United |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We shared expertise and contacts, in particular with other refugee groups. We introduced group members to participating in theatre workshops and a performance, and facilitated their involvement in a theatre company. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The participants of the group (who were all asylum seekers) shared their experiences of the asylum system, and their treatment by the state and British society, as well as their analysis on the conflicts they had fled. This generated considerable data and insights for the research. |
| Impact | The data and insights from the group generated a theatrical performance at Nottingham Contemporary as part of Refugee Week, and a theatrical script, as well as several conference presentations. They also generated material for a book (under contract with Manchester University Press). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Article for 'The Conversation' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | I co-authored an article for 'The Conversation' with the other members of the research team (Gargi Bhattacharyya, Janna Graham and Federico Oliveri) based on the key findings of our research project. The Conversation is a news website which shares academic research for a general audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/nobody-is-born-a-migrant-but-its-a-label-people-on-the-move-struggle-to-... |
| Description | Book launch event for 'How Media and Conflicts make Migrants', organised by Manchester University Press |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I and the other researchers involved with this project, along with Victoria Mponda, one of our project participants, took part in an online book launch organised by Manchester University Press, the publisher of our book based on this project, 'How media and conflicts make migrants'. 65 people attended the event. A number of participants asked questions in the event, and we also answered questions over email about the book. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiUa3fGpf_Q |
| Description | Migrants, NGOs, the Italy-Libya Memorandum, the EU, Frontex: what is going on in the Mediterranean? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The roundtable was been organised by the Sciences for Peace Interdisciplinary Centre - University of Pisa on October 3, i.e. the National Day in Remembrance of Victims of Immigration. All the invited speakers addressed in a critical way old and new trends in the border and migration management in the Mediterranean. A special attention has been devoted to the role played by civil society in opening "humanitarian corridors" for asylum seekers from Sirya to Italy, thus avoiding to expose people to the risk of death at sea and feed the business of smugglers. The impact of the media on public discourses related to conflicts, migrations and the reception system has also been addressed. Many questions have been raised to the speakers and a fruitful discussion has developed, trying to find alternative approaches to the "migration crisis". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Panel discussion on our project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The research team organised a panel discussion at the Connected Communities conference in London about the key findings of our project, as well as the issues we encountered in the research process. The audience for the project was a mix of academics and practitioners, including refugee organisations, refugees, and undergraduate and postgraduate students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Pirate Care conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | 2 members of the research team (Kirsten Forkert and Janna Graham) and one of the participants and members of one of the partner organisations (Victoria Mponda) presented a paper on our research, along with a presentation on the Azamba Project related and initiatives to support refugee women. The event was a conference entitled 'Pirate Care' at Coventry University. The audience and participants were a combination of third sector organisations (including those supporting migrants and refugees) and academics. A group on Facebook has recently been set up for participants to share ideas and collaborate. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://pirate.care/blog/tag/conference/ |
| Description | Presentation at the Rights and Might conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The presentation consisted of a talk about the research findings at the Rights and Might conference at the University of Westminster, as part of a panel discussion on using creative methods in migration research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation for " World in Transition. In-between Performing Arts and Migration" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We presented a paper on our research at A World in Transition. In-between Performing Arts and Migration. The conference took place in Bologna (Italy), organised within Atlas of Transitions Biennale.There were about 150 people attending the whole conference, and 75 attending the panel where we were involved, mostly from European and African countries. We received many questions about our project and requests to be informed about our forthcoming book based on our project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://bologna.emiliaromagnateatro.com/spettacolo/a-world-in-transition-in-between-performative-arts... |
| Description | Research Presentation on challenging stereotypes of refugees |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A presentation took place about the research project for colleagues, postgraduate and undergraduate students. This sparked questions about the stereotyping of refugees and migrants as "tellers of sad stories", and discussions about alternative ways of representing refuges and migrants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | The (post-)truth about migrants. The case of an Italian viral video on search and rescue operations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The paper has been given at the annual conference of the European Communication Research and Education Association - Diaspora, Migration and the Media Section, entitled "Migration and communication flows: rethinking borders, conflict and identity through the digital". The conference was held in Bilbao, at the University of Basque Country, on November 1-2, 2018. My paper explored the role that social media played in Italy in the popular understandings of the "refugee crisis", including deaths at sea, Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, the governance of the asylum system, and the role of EU institutions. In order to shed some light on these points, I focused on a short video posted on March 6, 2017 by a blogger, reaching so far about 2,5 million and 400,000 views on Facebook and Youtube respectively. Emphatically entitled "The truth about migrants", the video argued that SAR operations by NGOs increase deaths in the Mediterranean and systematically feed the "business" of asylum seeker reception. Arguments of this kind are not new. Since the Italian "Mare nostrum" operation, politicians at national and EU level have claimed that the presence of rescue boats close to the Libyan coast functioned as a 'magnet' and tempted smugglers to send larger numbers of migrants in increasingly unseaworthy vessels, thereby boosting the overall death toll. Despite data showing that SAR operations reduce mortality risks (or conversely, the absence of SAR operations leads to more deaths), and has little effect on the number of arrivals, this controversy periodically reappears Italian debates, usually in connection with arguments denouncing high costs of SAR and asylum system as a whole. Especially after the corruption scandal "Mafia Capitale", involving cooperatives working in this sector, it became common to denigrate organizations in charge of reception as "making money on migrants". Against this background, I tried to explain how this video became viral by using "data" in order to confirm the most popular common places on the "refugee crisis", and mixing in a very sophisticated way an apparently evidence-based approach with a substantial conspiracy frame. More in details: I mapped the diffusion of the video, including through mainstream media, and the efforts of debunking it; I applied social media categories (citizenship vs. mainstream journalism, echo chambers, emotion dynamics, etc.) to the video and its comments in order to understand its impact; I reconstruct its main frames which distorted the meaning of the "evidences" presented. The session was attended by at least 40 people, mostly media researcher, activists and practitioners. The paper raised questions and debates on similar trends in social media use in other EU countries dealing with the "refugee crisis". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |