Cambridge Refugee Week 2024
Conference "Location: Global"
Thursday, 20th of June 2024
10.00 - 18.00 Alison Richard Building (Sidgwick Site), University of Cambridge
Coordinated by Cambridge Refugee Hub
Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement
University of Cambridge
June 20 is the World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees. Join us for an engaging programme of research and public events across Cambridge. This event brigns together a diverse array of academics, activists and community members, this event is open to all. It engages with the diversity of refugee experiences in an effort to uphold refugee rights. The event is free and all welcome.
Please also join us for our event on June 22nd 2024: Community Arts Festival.
Agenda
9.30 - 10.00 Registration & coffee
10.00 Welcome
Tugba Basaran, Convenor of the Cambridge Refugee Hub
10.10 – 11.10 Global Cambridge & Refuge
This panel will provide an overview of some of the on-going initiatives at the University of Cambridge.
Cambridge, City of Refuge 1933 - 1995, A historical perspective
Mike Levy
Forgotten Conflicts? Afghanistan
Marissa Quie, Sociology, University of Cambridge
English Mentoring for Refugees
Jonathan Birtwell, King's College London
International Conflict Task Force/ Sanctuary
Renata Schaeffer, Public International Partnerships
Chaired by: Tugba Basaran, Convenor Cambridge Refugee Hub
11.15- 12.15 Mental health &. education initiatives in South Asia
This panel will provide an overview of some of the on-going initiatives in South Asia.
Myanmar desk & mental health
Eolene Boyd-MacMillan, Cambridge Public Health
Refugee education in Bangladesh
Steve King, Cambridge Partnership for Education
Prospect Burma, education, scholarships
Joanna Barnard, Prospect Burma
Mental health & social media in Myanmar
Charlie Artingstoll, Sin Sin Bar
Chaired by: Eolene Boyd-MacMillan, Cambridge Public Health
12.15 – 13.15 Lunch & CUP Books Exhibit
Film "Under My Chin" and Q&A
13.15 - 14.15 Medical and legal partnerships for the care of displaced populations in the UK
In this panel discussion we will hear about the roles that both the medical and legal profession play in the care of displaced populations in the UK. The role of the legal profession in providing for the needs of the displaced and the collaboration between the legal and medical profession will begin the discussion. We will further examine the challenges faced by healthcare professionals in outreach work providing care for those placed in hostels, detention centres and hotels whilst navigating restrictions and limitations set by the Home Office. The panel will also examine the challenge of displaced populations themselves accessing healthcare within the NHS to meet their needs and campaign work being done to make access free and equal.
David Rhys Jones, Forrest Medico-Legal Services
Ilana Mira Sluckin, Patients Not Passports
Rebecca Philipps, Patients Not Passports
Chaired by: Syira Ahsan, GP Outreach
14.20 - 15.20 Refugee Education: Access in Brazil, England, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
What are the educational experiences of refugee people across different countries in the global north and south? We will discuss the various legal approaches countries have adopted in welcoming refugees and how these approaches have affected their ability to access education and other essential rights. Our presentations will focus on Brazil, England, Jordan, Lebanon, Australia and Turkey, delving into their educational policies and practices, young people's experiences and perspectives, and learning outcomes. Moreover, we aim to analyse the North-South refugee education research divide and the comparative educational experiences of refugees. We will also discuss language acquisition and integration, educational interruptions, and barriers refugees encounter to remain in education. Furthermore, we will examine the contradictory policies and discourses that frame education as essential yet create circumstances where refugee people have difficulty accessing and remaining in education.
Decolonizing Knowledge: An Analysis of the North-South Schism in Refugee Education Research
Cyrine Saab, Cathrine Brun and Maha Shuayb, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Schooling Experiences and Outcomes of Refugee Children in Lebanon, Turkey, and Australia: A Comparative Longitudinal Study
Mohammad Hammoud and Maha Shuayb, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Education, migration and ‘integration’ policies meet lived experiences: perspectives from Brazil and England
Jáfia Naftali Câmara, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Chaired by: Jenny Mander, Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge
15.20 - 15.40 Coffee Break
15.40 - 16.40 HomeArt – participatory arts with migrant and refugee women in the East of England
This project aims to capture migrant and refugee women’s stories through the arts, using feminist participatory methodologies. Through a series of women-artist led workshops, migrant and refugee women explore the concept of home through various art forms, including, music, painting, crochet, collage, photography. The purpose is to identify how their narrative changes and evolves through the artistic processes, how homemaking is organised and practised in contemporary everyday life. Homemaking practices as expressed through art-based workshops, capture conceptualisations and meanings of ‘home’ that create a type of informal learning that goes beyond the confines of the physical space of the home into the new place of residence, linking it with notions of citizenship and social inclusion. By bringing a specific ‘practice’ approach and using visual methodologies to examine women’s narratives, we aim to bring a unique view on how women, as artist home-makers, represent and re-create themselves.
