PARTICIPANTS AND ABSTRACTS (alphabetical order)

Patty Abozaglo, Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre,  Ireland
Case Study on the Application of the Principles of Trauma Informed Approach (T.I.A) in the Glencree Welcomes Refugees Project Implemented between August 2022 and November 2023.

The  significant increase in the number of refugees arriving in Ireland is posing great challenges to those forced to flee, to seek protection  in this country. In addition, the systems and services provided by the State and private sector accommodation providers as well as statutory and voluntary sector staff supporting refugees are  coming under increasing strain . This situation has an impact on those involved at various levels including their physical and mental health and their social interactions in and with new cultures.  The paper will explore the use of the Capacitar International Multicultural  Wellness and Trauma Healing Programme as an education model offering transferable skills  for the practical application of the principles of a Trauma Informed Approach (TIA)  (Substance Abuse and Mental HealthServices  Administration -SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma -Informed Approach ( https://store.samhsa.gov/product/samhsas-concept-trauma-and-guidance-trauma-informed-approach/sma14-4884)  in seventeen Wellness and Relaxations Sessions held with refugees and Staff working in agencies, organisations and institutions, part of the Glencree  Welcomes  Rufugee Project. Taking the six Trauma Informed Approach principles, the paper will explore the application of these  principles, including the needs for safe and brave space in  a relaxing environment: reducing levels of stress and restoring energy as well as contributing to address some possible primary and secondary trauma manifestations, creating a sense of balance and wellness in a  trusting and supportive surrounding. Feedback and evaluation has shown that  participants felt listened to and were able to express, feel and sit in with their emotions in a non-judgemental environment.  In addition to data already collected,  a reflective practice approach and participatory methodology through  a questionnaire and unstructured interviews will be used to capture and present participants perceptions and reflections.

Patty Abozaglo has over 20 years’ experience in international development in Ireland and internationally. Between 2014 and 2020 she worked as Adjunct Faculty-Maynooth University Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention as a lecturer and researcher. She published research on Collective Trauma in conflict scenarios: A scoping study published by the Edward Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University (2017-2020). She is a certified Mediator by the MI, and a certified CINERGY Conflict Management Coach, as well as a Capacitar International Board Advisor and Capacitar Ireland Board Member.

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Ms Pinar  Aksu, The University of Glasgow, Scotland 

Access to Education in Migration: Using the Law and Solidarity to Create Change, Our Grades Not Visas 

Accessing higher education for people seeking asylum and refuge is one of the barriers to rebuild a future while navigating the immigration system. Although Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights indicates, ‘Everyone has the right to education’, reality for many asylum seeking and migrant students differs significantly. Young people who are currently in the asylum system and migrant students could not access home tuition fees in Scotland, leading to being excluded from education. Those who completed their secondary school education cannot continue to further education and left in isolation while their peers start university degrees. ‘Borders’ within education institutions show the further discrimination students experience while they apply to higher education. The recent legal action with the ‘Jasim vs Scottish Ministers’ [2022] case and campaigning in Scotland, ‘Our Grades Not Visas’, led to significant legislative changes within the education system. From August 2023, the children of people seeking asylum, unaccompanied asylum seekers and migrant students can have access to home tuition fees in Scotland. These changes highlight the possibilities of creating an alternative environment within education institutions while the Illegal Migration Act 2023 has been recently passed. This paper examines the connection between law and creativity in advocacy and changing policies for people seeking asylum, unaccompanied asylum seekers and migrant students in Scotland. Highlighting the impact of being denied to higher education while navigating the immigration system and how institutions can create possibilities. 

Ms Pinar Aksu is a third year PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow, a theatre maker and Human Rights and Advocacy Coordinator. Her research explores ‘Art and Law in migration: using art practices for social change and access to Justice’. She is interested to find connections between solidarity, art, justice, and the law. Within her role, Pinar is involved with campaigns and projects supporting people seeking asylum and refuge, promoting integration and human rights. Current campaigns include Right to Work-Lift the Ban, ending hotel detention and access to Education. Pinar is also involved in using theatre and creative methods to create social change. 

[email protected] 

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Mr Kutaiba Al  Hussein, OLIve Education Association, Hungary

Solidarity with Displaced Students Within and Beyond the Classroom 

The primary focus of my presentation will be on the topic of solidarity with displaced students within and beyond the classroom. Throughout my academic journey in Europe, which commenced in 2016 with the Open Learning Initiative (OLIve-weekend) in Budapest, I have observed distinct categories/types of solidarity. These range from positive types, such as Emotional, Temporary, and Solid solidarity, to negative ones as Superficial, Corrupted, and Unsustainable. I would highlight in the presentation the impact of each of these types on the displaced students based on my experience at OLIve weekend, OLIve-Up, Central European University (CEU), until now.

Mr  Kutaiba Al Hussein ’s connection with OLIve began in 2016 when he participated as a student in the first OLIve weekend program launched in Budapest. In 2017, Kutaiba enrolled in OLIve University Preparatory Program, enabling him to complete his L.L.M in international business law at Central European University. Since then, he has been actively involved in OLIve, serving in various roles such as administrative assistant, mentor, and coordinator. Kutaiba is a co-author of a chapter titled “Our Voice” in the book “OPENING UP THE UNIVERSITY: Teaching and Learning with Refugees.” He also participates in several conferences, discussing solidarity and access to higher education for refugees. In addition to his volunteer work with OLIve, Mr Al Hussein currently holds a position as a regulatory expert at OPL gunnercooke.

[email protected]

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Mr Michael Blaney, Queen Margaret University, Scotland 

Freedom Bridge: Male refugees’ Quest for a New Life in Ireland 

This presentation is based on research conducted in 2018 which explored the lived experiences of a cohort of 26 men who had been through the Direct Provision (DP) system and were now living in the community.  The research applied an ethnographic approach, including a period of five months of fieldwork.  The research question asked, “What role does employment play in the integration of refugee men in Ireland?”.  Direct quotes from the participants will lead the presentation offering a window into the men’s lives and experiences as they sought to integrate and settle in the Republic of Ireland. Five focus groups and ten 1-1 interviews were conducted to examine the men’s experiences.  In addition, five 1-1 interviews with stakeholders were also conducted; four employers and one academic.  The theoretical framework was provided by the Indicators of Integration (Ager & Strang, 2008, Ndofor-Tah et al., 2019).  Data were considered through the lens of masculinity using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to understand the men’s experiences of integration. Several key themes emerged from the findings, with the lasting and detrimental effect DP had on them a dominant factor throughout.  There was a sense of shame, and many felt the DP system had tainted them impairing their ability to find full-time work and thereby settle and integrate into the community.  They often worked in low-paid, low-skilled jobs below their capabilities, and many gave accounts of experiencing micro-aggressions on a daily basis.  The study showed that all aspects of their experiences during and after DP diminished their identity and had a significant effect on their masculinity.  Moreover, because they were unable to find steady work, they constantly struggled to provide for themselves and their family.  Overall, the data revealed the men were not integrated in any meaningful way, resulting in a prevailing sense of unbelonging. 

Mr Michael Blaney commenced an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer (City & Guilds) in 1979 and worked for over 20 years; mainly in food and drink industry + 5 years repairing 125 diesel locomotives.  He studied criminology with the Open University (2007), earned an MSc in Social Policy in Cork, Ireland (UCC) (2009).  Between 2009 and 2016 he was employed as researcher at UCC in the Dept of Applied Social Studies and Tutor with Adult Continuing Education. He also does voluntary out-reach work with asylum seekers in Cork. In 2016 he started PhD research at the Institute of Global Health & Development, QMU. His research question is “What role does employment play in the integration of refugee men in Ireland?”  His supervisors are Dr Alison Strang (retired), Ms. Oonagh O’Brien, And Dr Marcia Vera-Espinoza.  

[email protected] 

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Dr Sarah Carol, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Fear in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the West Bank 

COVID-19 has caused disruptions of social relationships and put individuals’ socio-economic well-being at stake by increasing fear, anxiety and stress. We focus on Palestine, as it is a country that has repeatedly been shaken by instability and conflicts. While the situation is already difficult enough for majority-group members, minorities are even more vulnerable, particularly Palestinian refugees. Living in overcrowded households, the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths tended to be higher than among non-refugees in Palestine. 

We have collected novel data that cover 250 refugees from eleven camps across the West Bank in 2022 and 250 refugees in 2021 as well as a comparison group composed of 800 majority-group members (non-refugees). Our aim is to assess refugees’ fear and worry about their own health and the health of their loved ones since the pandemic compared to majority-group members, over time and across social strata. To assess the fear and worry, we rely on the item “Which of the following describes how you are coping and responding to COVID-19? Are you fearing and worrying about your own health and the health of your loved ones?” Overall, we see that the level of fear among Palestinian refugees has gone down between 2021 and 2022. However, the level of fear varies significantly across refugee camps. In addition, we observe gender differences with females and older people being more likely to be worried. While we do not observe a direct link between discrimination and the likelihood to worry in the combined samples of majority-group members, we see a marginally higher likelihood to worry if refugees report higher levels of discrimination. Overall, about half of the refugees in our sample indicate an increase in discrimination, which is higher than the average. Thus, perceived discrimination adds to the pandemic strains and results in a cumulative disadvantage. 

