Reckoning with refugeedom, 1919-75: refugee voices in modern history

'Ours has been the century of departure, of migration, of exodus, of disappearance: the century of people helplessly seeing others, who were close to them, disappear over the horizon', according to the late cultural critic John Berger as the 20th century came to an end. Developments in the new millennium only serve to reinforce this observation. This challenges us to consider what happened when refugees 'disappear[ed] over the horizon', and how refugees came to know themselves in displacement. How did they express themselves, in what forum, by what means and in what kind of register? On the basis of what knowledge did refugees make claims on institutions, on one another, and on non-refugees? Did they present as victims, marginalised and erased from history, or as deliberative agents? How far did refugees become historians of their own displacement, seeking to gain the 'recognition' of one another and of posterity? These questions have been sorely neglected by historians, such that refugee crises continue to be de-historicised, contributing to the widespread public perception of refugees as mere flotsam. Conceived as a refugee-centred perspective on the modern era, this project proposes a bold, timely and original approach, drawing on hitherto unexplored personal testimonies of women and men and on interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives to lay stronger foundations for refugee history.

'Reckoning with refugeedom' addresses these questions through an original programme of intense, critical archival scrutiny, making refugees' voices from the relatively distant past accessible to scholars and the general public. The project will disentangle the complex connections between refugees' 'small stories' and broader historical narratives. Our research will consider refugees' voices in relation to changing forms and practices of external intervention by governments, inter-governmental organisations and non-governmental organisations that political scientists characterise as the 'refugee regime'. The project breaks new ground by: accessing the perspectives of refugees from different backgrounds, primarily through petitions and letters to those in positions of authority, but also by incorporating personal correspondence and other kinds of source material; considering how refugees found ways to speak out, how they engaged with the history and circumstances of their displacement; and assessing how they understood and negotiated the personal and political consequences of 'being refugee'. The project will thereby extend the concept of a refugee regime to encompass what the PI has termed 'refugeedom'.

Four linked case studies will reflect different moments in the evolution and operation of refugeedom in the critical half-century following the creation of the first international refugee regime by Fridtjof Nansen in 1921. One study focuses on refugees reaching France between the two world wars ('the League of Nations refugee regime'); one on Displaced Persons in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War (the 'pre-UNHCR era'), one on the enlarged internationalised refugee regime during the 1950s and 1960s ('early UNHCR'), and one from India in the aftermath of Partition ('non-UNHCR'). The research agenda is designed to capture and account for similarities and differences in refugees' modes of expression and in the basis of claims for recognition and support in distinct contexts and under different refugee regimes.

The project's geographical, linguistic and chronological scope requires input from an integrated team of researchers. In addition to disseminating our research through joint workshops and publications, we shall improve public awareness of refugees as deliberative actors and create new resources for public exhibitions and performances involving refugee and asylum seeker artists. We shall jointly promote impact through close engagement with NGOs and refugee arts and advocacy groups in the UK, France, Poland and India

Our impact activities have been developed in partnership with ArtReach which since 2000 has worked with over 200 clients including arts venues, galleries, museums, musicians and visual artists. ArtReach produces Journeys Festival International (JFI), a platform for refugee artists to raise their profile nationally and internationally. We shall incorporate a series of activities around JFI and also work with small professional theatre groups in India and Poland. These activities will specifically:
(a) enhance the profile of refugee and asylum seeker artists in the UK, and extending this internationally
(b) improve public awareness of refugee histories through performances, conversations and exhibitions
(c) contribute to policy debate and informing public opinion about refugee voices

The following suite of activities summarises our impact programme:

Activities with arts organisations and refugee artists
Led by the PI, we shall work with the experienced team at ArtReach to link up with refugee/asylum seeker artists to develop new performance pieces. We shall prepare the ground through a series of coffee shop conversations advertised by ArtReach and on social media, in order to facilitate an exchange of views between refugee and asylum seeker performing artists, refugee support organisations and charities, and members of the public. These drop-in events, hosted by Gatrell, Nowak and Dowdall in turn, will discuss project findings and solicit responses in a non-academic setting. Findings will then feed into 15-20 minute responsive performances, e.g. pop-up pieces with local facilitators and refugee artists in Manchester and thereafter in London and Leicester. Success of impact will be judged according to feedback from artists and audiences, to be collected and collated with help from ArtReach. ArtReach has partnerships with users in Rome, Budapest, Hamburg and Palermo, and we can draw on this experience to inform our engagement with cultural organisations in Poland and India. Strefa Wolnoslowa (SW) is a Polish professional theatre dedicated to inter-cultural and inter-generational dialogue and has agreed to collaborate with Nowak in its creative activities with refugees. In India, Ghoshal will partner with Satabdi-Badal Sircar, which stages plays in areas with migrant and refugee families; they will mount small-scale productions into which project refugee testimonies are woven. In each case, team members will be responsible for collecting and collating feedback.

Exhibitions
In the UK we shall host a series of small exhibitions, again in collaboration with ArtReach, drawing upon its experience of working with refugees who tell the 'small stories' behind the headlines. The first exhibitions will be held at the University of Manchester and at the Central Reference Library, and subsequently at the Visitors' Centre, UNHCR Geneva. It will be designed to appeal to all ages, and will include letters, drawings, memory books and other objects from the archives we have used, subject to permission from copyright holders. Success will be gauged according to audience size and feedback to be collected by ArtReach and UNHCR.

Contributions to policy debate and public opinion
We shall generate research summaries and briefing papers for policy experts and refugee advocacy organisations and NGOs, by co-authoring outputs for UNHCR's New Issues in Refugee Research (Gatrell and team) and MSF (Dowdall). Nowak's research will engage with the Polish community in Britain where her contacts are already strong and whose appetite for history is immense. Research impact activity in West Bengal and Assam will contribute to policy discussions around the revision of clauses, terms and conditions for citizenship. One means of judging impact here will be the publicity given to these debates by research undertaken by Co-I Ghoshal.