Adriana Sandu, Anglia Ruskin University
Azadeh Fatehrad, Kingston University, London
Hattie Morgan, CEO Women's Resources Centre
Suzan Murad, project coordinator
Chaired by: Adriana Sandu, Anglia Ruskin University
16.45 - 17.45 Citizens, Borders, Displacement: Views from Classics and Philosophy
Discussion of refugees is often narrowly shaped by the social sciences. This panel aims to broaden this perspective by including perspectives from two Humanities departments: Philosophy and Classics. We aim to encourage broader reflection on how we understand citizenship, borders, displacement, refugees and inclusion through past and present engagements with the issue.
Sarah Fine, Philosophy, University of Cambridge
Tim Whitmarsh, Classics, University of Cambridge
Anastasia Christophilopoulou, Classics, University of Cambridge
Chaired by: Frisbee Sheffield, Classics, University of Cambridge
Bios
Mike Levy is an independent researcher currently working for Anglia Ruskin University and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. He was chair of the Harwich Kindertransport memorial committee and holds a fellowship in Holocaust Education with the Imperial War Museum. His book, 'Get the Children Out - Unsung Heroes of the Kindertransport' includes the work of the Cambridge Refugee Committees just before and during the war. His current research for ARU focuses on refugees who came to Cambridge from Chile, Vietnam, Argentina and Poland.
Panel: Mental health and education in South Asia
Steve King is Head of Europe, Central Asia and Pakistan, Education Reform at the Cambridge Partnership of Education. He has led the Cambridge partnership with UNICEF in Bangladesh to assist with the provision of education for Rohingya children. He currently also works closely with the Ministry of Education and Science in Mongolia and with government agencies and development banks in Pakistan to guide education authorities with their education transformation agendas. He has alsp been involved in the development of the Uzbekistan Presidential Schools that were established to provide a world-class education to the country’s most talented and gifted students. In June 2021, he was awarded a public service medal by the Ministry of Public Education of Uzbekistan for his contribution to the development of the education system.
Dr Joanna Barnard has over ten years of experience working to support development outcomes in Myanmar. Joanna graduated from St Catharine's College, Cambridge with first class honours in Geography. She completed an MA and PhD at University of Nottingham, focusing on Myanmar’s healthcare, economy and governance. In 2014 she moved to Myanmar, working firstly in the Political Section of the EU Delegation, then as Research Director for an international business advisory firm focused on emerging markets. In this latter role she worked across real estate, construction, energy and telecommunications. She has travelled extensively in the country and region. Joanna joined Prospect Burma, a UK-registered higher education charity as Development Lead, managing projects funded by the ILO, UN agencies and the US Department of State. She took over as Executive Director in 2023, managing the UK and local teams and providing strategic direction in the fast-changing post-coup environment.
Charlie Artingstoll is a social entrepreneur and runs Sin Sar Bar, a social change organisation in Myanmar . He graduated in Politics, Psychology and Sociology from King’s College in 2014, and moved to Myanmar, where he lived until 2021. He speaks and can read and write Burmese. His speciality is project management and ways in which creative artist advocacy — use of social media influencers, and creative content such as illustrations and animations — can be used to influence and educate people’s opinions on public issues, such as mental health, human rights and financial literacy, for example. He has also started two watch companies - Burma Watches and Siam Watch Company - that work with local artisans in Myanmar and Thailand respectively.