Dr Sarah Carol is Assistant Professor in Sociology at University College Dublin. She earned her doctorate from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In her research, Sarah focuses on ethnic inequalities covering topics such as well-being, health literacy, discrimination, and social integration. Her work has been published by Routledge, Social Forces, Frontiers in Public Health, International Migration Review and many other journals. In 2018, she won the Distinguished Sociology of Religion Journal Award. Her findings have been featured on international media platforms such as Deutsche Welle, Arte, Hurriyet and phys.org. 

[email protected] 

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Dr James Carr, University of Limerick, Ireland & Dr Nasrin Khandoker, , University College Cork, Ireland 

Anti-Muslim Racism, Gender and the Development of Counter Strategies 

The last decade has witnessed a developing literature charting the growth of Islamophobia in Ireland (Carr 2015; Carr and Ryan 2022). This paper adds to this by elucidating the realities of anti-Muslim hatred in Ireland drawing from new research findings derived from the Sustainable Alliances Against Anti-Muslim Hatred (SALAAM) project, focusing in this paper on the role of gender in experiences of this phenomenon. Various scholars have highlighted that Muslim women experience anti-Muslim racism at rates significantly higher than Muslim men (Alimahomed-Wilson, 2020; Carr, 2016; Hammer, 2013; Hopkins, 2016; Keddie, 2018; Mirza, 2012; Perry, 2014; Zine, 2006). The term "gendered Islamophobia" (Zine, 2004) emerged within these works as a means to understand the asymmetry between Islamophobic violence towards men and women. While the term has often been deployed to explain the asymmetry of experience, racialised representations of Muslim men as violent and oppressive have been insufficiently considered, treated instead as a 'gender-neutral' facet of anti-Muslim racism. The research findings presented in this paper, informed by the perspectives of Muslim communities (n=193) from four Irish cities demonstrate that the gendered aspect of anti-Muslim racism is not only a matter of exacerbated violence on Muslim women, instead, gendered ideas of Islam and Muslim men and women exist at the core of anti-Muslim racism. This paper will conclude by providing broader insights from the SALAAM project work with Muslim communities and local municipal authorities designed to challenge anti-Muslim racism through the development of counter strategies in educational practices, public awareness campaigns and political engagement platforms. 

Dr James Carr is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Limerick. In 2016, James published his book Experiences of Islamophobia: Living with Racism in the Neoliberal Era (London and New York: Routledge), focusing on anti-Muslim racism in Ireland. In addition to scholarly articles, James has also published research with the Immigrant Council of Ireland ('Islamophobia in Dublin: Experiences and how to respond'); and has authored the European Islamophobia Report for Ireland (2015-2021). In 2022, James was awarded funding from the European Commission for his project: Sustainable Alliances Against Anti-Muslim Hatred (SALAAM) which runs until 2024. 

[email protected] 

 
Dr Nasrin Khandoker is a Postdoctoral Researcher in CyberSocial project in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at UCC. Before that, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Sustainable Alliances Against Anti-Muslim Hatred (SALAAM) project at the University of Limerick. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the GBV-MIG project at the University of Galway and as an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University. In addition to a Master’s degree from the Department of Anthropology, Jahangirnagar University, she was awarded an MA in Gender Studies from Central European University, Hungary, in 2014. She received a Wenner-Gren Wadsworth fellowship from the US and a John and Pat Hume scholarship from Maynooth University for her PhD, awarded in 2021.

[email protected]

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Dr Bronagh Catibusic, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Sanctuary in Response to Forced Migration: Language and Intercultural Support Through University Civic Engagement 

This paper will explore issues relating to language in the context of forced migration, considering how higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland can create an environment of sanctuary through engagement with displaced people within their communities. In this regard, it looks at how informal language classes can foster intercultural understanding, promote wellbeing, and develop networks of solidarity and support. Learning the language of the host community has been identified as a key factor in the integration of adult migrants, including people who have experienced forced migration. In addition to formal language courses, volunteer-led conversation classes can provide opportunities for authentic interaction and intercultural dialogue. Engaging in meaningful activities in an informal learning environment can also support post-traumatic growth which is particularly relevant in forced migration contexts. Such support is vital as approximately 100,000 Ukrainians and 25,000 people seeking international protection have arrived in Ireland since 2022. This paper focuses on a civic engagement project in Trinity College Dublin providing free English conversation classes for adult refugees and international protection applicants that the author is involved in organising through the University of Sanctuary initiative. These classes, which adopt a trauma-informed approach to learning, are delivered by staff and student volunteers and include learners from a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The paper will share insights from participatory action research which investigates how these classes may support language acquisition and intercultural understanding, enhance learners’ psychological wellbeing, and promote mutual learning among learners and volunteers. It will also report on networks developing from these classes through connections with community organisations in relation to education, employment, and the arts. Finally, it will consider how such civic engagement can respond to the University of Sanctuary goal to create a ‘culture of welcome and inclusion for all those seeking sanctuary’. 

Dr Bronagh Catibusic is an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics at the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. She has extensive experience in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and intercultural education. Her research interests relate to language learning and teaching, and inclusive approaches to linguistic and cultural diversity. Her publications focus on issues including linguistic and intercultural support in the context of forced migration and learning English as an additional language. She has a long record of teaching, research, and community engagement with refugees and migrants in Ireland. She is also a member of the Trinity University of Sanctuary Committee and coordinates its programme of language and intercultural support for refugees and people seeking international protection. 

[email protected]

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Dr Jack Crangle, Maynooth University, Ireland 

Discrimination, Exclusion and Empowerment: Using Oral History to Explore Racism and Identity in Twentieth-Century Ireland 

Twentieth century Ireland is typically portrayed as an ethnically homogenous and exclusively white society. However, people of colour have lived in Ireland for centuries. Hundreds of mixed-race people – of Black African and white Irish parentage – grew up in twentieth-century Ireland, with the majority raised in abusive institutional settings such as mother-and-baby homes and industrial schools. Using a series of oral history interviews conducted in 2023, this paper foregrounds the voices of Irish people of colour, highlighting their unique and often discriminatory experiences of pre-1990s Ireland. It asks how they experienced and remember an Ireland that was still predicated on traditional Gaelic, Catholic (and exclusively white) conceptions of national identity. The interviews showcased here derive from a broader social history project which aims to begin diversifying Irish historiography. Project participants universally described feeling that their Irishness had been questioned, qualified, and rejected. Most were routinely asked questions such as ‘where are you really from?’ and were exoticised by people making sexual comments or asking to touch their hair. They also faced frequent overt racist discrimination, subjected to slurs and physical intimidation. These oral histories reveal the exclusionary effects of such treatment, which often fostered a sense of alienation from Irish national identity. Yet, several narrators instead found empowerment through embracing their Blackness. Others grew increasingly confident in asserting a hybridised ‘Black Irish’ or ‘Mixed Race Irish’ identity, especially within the increasingly diverse Ireland of today. This paper therefore highlights how those processes of identity formation have helped to renegotiate the meaning of Irishness in the twenty-first century. By exploring these themes and foregrounding previously marginalised voices, the paper aims to spark a conversation about racism and diversity in Irish history. 

Dr Jack Crangle is an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at Maynooth University, working on a project called Black Ireland: race, culture and nationhood in the Irish Republic, 1948-95. Prior to this, he worked at the University of Manchester. Jack completed his PhD in Modern History at Queen’s University Belfast. His first monograph is entitled 'Migrants, Immigration and Diversity in Twentieth-century Northern Ireland: British, Irish or 'Other’?' (Palgrave Studies in Migration History, 2022). With an interest in migration, oral history and public history, Jack has published his research in Immigrants & Minorities, Oral History, Irish Studies Review and the Journal of Migration History. He has also written for The Conversation and contributed to various blogs and podcasts. 

[email protected] 

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Dr Veronica Crosbie, Independent Scholar
Universities of Sanctuary: Shining a Light on the H.E. Landscape for Refugees in
Ireland

Forced migration has become one of the key societal challenges facing, in particular,
high income countries, with the perceived threat of the Other, notably people of colour,
giving rise to xenophobic outbursts that have begun to become increasingly normalised.
In Ireland, a country that is ranked 8th in the world on the Global Human Development
Index (UNDP 2022), this is manifested at local community level in protests in response
to emergency accommodation centres being hastily located without due consultation, in
the context of a national housing crisis and a neoliberal political agenda. The media can
be seen to aid anti-immigration sentiment by focusing largely on negative news items,
designed to shock, rather than foregrounding the many acts of solidarity that are taking
place across the country.
Education plays a vital role in fostering cultural values of inclusivity, hospitality and
critical thinking, key elements for countering xenophobia and promoting cosmopolitan
citizenship. In this talk, I will profile the role that Universities of Sanctuary have begun to
play in this context, since their inception in Ireland in 2016, when DCU became the first
institute of higher education to be thus accredited. In a bid to understand the impact that
universities of sanctuaries are having on the lives of refugees as well as the host
institutions, and by extension, the wider society, a study was conducted, led by the
following question: “To what extent are Universities of Sanctuary collectively
contributing towards a more just and equitable higher education landscape in Ireland?”.
Drawing on human development and capability theories, in particular in relation to
creating opportunities for refugees to do and be what they value and have reason to
value (Sen 2009) and for such institutions to be human development friendly (Boni and
Walker 2016), and using a participatory research methodology, a variety of stakeholders
was consulted. The results will be discussed to see the extent to which the network of
Universities of Sanctuary is playing a role in creating and sustaining a culture of
hospitality in Ireland, leading to questions and critique of the direction of these activities.

Dr Veronica Crosbie, a former Assistant Professor in Migration and Intercultural Studies
in DCU and Chair of the MA Refugee Integration, is currently Chair of Places of
Sanctuary Ireland, a network of groups and organisations promoting a culture of
hospitality and integration throughout the country for those who are forcibly displaced.
Veronica was a key player in establishing DCU as the first University of Sanctuary in
Ireland in 2016 and was the founding Chair of the University of Sanctuary Ireland (UoSI)
network. She has conducted Participatory Research projects on refugee integration and
has supervised and examined PhD theses in related areas. Her own doctoral studies
centred on capabilities for cosmopolitan citizenship in higher education and she is a
former co-convenor of the education group of the internationally renowned Human
Development and Capability Association. Veronica contributes to refugee integration at
a local level, through her leadership initiatives including establishing the Phibsboro
Community Sponsorship Group and Phibsboro For All programmes, both inclusive
community-led initiatives to welcome people with migrant and refugee backgrounds into
the neighbourhood.

[email protected]

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Dr Felicity Daly, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Instilling Anti-Racist Practice in Overcoming Social and Structural Determinants of Health Among Vulnerable Migrants in Ireland 

One of the greatest challenges of increased migration in Ireland is providing adequate support to migrants’ health. Our paper explores social and structural determinants of the health of forced migrants in Ireland in the context of current policy. Using an Ethics of Care perspective, we reframe the current policy context towards an anti-racist practice within community health services and care supports.  

Evidence of social and structural determinants of forced migrants’ health in Ireland includes: 

•           Refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland experience high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety among, identifying asylum seekers at higher risk. 

•           Qualitative data on the mental health of migrant women identifies the impacts of traumatic experiences in their country of origin, during migration, and current stressors, particularly asylum seekers’ lack of agency. 

•           Structural conditions in Ireland’s Direct Provision and Dispersal (DP) system, exacerbate mental distress. 

•           Higher levels of self-reported PTSD, depression and anxiety among asylum seekers is associated with the length of time spent in DP. 

•           Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) occurs in DP settings.  

•           While waiting for the State’s decision on an international protection application DP residents experience a complex interplay of cumulative effect of pre- and post-migratory traumas that are precursors of suicidal behaviour   

•           Inadequate COVID-19 pandemic measured in DP were acknowledged by the State as a failure in its duty of care.  

We face an ongoing crisis in protecting and promoting the health and wellbeing of forced migrants in Ireland. Commitments to replace the DP accommodation system and introduce an enhanced module of community healthcare for international protection applicants are stalled. Moreover, to date, we are lacking lessons learned from implementation of Health Service Executive commitments to meet the diverse health and care needs of forced migrants. 

We propose that providers and community practitioners must instil an anti-racist ethic of care. 

Dr Felicity Daly is an Assistant Professor in Global Health at Trinity Centre for Global Health, Trinity College Dublin. She is a Doctor of Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where her thesis examined the participation of health policy stakeholders concerned with the sexual health of lesbian and bisexual women in framing South Africa’s National Strategic Plans on HIV. Prior to joining TCD she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences in the 21st Century at University College Cork on the CARE-VISIONS research project (2020-2023). This participatory project advanced theoretical and practical understandings of the feminist ethics of care to re-imagine care in Ireland. Within the project she worked with migrants' rights organisations to co-create and conduct research with asylum seekers in Ireland to raise their voices around their experiences within and beyond the COVID 19 pandemic. Before moving to Ireland, she was a researcher for the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. During this time, she worked with civil society organisations to co-create an agenda to build evidence of socio-economic inclusion and wellbeing among sexual and gender minority populations in five sub-Saharan African cities. For two decades prior to her academic career, she served in management and leadership roles for international development non-governmental organisations contributing to improve global health mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She also worked extensively as an independent consultant providing policy analysis, programme evaluation and technical advice to UN agencies and non-governmental organisations. 

[email protected]

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 Julie Daniel and Elena Lopez, Dublin City University 

“Conversations to Know a Bit More about the World we Share”: The Mellie Project

 In 2016, in recognition of its endeavours to create a culture of welcome and hospitality for forced migrants, Dublin City University (DCU) was awarded the designation of University of Sanctuary. One of its flagship projects, MELLIE, pairs forcibly displaced persons with DCU students and staff to exchange and to co-write their life stories. As such, it aims to both enhance literacies and foster integration and cultural exchange.In addition to developing linguistic skills, the project creates an hospitable space which, through storytelling and engagement with the arts, stimulates cross-cultural dialogue, the sharing of past experiences and the co-creation of new ones. This year, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, we are expanding to different literacy practices such as Visual Thinking Strategies, a type of slow looking practice (Yenawine2014) to empower the participants' voice, encouraging them to share their social, cultural and civic capital in equality and reciprocity
while engaging in creative experiences with the arts in the museum. Key themes such as ‘Self’, ‘Land’, ‘Hope’ were used to develop the stories with paired participants (host/guest), following a set of guided questions and prompts. Participants also engaged in collaborative
sculpture workshops which  complemented the storytelling activities. This paper’s analysis is grounded in the project participant’s narrative accounts.  It  considers  the challenges and the outcomes of the reciprocal relationship between guest and host, which Derrida calls dynamic and only substantial when put into practice (Derrida and Dufourmantelle, 2000). We
explore the nature of this relationship, how it is built on a constant negotiation between the two parties involved in order to reach a satisfying status quo thus fostering sustainable social integration and social cohesion. Bringing a critical intercultural lens to the discussion (Dasli 2017; Phips 2013; Todd 2015) allows us to also focus on the ethical grounds for intercultural praxis that allows for a ‘radical otherness of the other’ (Esteva, 2022)

Dr Julie Daniel lectures in French, migration and intercultural studies. She is the director of the DCU Sanctuary Mellie project. Her research interests include applied linguistics, interculturalism, education and migration. 

Dr Elena López is assistant professor in Spanish at Dublin City University. She is the coordinator of the new DCU Language and Culture Programme. Her research interests are connected to her academic background and teaching practice and draw on her experience in the field of Art Education, Visual Literacy, Multiliteracy pedagogies, Multimodality, and Applied Linguistics. 

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Ms Naoise Delaney, Mary Immaculate College, Ireland 

An Exploration of Educational Psychologists’ Experience of Working with Children and Young People from a Refugee Background in Ireland 

Children and Young People (CYP) from refugee backgrounds can present with complex needs. They are likely to have been exposed to traumatic events, have to adjust to a new environment while also learning an additional language and adjusting to a new culture (McMullen et al., 2021). Since February 2022, there has been a rapid increase in CYP from refugee backgrounds enrolled in Irish schools. Educational Psychologists (EPs) play a crucial role in supporting CYP who are vulnerable within the school context. EPs provide this support in many ways, such as carrying out assessments to identify educational and support needs, implementing psychological interventions and providing support to school and family to support the needs of these young people (Nastasi & Naser, 2020; d’Abreu et al., 2019). In Ireland, the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) has played a key role in supporting CYP from refugee backgrounds. The importance and demand of this role rapidly increased in February 2022 following the arrival of Ukrainian CYP in Irish schools (Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, 2022). The objective of this research is to identify and explore EPs’ experiences of supporting the needs of CYP from Ukraine and refugee backgrounds in Ireland. By exploring these experiences, the study will highlight what has worked well, any barriers that were faced in this area and whether this work has changed for EPs over the last two years. 

Four participants engaged in individual, in-depth semi-structured interviews. The sample size was in line with the analysis approach of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith et al., 2009; Smith & Nizza 2022). The interview schedule was mapped with Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s (2006) ecological systems theory to explore the different systems that impact CYP’s development while also addressing specific areas that come up for CYP from refugee backgrounds such as trauma and cultural differences. Participants were all EPs working in NEPS who had experience working with CYP from refugee backgrounds. 

Ms Naoise Delaney is from Dublin and in her final year of the Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology in Mary Immaculate College. She completed her undergraduate in Psychology in Maynooth University and her masters in Applied psychology in University College Cork. 

[email protected] 

 
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Dr Iker Erdocia, Dublin City University, Ireland 

Language and Cultural Challenges in the Political Engagement of People of Migrant Origin in Ireland 

This paper aims to explore some of the challenges that first-generation immigrants and their descendants encounter when engaging in political activities. More concretely, it uses the Irish context to empirically investigate the ways in which language influences the political engagement of migrant people with institutional politics. According to the 2016 census, almost 14 percent of the population living in Ireland are non-Irish nationals. However, the level of political engagement of migrant communities is significantly low, and migrants are chronically under-represented within the Irish political system (O’Boyle et al. 2016). For instance, in the 2019 local elections only 56 of almost 1,900 candidates had a migrant background and some of them experienced discrimination and racial harassment (ICI 2020). Research on migrant participation in Irish politics (McGinnity et al. 2020) has highlighted institutional, socioeconomic and motivational factors underpinning imparity in participation in public life. These studies suggest that language may be a factor behind the under representation of migrants in politics. Yet, since language and cultural factors (e.g. the influence of foreign accent and non-standardised English varieties on credibility, lack of shared communicative and interactive norms and expectations, different cultural references, etc.) are not included in these studies, little is known about how and why these two factors may hinder participation in political and civic life. Even beyond the Irish context, this relationship has not been researched thoroughly (Piller 2016).Drawing on theoretical approaches to language and social justice (Skutnabb-Kangas 2015; Piller 2016), the paper analyses the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of linguistic and cultural (de)legitimacy (Reagan 2019; De Schutter 2020). It focuses on the manners in which having English as an additional language shape the (self)perceptions of migrants in their involvement with political organisations and institutions in Ireland. The study uses an intersectional approach to explore the challenges migrant people face regarding political engagement and potential episodes of discrimination based on the intersection of language and culture, gender, race, country of origin, and socioeconomic background. The findings resulting from interviews with participants and stakeholders from both Irish and immigrant backgrounds (local council candidates and councillors, members of political parties, organisations and NGOs, etc.) show the complexity of the interplay between language and the aforementioned factors in the political realm. The results further suggest that invigorating critical attention to language- and culture-related discrimination in migrants’ public life may be a needed strategy to promote a more inclusive, socially egalitarian and cohesive society. 