Panel: Medical and legal partnerhships
Dr Syira Ahsan, GP Outreach, focuses on the displaced and asylum seeker populations. Working clinically with outreach services, Dr Ahsan has an extensive background in providing comprehensive care to this community. Dr Ahsan established an award-winning outreach service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service provided essential healthcare, dental care and connected with local charities to leverage the power of sports for mental health support and to facilitate family reunification. In addition to her outreach work, Dr Ahsan serves as the Safeguarding Lead for four Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs), ensuring the protection and safety of patients within these facilities, which crosses over into the Outreach work
David Rhys Jones, lawyer, has worked in field of asylum law since 1986. He worked at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture from 2002 to 2010 and was the co-author of the Foundation’s Methodology Employed in the Preparation of Medico-Legal Reports with Dr Juliet Cohen. Since 2010 David has worked for the Helen Bamber Foundation and is now a Senior Legal Officer advising clinicians at the Foundation on medico-legal matters. David is also a Co-Director of Forrest Medico-Legal Services (a CIC). David is a co-author of the chapter in Rix’s Expert Psychiatric Evidence, Second Edition on Reports in Immigration and Asylum Cases, Katona C, Leak A, Rhys Jones D, RCPSYCH, 2021, Cambridge.
Dr Ilana Mira Sluckin, Patients Not Passports, is currently a paediatric registrar at Addenbrookes having graduated from St George’s Medical School, University of London, in 2012. Her paternal grandparents were refugees from Central Europe in 1939 and she grew up with stories from her grandmother highlighting the ongoing struggles faced by refugees. Ilana became involved in the global and social justice movement as well as the climate movement as a medical student in London. As a final year medical student she helped run the Occupy London medical tent and worked closely with homeless people. She is a member of Keep Our NHS Public and has given presentations on human rights abuses by doctors under particular political regimes, global health inequalities, the backdoor privatisation of the NHS and in support of Martha’s Law. As a paediatric doctor she completed a special interest module (SPIN) in Child and Adolescent Mental Health and has worked with many refugee families both in hospitals and in the community.
Dr Rebecca Philipps, Patients Not Passports, is a newly qualified doctor, having recently graduated from Cambridge University Medical School. She co-founded the Cambridge branch of Patients Not Passports in September 2023, and has since been campaigning to challenge the charging of migrants in the NHS. She has an interest in obstetrics & gynaecology, and a particular interest in migrant health, having volunteered with FAST to provide first aid to undocumented people in Calais in 2023.
Panel: Refugee Education
Prof. Cathrine Brun is a human geographer and her research-interests concern forced migration and conflict, housing and home; theory, ethics and practice of humanitarianism. Her approach to research is qualitative and ethnographic with action research as a central way of co-producing knowledge. Cathrine has a PhD in human geography and has worked with forced displacement, disasters and urban development in Sri Lanka, Georgia, Malawi, Uganda, Jordan and Lebanon. Prior to joining the CLS, she was a Professor in Geography at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (till 2015) and the Director of the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) at Oxford Brookes University (on leave from 2021).
Dr. Jáfia Naftali Câmara is from northern Brazil and is a British Academy Research Fellow at the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the University of Cambridge. She earned an AB from the University of California, Davis and an MA from New York University. Dr Câmara holds a PhD in Education from the University of Bristol with a thesis titled “Refugee Youth and Education: Aspirations and Obstacles in England.” She used antiracist and anti-colonial approaches to investigate how young refugees and their families encountered England’s education system. Dr Câmara’s primary research interests are education, including education in emergencies, Indigenous, ribeirinhos and quilombolas’ education, educação do campo, educação popular, language education, migration, and mobilities. She is investigating young migrants’ access to and experiences of education in northern Brazil and Latin America more broadly. Her work explores the intersections of racism(s), class, gender, border regimes, integration discourse and policy, and the coloniality of education at national and global levels. Other areas of interest include critical and anti-colonial perspectives, comparative research, knowledge production, education inequality, and research partnerships.
Cyrine Saab is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Education at University College London with interests in forced migration and learning in everyday life. She is also a module tutor on Urban Sociology at UCL and is currently a British Academy Fellow at the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the University of Cambridge. Prior to her doctoral study, she worked for three years as a research assistant on large-scale projects that look at educational experiences for refugees in Lebanon. In her research, Cyrine draws on a practice-based approach combined with an urban lens to study the street practices taken up by refugee children, such as selling small goods or collecting recyclable materials on Beirut streets to forge their livelihoods – a growing phenomenon following the Syrian refugee crisis in 2011 and Lebanon’s more recent compounding crises. Through an ethnographic-inspired methodology, she explores how these children legitimize the available social and material resources in their everyday lives to develop a sense of familiarity on the street and also culturally learn how to evolve their work and grow their income.