Dr Iker Erdocia is Assistant Professor and Director of Research at the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS), Dublin City University. He is President of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics and executive committee member of the Language Policy group, British Association for Applied Linguistics. He is a member of the Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society (FuJo), the Centre for Translation and Textual Studies and the Applied Linguistics Research Group in DCU. Iker is involved in public engagement activities as Chair of the Board of Directors of the NGO New Communities Partnership (NCP). Iker's research has been published in high-ranking journals within the fields of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics. He is currently involved in an IRC-funded research project that looks at understanding and overcoming language and cultural barriers in the political and civic participation of people of immigrant origin in Ireland. 

[email protected] 

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Brigittine French,  Grinnell College in Iowa, United States
Locating Feminicide: Racism and Erasure in Latin American Migration to the US 

This paper locates feminicide, the murder of women because of their gender identity, in the discursive and material fields of on-going migration from Latin America to the United States. It focuses on three recent cases, Mollie Tibbets, Sadie Alvarado, and Claudia Patricia Gómez González, as vehicles to examine the ways that feminicide and race are deeply implicated in on-going debates about and processes of migration. It maps the conditions and mechanisms by which violence and racism are erased or come to the fore in the gendered deaths of young women depending upon the social identity of the victims and perpetrators. It uses an anthropological lens to highlight the spaces in which murders of young women regularly occur that link highways and roads to precarity and danger in the 21 st century US landscape. 

Brigittine French is Assistant Vice President of Global Education and Professor of Anthropology at Grinnell College in Iowa, United States. She is the author of three books including: Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity: Violence, Cultural Rights, and Modernity in Highland Guatemala (2010), Narratives of Conflict, Belonging, and the State: Discourse and Social Life in Post-War Ireland (2018), and Anthropological Lives (2020) with Virginia Dominguez. Her work on feminicide has appeared in Ms. Magazine and Salon.com. She is currently writing a book on Maya genocide survivor testimony in Guatemala that focuses on the place of gendered violence and women’s voices in post-conflict justice. 

 [email protected] 

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Dr Niall Gilmartin, Ulster University, Northern Ireland 

Dislocation, Unsettledness, and the Long-Term Consequences of Forced Displacement in Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ 

Despite constituting little more than a footnote or fleeting reference in most accounts of the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles, forced displacement was a central and pervasive feature of the conflict, effecting tens of thousands. While those who lost their homes and communities have long-since resettled and rebuilt lives elsewhere, the long-term consequences of forced movement, however, remain deep-seated and present. Based on in-depth interviews and drawing on the idea of ‘ontological insecurity’, this paper explores how the violent rupture of forced movement in the past continues to manifest in a profound sense of dislocation and unsettledness in the present with regards to identity, place, and belonging. While much positive change has occurred since the GFA, the neglect of displacement as a category of violence and harm within Northern Ireland's peace process, bequeaths a large cohort of marginalised victims and survivors whose conflict-related losses have yet to be recognised, much less acknowledged and addressed. 

Dr Niall Gilmartin is a Lecturer in Sociology at Ulster University and has researched and published extensively in gender and conflict, peacebuilding, gender-based violence in conflict and conflict transition, and dealing with the legacy of violence and harm. He has published articles in several journals including International Feminist Journal of Politics, Capital & Class, International Journal of Transitional Justice and Irish Political Studies. His books include Female Combatants After Armed Struggle: Lost In Transition?; Northern Ireland: A Generation after the Good Friday Agreement (co-authored) and Refugees and Forced Displacement in Northern Ireland’s Troubles: Untold Journeys (co-authored with Brendan Browne).     

[email protected] 

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Dr Egle Gusciute, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Solidarity or Discrimination? A Field Experiment in the Rental Housing Market Examining Discrimination Against Ukrainian Refugees 

Ireland, a relatively recent ‘country of immigration’, has experienced a significant increase in its migrant population, including a recent increase in refugees from Ukraine. The EU’s response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis has been unprecedented in comparison to previous refugee crises. In addition, strong public support has been expressed towards Ukrainian refugees (Drazanova and Geddes, 2022) across Europe. Similarly, to other EU states, Ireland has also taken a different approach to accommodating displaced people from Ukraine in comparison to the current Direct Provision system which is applied to most other international protection applicants. The Irish public has also expressed significant levels of solidarity and support towards Ukrainian refugees. Access to housing is a fundamental human right (UN 1948). In Europe, discrimination in accessing housing towards ethnic minorities is prohibited by international bodies and national legislations. However, despite this there is consistent evidence of ethnic/racial discrimination against ethnic minorities in the housing market across European states (Flage 2018; Auspurg et al., 2019), including Ireland (Gusciute, et al., 2022). This paper presents results from a field experiment in the Irish context which considers the extent of ethnic discrimination towards Ukrainian refugees. The experimental design involved creating fictitious applicants with Irish, Ukrainian and Nigerian names. These applicants applied for vacant rental properties advertised online. The rate of discrimination is measured by the responses received and invitations to view a property by each applicant. Through this experiment I examine whether solidarity expressed by the general public towards Ukrainian refugees translates into reduced discrimination in accessing services such as housing. The paper contributes to the general scholarship on ethnic discrimination and considers the impact of socially constructed ethnic hierarchies as well as the importance of migration status in discrimination towards ethnic minorities. 

Dr Egle Gusciute is an interdisciplinary sociologist interested in migration, discrimination, ethnic minorities, environmental sociology and gender inequality in sport. Her PhD work centred on public attitudes towards migrants and refugees and discrimination towards ethnic minorities in Irish and European contexts. She is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at University College Dublin where she researches and teaches in Sociology of Migration, Race and Ethnicity and Sociology of the Environment/Climate Change. Egle has previously held academic and research posts at University College Cork and the Economic and Social Research Institute. Currently she is working on research which examines ethnic hierarchies in Ireland and Europe and discrimination towards sub-groups of refugees. 

[email protected] 

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Ms Chloe Halsted, the London School of Economics, United Kingdom 

Outmanoeuvring Green and Orange: How Migrants Subvert Sectarian Narratives in Northern Ireland 

This paper examines how migrant communities, and individuals who were born elsewhere but have built their lives in Northern Ireland, navigate the everyday realities of sectarianism.  Using the two main branches of role theory, structuralism and interactionalism, I examine the different conceptions that people in Northern Ireland have of sectarianism in the context of migration. I present the findings of nineteen semi-structured interviews that I conducted in Belfast in 2023 with civil society actors and migrants.  The professional positionality of civil society actors in Northern Ireland enables them to see the systemic influences of in Northern Ireland, prompting a more structuralist understanding of sectarianism as an inevitable feature of life in Northern Ireland for natives and foreigners alike.  Migrants themselves, on the other hand, tend to align more with the interactionalist lens as they selectively counter and dismiss the script of sectarianism in Northern Ireland.  Regardless of age, gender, class, and ethnicity, migrants in Belfast described sectarianism as a sort of family feud, separate from their own lives and not of their making.  This conception undermines dominant sectarian narratives by introducing a new sector of society whose self-identity is deliberately unaffiliated with and consciously distinguished from the traditional binary. Much of sociological research on migration policy has adopted a top-down analytical approach; thus, this paper adds important nuance by exploring the views of migrants in Northern Ireland with lived experience of sectarianism during and after the period known as The Troubles.  Although 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the legacy of sectarian conflict continues to impact nearly all aspects of life in contemporary Northern Ireland.  As a region with a long history of considerable ethno-national and religious sectarian tensions, Northern Ireland offers an interesting corollary to debates concerning the rise of xenophobic rhetoric in Europe.  

Ms Chloe Halsted is a recent graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc in International Migration and Public Policy.  Previously, she has worked at a cross-community family centre in Belfast and as a Care Navigator at the East Boston Neighbourhood Health Centre.  She is a qualified Medical Interpreter in the United States.  Many of her patients have experienced the severe adverse impacts of restrictive migration policies on health and wellbeing.  She currently works as a Parliamentary Assistant to Lord Best in the United Kingdom House of Lords, with a focus on housing policy and legislation.  She is keen to pursue a PhD and future research at the intersection of themes such as migration policy, sectarianism, and conflict studies. 

[email protected] 

 
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Dr Rachel Hoare , Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

‘I was lost in my life and they helped me find my way again’: Befriendee and Befriender Experiences of the Spirasi Befriending Programme for Survivors of Torture in Ireland. 

 
 Research shows that at least 35% of refugees are survivors of torture and this is widely perceived to be a conservative estimate.  As recent figures from the Irish International Protection Office reported almost 14,000 applicants for international protection in Ireland in 2022, it is likely that during this period, approximately 4900 survivors of torture sought refuge in Ireland.  The mission of Spirasi, the National Centre for the Rehabilitation of Survivors of Torture, is to rehabilitate those seeking international protection who have experienced torture, through the delivery of holistic evidence-based, multi-disciplinary models of person-centred care.  One of Spirasi’s rehabilitative services is its befriending programme which offers service users one-to-one companionship from trained volunteer befrienders.
The main objective of this research was to explore, in complementary ways, the impact of the Spirasi befriending programme on befrienders and befriendees and to include their voices in recommendations for optimising the service.  The methodology consisted of four focus groups, one interview with key informants and a portrait workshop facilitated by two community artists (one an asylum seeker herself), where each befriending pair member created a portrait of their partner to express and visually explore the befriending relationship.  The themes identified firmly ground the befriending programme in Spirasi’s holistic approach to recovery, promoting integration; modelling trusting, kind and reciprocal relationships; combatting loneliness and protecting against suicide. The portrait workshop was found to strengthen relationships and provide a context of normality, acceptance and shared humanity through compassionate and creative exchanges. 
This paper highlights the benefits of the befriending programme within Spirasi’s
holistic approach and the importance of collaborative expressive arts activities in
building befriending relationships. It provides recommendations for good befriending
practice which are relevant to all organisations working with survivors of torture as
well as those working with people seeking international protection more broadly. 

Dr Rachel Hoare is a lecturer in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies in Trinity College where she is the Director of the Centre for Forced Migration Studies and has been actively involved for a number of years with University of Sanctuary activities, including most recently, volunteer-led English conversation classes for refugees organised by her colleague Dr Bronagh Ćatibušić and herself.  Rachel is also an expressive arts psychotherapist working on a part-time basis with unaccompanied refugee minors on behalf of Tusla, the Irish Child and Family agency.  Rachel’s research focuses on trauma-informed practice, the impact of friendships on the coping and resilience of refugee youth as well as the benefits of expressive arts practice. Rachel has delivered numerous trainings on how to work in a trauma-informed way with refugees including to the UNHCR in Dublin, the European Migration Network, government agencies, NGO’s, charities, schools, libraries, youth organisations, social workers, foster careers and other support staff. She has also delivered a public lecture on this topic as part of the Long Room Hub `Behind the Headlines' series. Rachel has also written in the print media about the ways in which expressive arts therapies can help to heal the trauma of refugees and she has delivered keynotes and other conference papers on this, and other topics related to her research, advocacy and clinical practice supporting refugee youth. 

[email protected] 

 
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Mr Jean-Philippe Imbert, Dublin City University, Ireland 

Rape: A Love Story. Volunteers dealing with In/visibility, Racism, and Trauma amongst Southeast Asian LGBTQ Men Seeking Protection in France

Amongst people seeking protection, a most vulnerable group can be identified: LGBTQI+ people: sons, daughters, parents, partners and lovers, with horrendous histories of imprisonment, bodily harm, torture, and psychological trauma. These atrocities are inflicted on them by their own governments, countrymen, and, worst of all, friends, and families. 

This informal presentation consists in reflexions arising out of 5 years of volunteering with LGBTQ people seeking protection in France, a national space offering a “new homonormativity” (Cantu, 2009) and following European State practice which is below the standards required by international and European human rights and refugee law (Jansen, 2013). France is far from fostering greater diversity-literacy and empathy for difference as an effective approach than minority identity-based ‘prejudice reduction’ approaches. The OFPRA/CNDA system is reticent to propose a norm-critical approach to deconstructing gender norms which would foster positive attitudes to genderqueerness. We are going to focus on LGBTQ cismen and non-binary people from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan  who endeavour to access refugee status. Seeking protection, they have to tell, retell and overtell their stories of rape, shame and humiliation, through languages they often don’t know, to people and within structures they fear, navigating different types of Zizekian violence. These repeated narratives in sexual asylum cases operate as discursive practices that have transformed the concept of the homosexual that was completely outside national (and now) French nationalist imaginaries to delimit basis of sexual orientation or gendered identity persecutions. If we examine how refugees, their lawyers and support groups workers try to answer or negotiate this and the attendant pervasive surveillance around real versus fake LGBT refugees, then we begin to uncover the struggle over diverse historical and sociocultural understandings of and intersecting relationships between sexual desires and practices and gendered, sexual, raced, classed and national identity formations. 

After discussing the navigating  of the French system by raped cismen and non-binary people seeking protection, using a socio-ecological framework, then we will look at 3 associative projects involving journalism, food and literature as a means to tell rape. 

Jean-Philippe Imbert lectures in Comparative Literature and Sexuality Studies. He runs EROSS@DCU an international research cluster in Sexuality Studies. He is interested in Mexican, Irish and French 20th and 21st centuries relationships between sexuality, gender and the aesthetic treatment of evil, trauma, angst or perversion. He has been president of the ADEFFI (Association des Études Françaises et Francophones d’Irlande) and of the Irish Association of Mexican Studies. He curated international art exhibitions (photography) in Delhi, Dublin or Mexico City.  He has volunteered extensively with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers both in France and Ireland. He is a trustee of Outhouse. 

[email protected]

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Mr Jordan Kirwan, Southeast Technological University, Ireland

Best Practice Guidelines and Recommendations for Transformative Engagement in Academic-Activism: A Participatory Action Research Approach

This presentation presents best practice guidelines and recommendations for academic-activists, developed through a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodological approach. Based on the analysis of 147 survey responses and 33 in-depth interviews with Irish-based academic-activists, this study explores the multifaceted experiences of academic-activism and identifies areas for improvement within the current institutional environment. A triangulation of these findings (survey and interviews) was then utilised to inform best practice guidelines and recommendations. The guidelines offer practical strategies for individual academic-activists to navigate personal challenges, from challenging negative perceptions to maintaining work-life balance. In contrast, the policy recommendations target institutional stakeholders, providing actionable steps to support academic-activism by eradicating exploitative and unpaid labour, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and valuing diverse forms of activism within academia.

By providing a platform for academic-activists to articulate their needs and concerns, this research contributes to the development of policies that encourage a more supportive and inclusive environment for those engaged in academic-activism. The triangulated findings highlight the importance of recognising and valuing the contributions of academic-activists and advocate for systemic changes that prioritise the well-being, career advancement, and professional development of individuals balancing academic pursuits with social activism. The presentation offers practical insights that can guide policy developments within higher educational institutes in creating a more public-facing environment for academic-activists to thrive and make meaningful contributions within society. Moreover, this presentation explores how the academy can become more accessible and supportive, so that in turn, academic-activists can achieve their research and dissemination aims for the people and communities they seek to represent and support. Overall, the guidelines and recommendations provide a useful tool for academic-activists who are engaged in academic practice focused on achieving social change to aid in the systematic reimagining of how we do academia.

Mr Jordan Kirwan is an Assistant Lecturer/Tutor in Sociology and PhD Scholar in South East Technological University. Previously, his research interests focused on the lived experiences of immigrants in Ireland and how immigrant communities accumulate social capital. Recently, his research has focused on understanding academic-activism from an intersectional perspective. This particular research explores the influence of the current neoliberal climate and academic environment on academic-activism. Prior to lecturing and before returning to do his PhD, he worked in Youth and Community Work both in Ireland and Australia for 5 years.

[email protected] 

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Dr Chrysi Kyratsou, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Creating Hope through Musicking and Navigating the Lineages of Exclusion: Insights from Greece in the Aftermath of the ‘European Refugee Crisis.’ 

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it considers forced displacement in Greece, and particularly as it unfolded in the years 2019-2020 after the officially heralded ‘end’ of the ‘European Refugee Crisis’ once the notorious EU-Turkey Agreement was signed. More specifically, it discusses the lineages of exclusionary policies and practices regarding refugees and asylum seekers sheltering in reception centres in Greece, in the aftermath of overlapping and intersecting crises (refugee-, economic-, COVID- crisis). Second, the paper discusses creative practices, focusing particularly on music engagements, as agentively devised by refugees and asylum-seekers (sometimes solely by themselves, sometimes along with citizens of the host society), as a means to pave their inclusion and navigate the multiple exclusions experienced. At the intersection of the exclusionary apparatus and the individuals’ agentive efforts to achieve a positionality that aligns with their perceived and pursued representations of themselves, a potential for hope is created. 

Discussing in this conference the specific example located in Greece offers a comparative perspective to the recent developments in Ireland regarding the increased anti-refugee sentiment, and how it intertwines with the broader developments in society (i.e. housing crisis etc.), as well as the solidarity initiatives bravely promoting an alternative vision of equality and justice. In Greece, while the outward migration in the post-WWII era has been primarily intertwined with economic reasons, inward migration intertwines primarily with the violent shifting of the socio-political and economic reality in the Balkans, and in countries outside of Europe/the ‘West’. The lineages of migration history in Greece were palpably expressed in the solidarity-with-refugees initiatives enacted by individuals and groups. Creative practices initiatives have been among the means devised to foster alternative representations of the ‘other’/ ‘self’ dipole and navigate the lived societal exclusions. 