Dr. Maha Shuayb is the Director of the Centre for Lebanese Studies since 2012 and an Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. Prior to that, she was a Senior Fellow at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. Maha has a Ph.D. in education from the University of Cambridge. She is a founding member and the former president of the Lebanese Association for History. She is also a co-founding member of the Disability Hub, a collective initiative that aims to promote research and advocacy around disability in the Arab World. Maha’s research focuses on the sociology and politics of education, particularly equity and equality in education, and the implications of inequalities on marginalized groups such as refugee children and persons with disabilities. Her research interests also focus on curriculum and educational reform in Lebanon. Maha has numerous publications on education.
Mohammad Hammoud is a senior researcher and British Academy Fellow working on the British Academy Programme on Education in Conflict and Crisis at the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. His recent research is based on a comparative longitudinal study of refugee children residing in Lebanon, Turkey, and Australia. He examines refugee education provisions across three national contexts that offer different legal settlements, using longitudinal quantitative and qualitative data on education in conflict and crisis. In his Ph.D. research, Mohammad investigates refugee children’s social integration, language difficulty, and the relationship between language and integration under EIE versus longer-term legal settlements. Mohammad’s research mainly focuses on topics of education, migration, economic development, and political participation. He has substantial experience working with quantitative data, empirical modeling, and various econometric estimation techniques.
Panel: HomeArt
Dr Adriana Sandu - Anglia Ruskin University
Adriana’s passion for social justice began in post-communist Romania in the early 1990s when she graduated with a 1st Honors Degree in Social Work and Sociology from Bucharest University. Following her PhD in Public Administration from Syracuse University where she explored aspects of gender and ethnicity (focused on Roma families), poverty and health inequality in rural Romania. Adriana moved to the UK in 2006. Her research continued to address aspects of poverty, discrimination and social justice, with particular focus intersections of gender violence and ethnicity among migrant communities. Adriana joined ARU in 2010 and has since developed an extensive teaching and research experience in social work and social policy, focusing on gender, home and migration. Her work is influenced by poststructuralist feminist theories, using visual ethnographic and arts-based methods aiming to create belonging in inclusion within our diverse communities.
Dr Azadeh Fatehrad – London Kingston University
Dr. Azadeh Fatehrad's research, artistic, and curatorial practices focus on migrant homemaking and the politics of integration. Her extensive participatory research projects have been developed in collaboration with diverse communities of migrants across three host societies: the UK, Sweden, and Denmark. Having successfully delivered over 40 participatory workshops in the past two years, she is the co-founder of "Herstoriographies: The Feminist Media Archive Research Network" and serves on the editorial board of the MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture Journal at the University of Gothenburg.
Panel: Citizens, Borders, Displacement: Views from Classics and Philosophy
Anastasia Christophiloulou is Senior Curator (Ancient Mediterranean) of the Fitzwilliam Museum. She is responsible for research and exhibition projects and permanent displays in connection with the museum’s Greek, Cypriot and Roman collections. Anastasia’s core research interests are in the Archaeology of the Mediterranean and of the Mediterranean islands, with emphasis on the cultures of the Aegean and Cyprus. She is particularly interested in questions of island identity, mobility and migration in antiquity – questions associated with the research project she is leading on ‘Being an Islander’: Art and Identity of the large Mediterranean Islands’. Other interests include anthropological perspectives to interpreting material culture, as well as the application of visual anthropology in documentary film. Her full staff profile can be found on the Fitzwilliam Museum website here and the Department of Archaeology website here.
Links to Cambridge Refugee Hub and the Refugee Week 2024 community event on the 22nd of June. Here our last year’s line-up for the conference.
If you would like to volunteer or support the Cambridge Refugee Week, register here: Cambridge Refugee Week 2024. To join the mailing list of the refugee hub, register at ucam-refugeehub. To contact us, please e-mail refugees@humanmovement.cam.ac.uk.