Dr Chrysi Kyratsou is an IRC Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Music. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Queen's University (Belfast) and degrees in Musicology and Music Education (BA & MA integrated, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), and Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology (MA, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). Her IRC-funded research project argues for the value of actively engaging with music among asylum seekers sheltering in receptions centres in Greece. It considers how music-engagement – namely listening by oneself/in-group, teaching and learning music, making music in (in)formal settings (rehearsing, concert-performance) – interlaces with the traumatic experience of displacement, and the uncertainties and precarity that asylum-seeking limbo induces. While being in-limbo is integral to asylum-seeking, any human may experience it (though differently) when transiting throughout their life-course. Thus, this project aims to illuminate the specific human experience and how music helps navigate it. 

 [email protected] 

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Dr Maria Loftus and Dr Fiona Murphy, Dublin City University 

Ordinary Treasures: Objects from Home, Activating social empathy through Film

By bringing the concept of treasure into the realm of ordinary, our short film seeks to activate social empathy by asking the simple question “What would you bring with you if you had to leave your home?” Six International Protection Applicants and Refugees share the materiality of displacement by documenting what objects they brought with them to Ireland. 

The screening of this short film will be followed by a mapping of the creative process, delving into the co-design of the filmic artefact. It will situate this project into everyday activisms, celebrating the ordinary. 

Dr Maria Loftus lectures in French language and literature in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS). Her research interests pertain to representations of alterity in Sub-Saharan Documentary Cinema, multimodality and Second Language Acquisition and more recently creative co-designs around the theme of displacement. 

Dr Fiona Murphy is an anthropologist based in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) at Dublin City University. As an anthropologist of displacement, she works with Stolen Generations in AUstralia  and people seeking asylum and refuge in Irleand, the United Kingdom and Turkey. She has a particular passion for creative and public anthropologies and is always interested in experimenting with new froms and genres.

 
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Ms Áine Lyne & Ms Lisa Martin, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland

EDNIP- A School-Based Partnership Approach to Inclusion, Integration and Anti-Racism Across Communities

The Embracing Diversity Nurturing Integration Programme (EDNIP), MIC is a research and intervention initiative which works with school staff, parents and children across 5 DEIS Band 1 primary schools in Limerick City and partner organisations. Established in 2017 this paper discusses the model of intervention, as documented by Higgins et al. (2020), and the current phase of the programme across schools from September 21- December 23. The accompanying research process seeks to consult the programme partners to understand the impact of the programme on inclusion, their needs and interests and to evaluate and inform the development of the initiative from the perspective of children, parents, school staff and partner organisations. A school-based partnership approach to inclusion, integration and anti-racism in communities EDNIP works with the whole community during, after and out of school time to build relationships, foster social inclusion and increase opportunities for migrant families in Limerick City. Research to date has shown that EDNIP helps to enhance relationships between home and school; nurture a sense of belonging for children and promote integration in schools; build parents confidence, skills and a sense of belonging and support schools to focus on integration by providing a structured and systematic support system.

EDNIP has been presented as a model of best practice as a schools-based integration and social inclusion programme in Ireland and beyond. This paper will share insights, impacts and outcomes from the programme to date.

Áine Lyne is the Transforming Education through Dialogue (TED) Assistant Coordinator in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.  She has worked with TED since 2018 previously for 5 years in the role of Embracing Diversity Nurturing Integration (EDNIP) Project Leader. She has worked in the areas of Education and Community Development in Limerick City for over 15 years.  Underpinning all of her work is a focus on empowering individuals and groups to influence issues which affect them and their communities.  Research interests include social identity, cultural identity, migration, acculturation, equity in education, parent engagement in education and educational change.

[email protected]

Lisa Martin is Project Leader of the Embracing Diversity, Nurturing Education Project (EDNIP) in Mary Immaculate College. EDNIP works with 5 DEIS Band 1 primary schools in Limerick City to deliver a strategic and systemic programme to foster inclusion. Lisa’s research interests are educational inequality and inclusion. EDNIP undertakes research on the inclusion of migrant families through schools to inform the work of the project and the development of a model of inclusion that will be of benefit across the educational system.

[email protected] 

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Dr Amanda Lubit, Portland State University (affiliate), USA 

An Environment of Fear and Intimidation: Housing for Women Refugees’ in Northern Ireland 

My proposal is drawn from a 16-month ethnography, with 12-months volunteering with a group of women refugees and asylum seekers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The British asylum system creates conditions of forced poverty, destitution, substandard housing and homelessness, with women asylum seekers affected disproportionately due to the gendered nature of asylum policies. Within the Northern Ireland context, this vulnerability is altered and heightened by sectarian divisions which intersect with factors such as gender, race, language and nationality. Housing illustrates this. During asylum, women repeatedly experience homelessness and forced relocation. While many of these moves occur due to housing policies, others occur due to widespread hate crime and harassment. Many women experience persistent harassment from neighbours (e.g. threats, graffiti declaring ‘locals only’, broken windows, throwing eggs or fireworks, urinating through windows) that generates an environment of fear and intimidation. When made aware of these situations, police and housing authorities routinely refuse to intercede, instead pressuring victims to give up their housing and relocate. The cycle begins again when the next asylum-seeking family is offered the same house and experiences the same intimidation that ends in their displacement. I discuss the connection between racism/xenophobia, social housing policy and etho-national sectarian identities. With prolonged, severe social housing shortages, housing has become a source of conflict in segregated working-class neighbourhoods. The Housing Executive limits the availability of housing for asylum seekers to avoid areas of the city dominated by sectarian paramilitaries and organized acts of hate. Rather than tackling sectarianism and hate crime, housing policy instead moves asylum seekers into safer areas of the city, but these areas have chronic housing shortages with locals also experiencing high levels of homelessness and overcrowding. With asylum seekers as competition, racism and harassment have grown in these areas as well, driven by housing policy. 

In summer 2024, Amanda Lubit will begin a 3-year EU-funded post-doctoral fellowship located jointly at the Max Planck Institute and Dublin City University. She will be conducting research into how converging public health crises (e.g. COVID, refugee / economic / housing crises, Brexit) affect displaced women across the island of Ireland. This research builds upon her dissertation for her PhD from Queen's University Belfast which engaged with issues of gender, visibility, movement and place-making as they relate to Muslim women living in post-conflict Belfast during Brexit. She positions her research at the intersection of migration, disaster and medical anthropology. Amanda previously earned Master’s degrees in anthropology from Portland State and public health from Tufts University. She has several recent publications and served as the Irish Journal of Anthropology Reviews Editor for two years. She is also the 2022 recipient of the SFAA Human Rights Defender Award. 

[email protected] 

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Shirley Martin and Deirdre Horgan, School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork 

Insights from IMMERSE Best Practices: Potential and Challenges in Supporting Integration of Migrant Children in Education in Ireland 

IMMERSE H2020 is a pan European research project that focuses on the integration of
migrant children in education across Europe, with research being undertaken in partner
countries including Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. UCC is the Irish
partner. Its multiple research methods include a large-scale survey with school-age children, qualitative research and the collection of best practices across the partner countries; which together combine to map the integration of migrant children in education across Europe. During the course of the research project, each partner identified and analysed 10 best practices of integration, thus providing a resource of meaningful integration and as a means of deepening our understanding of integration initiatives and experiences of practice. The full range of these best practices are now available online through a searchable data base and their focus is summarised in a report, also available online through the IMMERSE website.
This paper focuses on insights gathered through the collection of best practices in Ireland.
Examples span direct support for participation of children and young people to enable
meaningful participation in schools, as well as offering diverse opportunities to extend
creative skills. They include attention to participation in a wide and diverse range of
community based and extra-curricular activities, emphasising the significance of these to
support integration and a sense of belonging. In examining these initiatives, we identify efforts to put two-way integration into practice, a policy priority established in Ireland and at European levels (Government of Ireland 2017; Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 2000) through the involvement, relationship building and co-operation of multiple stakeholders across professions and community sector organisations. The focus and breadth of examples highlight their potential to embed togetherness and belonging across education and community. Engagement with these activities offer important spaces which have the potential to instil confidence andvalidate the experiences and positionalities of children and young people. Challenges faced are also discussed, including sectoral-funding parameters and restrictions related to short- term funding. Such does not recognise that support for integration is an ongoing process that extends beyond specific time periods and requires attention beyond these timeframes, as well as requiring the flexibility to adjust to changing and place-based issues that arise. Narrow funding criteria also tends not to recognise intersections across community and education sectors while the reality is that children’s and young people’s lives are intrinsically inter-connected.  

 
Ms Shirley Martin  has been a lecturer at the School of Applied Social Studies since 2004 and is currently Deputy Director of the BA Early Years and Childhood Studies. She was previously a Co-Director on the the BA Early Years and Childhood Studies from September 2015 to January 2019. She specialises in the area of Children & Social Policy & her teaching is informed by innovative and critical discourses on childhood and her own extensive interdisciplinary & community-engaged research profile. She has conducted a number of research projects in the area of child and youth participation and developed a number of youth-led research projects. her research work has contributed to the body of work informing the National Strategy for Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision making 2015-2020 and she has worked closely with the Citizen Participation Unit of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs since 2011 on a range of projects including national consultations with children and young people to formulate specific government policies.

[email protected]

Dr Deirdre Horgan is Head of the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork. Her research and teaching interests include childhood, child welfare and protection, children’s rights and citizenship, policy and practice responses to child migration. Deirdre is co-investigator on IMMERSE a Horizon 2020 study examining the socio-educational integration of migrant children across Europe https://www.immerse-h2020.eu/, and the CERV project - Empowering Children’s Participation in Malta SEM - EU Funds for strengthening children's participation in policy making in Malta (gov.mt).  She has led a number of research projects reporting on policy consultations with children for the Department of Children, Equality, Integration, Diversity and Youth, the Department of Health, and the Department of Education. Her commissioned research on Children's participation in decision-making in their homes, schools and communities, contributed to the National Strategy on Children and Young People's Participation in Decision-making (DCYA, 2015) 

[email protected]

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Ms Morgan Mattingly, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland 

16+ Education Equality Campaign in NI: Community, Solidarity and Activism 

In Northern Ireland (NI) people from asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds face enormous pressures from the hostile environment policies of the UK government. Though some matters can be addressed by devolved governments, in NI additional issues arise due to the historical conflict and power-sharing arrangements of the assembly. NI is the only region of the UK without an integration policy or ESOL policy, and due to the repeated breakdown of party relations has not had a sitting assembly since May 2022. Even though there is no ‘government’ work to address injustices, in NI activism continues in other ways. ANAKA Women’s Collective and Participation and Practice of Rights (PPR) are charities in Northern Ireland where the voices of members determine the calls for action.  In these groups solidarity is not just a word, but actions taken to support one another in times of need. Members (from minority, refugee and/or asylum backgrounds or allies) actively campaign against the injustices experienced and empower each other through workshops, protests, campaigns, and more. The participation of members means the organisations are agile in their activism, addressing systemic and racist injustices together.  In winter of 2022, members of ANAKA began making it apparent that their children, age 16 and older were being denied their right to education. When a list of young people out of education – who desperately desired to be in school – was compiled in 2023 by the organisation, it became clear that this was a larger issue. In Northern Ireland education is only compulsory (and a protected right) until a child reached the age of 16 – with no guarantee or requirement for the Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) to ensure education opportunities for young people over 16. This differs from the rest of the UK, where (though able to leave school at 16) full time education options must exist until age 18. The 16+ young people themselves (also from refugee and/or asylum seeker backgrounds) have thus began campaigning for equality of education, supported by ANAKA & PPR. Reflections on the solidarity within this campaign, and others arranged by ANAKA and PPR, exemplify best practice. In this presentation, we will address not only what it means for researchers to work with participants and be activists in solidarity, but for organisations to encourage solidarity within a community of members. To build on what Paulo Freire suggests “true solidarity” means fighting together “to transform the objective reality which has made them these ‘beings for another’" (1970, p.49). 

This presentation brings together the knowledge of a community organisation, members/activists and a researcher. ANAKA Women's Collective is a group of women with direct experience of asylum who use collective skills to educate, support, advocate and celebrate each other. Supported by PPR (Participation and the Practice of Rights) in Northern Ireland, members use collective power to campaign for change. The 16+ Education Equality Campaign, represented in this presentation today, was developed through this commitment to collective agency. It brings together the voices of young people from refugee or asylum seeker backgrounds to campaign for education equality in Northern Ireland. Morgan Mattingly, an MSCA Doctoral Fellow whose current research is in the field of refugee education, acts in solidarity to support the 16+ Education Equality Campaign. 

Ms Morgan Mattingly says: This presentation brings together the knowledge of a community organisation, members/activists and a researcher. ANAKA Women's Collective is a group of women with direct experience of asylum who use collective skills to educate, support, advocate and celebrate each other. Supported by PPR (Participation and the Practice of Rights) in Northern Ireland, members use collective power to campaign for change. The 16+ Education Equality Campaign, represented in this presentation today, was developed through this commitment to collective agency. It brings together the voices of young people from refugee or asylum seeker backgrounds to campaign for education equality in Northern Ireland. Morgan Mattingly, an MSCA Doctoral Fellow whose current research is in the field of refugee education, acts in solidarity to support the 16+ Education Equality Campaign. 

[email protected] 

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Alastair Nightingale, Maynooth University 

“The Colour of Their Skin”: Accusations of Racism, Silent Denial and Justifications for the Preferential Treatment of Ukrainian Refugees. 

This paper explores discourses employed within the Irish parliament criticising and justifying the preferential treatment of Ukrainian refugees. The analysis employed a critical discursive psychology approach and examined speeches between the 24th of February and the 2nd of June 2022. Previous work has highlighted how parliamentarians in wealthy nations often build cross-party consensus justifying the exclusion of refugees by claiming the nation's proud humanitarian history is being taken advantage of. In contrast, this study highlights a rare example of cross-party consensus justifying the inclusion of a specific group of refugees also based on an imagined history of welcoming all refugees. At the outset of the war, this consensus was unquestioned until an opposition speaker claimed the discriminatory policy was based on the “colour of their skin”. A representative of the Irish government sidesteps the accusation of racism and justifies the preferential treatment of Ukrainian refugees by claiming that Ireland is their ‘closest neighbours’ and that this is a ‘different kind of war’. In other words, this ideological position legitimises the discrimination of refugees based on the distance of their place of origin from the prospective host country and the type of violence that they are fleeing. In response, the opposition speaker reiterates the racism accusation prompting the speaker on behalf of the government to abandon the initial claims and shift responsibility to an EU directive. Hence, the accusation of racism is circumvented through appeals to a rationality of the natural human desire to remain close to home. The Ukraine war is also constructed as warranting the expectation of early return due to its difference from previous wars. Nevertheless, the accusation of racism is defended by redefining racism to include discrimination based on the geographic proximity of the refugee’s place of origin. 
 

Alastair Nightingale's primary research interests are the exploration of ambivalent hegemonic discourses that legitimise discrimination and prejudice and perpetuate inequitable intergroup relations. I am particularly interested in the pressing social and political issue of international migration and attitudes towards refugees and immigrants. 

[email protected] 

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Mr Gordon Ogutu, Dublin City University, Ireland 

With Refugees? The Perceptions of Refugees towards the Governing Authorities in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya 

Refugee camp governing authorities often take credit for the humanitarian support they offer refugees. In protracted refugee camps like Kakuma, which ranks among the largest and oldest refugee camps in the world, it is common to see the presence of humanitarian, Non-governmental Organizations (NGO) and government agencies in the form of branded agency vehicles, clothes, buildings and commemoration plaques sharing their successes in refugee aid delivery and programming. In 2023, this support was furthermore exemplified by the World Refugee Day theme - “Hope away from Home”- which underscored the critical role the agencies play in the global refugee governance system. Twitter (now known as X) hashtags such as #WithRefugees have also been used by agencies like the UN refugee agency, UNHCR to promote the important work they do to sustain refugee lives and livelihoods across the world. Yet, little research has been conducted on the perceptions of the intended beneficiaries of the humanitarian support towards the camp authorities to establish how they feel about the organizations responsible for their protection and assistance in exile, especially in long-term displacement contexts. Much of the existing research has been conducted on the hosts' perceptions towards immigration and the host community's attitudes towards refugees and vice versa (Dempster, Leach and Hargrave, 2020). In addition most of the research has mainly been conducted in Europe and North America (Betts et al., 2023), leaving out the global south, which hosts most of the world's refugees (UNHCR, 2022). Understanding the perceptions of refugees towards the governing institutions is critical in ensuring the effective integration of refugees as it enhances their uptake of different humanitarian projects by the agencies and facilitates social inclusion and cohesion between refugees and host communities (Ager and Strang, 2008). The findings of this paper are based on qualitative data collected in the Kakuma refugee camp between May and July 2023. Twenty qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews and two focus groups involving refugees were conducted in Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugee-hosting areas in Turkana Kenya, transcribed and analysed by NVivo software for relevant themes such as trust, security, participation and involvement of refugees in various programs. Therefore, this paper will discuss the perceptions of refugees based on their experiences with governing authorities in Kakuma refugee camp based on key factors such as refugees’ perceptions of trust and security in the camp institutions, participation and involvement in integration projects undertaken inside the camp by the governing institutions. Moreover, it is based on Ager and Strang’s 2008 conceptual framework for integration, particularly the social links indicator under the social connection domain. According to Ager and Strang (2008, p. 181), “social links refer to the connection between individuals and structures of the state, such as government services”. In essence, stronger social links lead to effective integration and social cohesion for refugees. 

Mr Gordon Ogutu is a PhD candidate at DCU SALIS, where he researches refugee integration in protracted situations, with a focus on Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp. He has previously worked as a humanitarian worker in Kakuma, where he was involved in the implementation of development projects for the local host communities and the refugees. His research, therefore, seeks to provide a better understanding of how refugees and host communities relate and how the relationship is shaped by various factors such as access to social and economic opportunities and services provided by the humanitarian organizations operating in the area. 

[email protected] 

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Dr Zoë O’Reilly, University College Dublin and  Dr Muireann Ní Raghallaigh, University College Dublin) (co-organisers) with Pinar Aksu, University of Glasgow, Azad Izzeddin, Independent Researcher, and Dr Heidar Al-Hashimi, Queen’s University, Belfast

 People who have experienced forced migration, and who have the most to gain – and lose -  from research conducted about them, are often excluded from shaping this research. As part of the Scottish Irish Migration Initiative (University College Dublin and University of Edinburgh), scholars working on refugee-related issues based in Ireland and Scotland have been working together since 2021 to build an ethical research culture in refugee related research. The project has gradually built up a network of scholars, of both refugee and non-refugee background, and has been exploring both ways to improve the experiences of participants of refugee background in research, as well as ways of expanding and facilitating collaboration between scholars with and without lived experience of forced migration. Members of the network have collaboratively published a set of guidelines on ethical considerations when working with people of refugee background (2021) and have a forthcoming article in the Journal RS (2024) on their work on collaboration between scholars with and without lived experience of forced migration. This roundtable session will consist of two parts, followed by an open discussion on building an ethical research culture. The first part will consist of looking at ethical considerations when working with participants of refugee backgrounds: context, care and cultural considerations. These ethical considerations were collated through a series of consultations with members of our network with refugee-backgrounds who have been involved in refugee-related research, and are relevant for anyone carrying out research involving people of refugee-background, including academics, students, journalists and members of NGOs. The second part of the roundtable will explore the ways in which universities, funders and researchers can increase collaboration between scholars of refugee backgrounds and those without refugee backgrounds in forced migration research. We explore ways of moving beyond inclusion and approaches of ‘do no harm’ towards a decolonising approach, issues arising in relation to collaboration between researchers of refugee and non-refugee backgrounds, and explore some practical steps which universities, funders and researchers in this field can take to increase collaboration and take a decolonising approach. Finally, the roundtable session will finish with an open discussion on ethical issues in refugee and forced migration related research.

Pinar Aksu is a third year PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow, a theatre maker and Human Rights and Advocacy Coordinator. Her research explores ‘Art and Law in migration: using art practices for social change and access to Justice’. She is interested to find connections between solidarity, art, justice, and the law. Within her role, Pinar is involved with campaigns and projects supporting people seeking asylum and refuge, promoting integration and human rights. Current campaigns include Right to Work-Lift the Ban, ending hotel detention and access to Education. Pinar is also involved in using theatre and creative methods to create social change.

Zoë O’Reilly is a researcher, lecturer and visual ethnographer. Her research interests include ethnographies of displacement, migration, asylum, borders and cultural diversity. She also has a particular interest in visual, sense-based and participatory methodologies and the ethics of research. She is interested in the ways in which knowledge is created and used, and is committed to using and developing ways to increase the involvement of research participants in every stage of knowledge creation and dissemination. She holds an adjunct research position with the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at University College Dublin. 
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Dr Benjamin Pastorelli, Université de Bourgogne, France 

Online Activists: What Do They Experience? 

In recent years, digital social networks have become a major element of activism and have changed the way in which people engage with politics. A great deal of research has been carried out on the characteristics of this new activism, but less on the people behind it. 

Yet activism is not without consequences for those involved. Indeed, activists can encounter major difficulties that are detrimental to their own health and well-being. These effects are likely to be accentuated online. Indeed, social media are notorious for their toxic potential, especially concerning online hate or pressure resulting from performance indicators, such as “likes”. On the bright side, online activism may bring more visibility, shared knowledge, and a sense of community. The aim of this study is to understand why people become involved and what they experience online, positively, and negatively. It focuses on how this experience evolves in a few areas: in their relationship with others (particularly their community and their detractors), in their relationship with the platform, in their vision of themselves and in their commitment to the cause they are defending. To do this, we conducted semi-structured interviews with volunteer left-wing activists, who are involved on digital social networks. The study is still underway. But first results show that the activists' career path and backgrounds are similar in some points. Difficulties specific to online contexts are also highlighted. These results shed light on who online activists are and what they experience. 

Dr Benjamin Pastorelli (pronouns: he/him) is a doctor in Psychology and an associate researcher at the University of Burgundy (France), in the Psy-DREPI laboratory. He has worked on social identity for more than 10 years, especially concerning minority influence,  discriminations, diversity and inclusion. He also studied interculturality and social transformation. As a lecturer, researcher, consultant and science populariser, his experience has led him to work in several public and private universities in Europe (France, Ireland, Switzerland), as well as for major companies in the innovation and industry sectors. He is now working as a mental therapist and an independent consultant. 

[email protected] 

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Ms Angelika Sharygina, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Policy Recommendations to Protect Displaced Populations 

Background: By 2050, 1.2 Billion people are projected to become displaced from their home countries and a major risk factor related to forced displacement is ‘misinformation’. 

Misinformation around issues of forced migration pose a significant threat to global peace and security. As an Afghan Ukrainian in the refuge, I have witnessed firsthand the destructive impact of disinformation campaigns against refugees and their use as justification for aggression and violence. The spread of migration-related disinformation exploits the voicelessness of refugees and can have harmful consequences, including increased marginalization and discrimination. Disinformation thrives on anonymous and fringe channels, but even established media outlets may inadvertently spread false information or use manipulative tactics. Objective: This abstract aims to offer policy recommendations to combat migration-related disinformation and protect vulnerable and underrepresented communities affected by forced displacement. Methodology: Identifying and combating false narratives, along with promoting digital well-being and media literacy, are crucial components in helping the public recognize the long-term effects of disinformation in the context of forced displacement. Author will examine the effectiveness of the existing interventions to combat disinformation, including debunking, prebunking, fact checking and inoculation. Recommendations: To combat migration-related disinformation, policies must focus on enhancing media literacy, promoting media diversity, fact checking, preemptive inoculation and improving media regulation. Media literacy campaigns can educate the public on how to identify and avoid disinformation. Promoting media diversity can increase representation of refugees in media and encourage more accurate and nuanced representation. Improving media regulation can hold media outlets accountable for the spread of disinformation. 

Ms Angelika Sharygina is a political researcher, tech for good founder and policy advisor. She is a PhD candidate in Trinity College Dublin. Angelika is the first Ukrainian refugee in Ireland who arrived in Ireland on February 27th 2022. With a mission to tackle misinformation, and disinformation, which Angelika has experienced as being instrumental in the war in Ukraine, and in relation to forced displacement more broadly, Ms Sharygina joined Trépel lab at Trinity College Dublin, housed at Global Brain Health Institute and started her doctorate research on political, psychological, and economic consequences of misinformation and its’ role in conflict and war. Angelika has been an active contributor to Center for Forced Migration and a vocal activist for refugee rights. As Afghan-Ukrainian, she believes war has no race, color or creed. Ms Sharygina holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the War Studies department at King’s College London. Her most recent work includes being commissioned by Reuters Foundation to produce a report “Ukraine. Media consumptions and perceptions’. Angelika was nominated as a Young Leader for Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), Lead Co-creator Champion for digital protection against disinformation on displaced communities for Techfugees, and a Board Advisor on digital human rights, disinformation combat  and AI related policies at Trust 3.0. 

[email protected] 

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Ms Jessica Small, Université Grenoble-Alpes, France 

Manus Prison Theory and Direct Provision in Melatu Uche Okorie’s “Asylum Series” 

Can insights into the mechanisms of Direct Provision, a “‘system of enforced 

dependency and institutionalization” of asylum seekers (Thornton 2019), be found on another verdant island some 8,500 miles from Dublin? This is the question that this paper proposes to explore, by reading literary representations of Direct Provision through the prism of Manus Prison Theory.Manus Prison Theory is the product of years of collaboration between writer and political scientist Behrouz Boochani and philosopher Omid Tofighian. It was developed in extraordinary circumstances: over Whatsapp, on a contraband phone hidden from the guards of the now-closed offshore Australian detention facility on the remote Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, where Boochani was incarcerated at the time. It proposes Manus Detention Centre as a model for systems of neocolonial oppression and border regimes across the Global North by “focus[ing] on how systems of oppression are interconnected, mutually reinforcing and multipliable” (Tofighian 2020). After outlining the central principles of Manus Prison Theory in the context of the Australian Pacific and PNG solutions, the paper will apply them to its reading of Melatu Uche Okorie’s “Asylum Series”, the short stories written during her eight and a half years living in Direct Provision after arriving in Ireland from her native Nigeria in 2006 (including the acclaimed collection This Hostel Life). Her vivid writing illustrates her perception that “direct provision is like being in an abusive relationship” (Okorie 2019). Yet it also speaks to transformative practices that echo Manus Prison Theory’s assertion that resistance to border violence must be “epistemic, creative and collaborative” (Tofighian 2020). As such the paper will conclude with a meditation on the role of literature and the arts in fostering anti-racist discourse and imagining new futures for migrants and citizens alike. 

Ms Jessica Small is a PhD Candidate in Refugee Writing and a Teaching and Research Fellow at the Université Grenoble-Alpes, France. Her thesis is entitled “Seeking Asylum in Contemporary Anglophone Refugee Literatures: The Case of Behrouz Boochani, Dina Nayeri and Melatu Uche Okorie”. She is interested in questions of hospitality and care in literary representations of asylum seeking as well as interdisciplinary approaches to refugee representation and advocacy. She holds an MA in Anglophone Studies from the Université Grenoble-Alpes (2018) and a BA in Modern Foreign Languages from Trinity College, University of Oxford (2011). She has been teaching Anglophones Studies in the Modern Languages Faculty of the Université Grenoble-Alpes since 2015. 

[email protected] 

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Prof. Maruška Svašek, Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland

Art, Displacement, and In/Visibilisation: A Conversation 

This paper analyses interlinked processes of un/making and un/becoming in the context of antisemitic politics during the Second World War and the Holocaust. It focuses on imagination, materialisation, and strategies of in/visibilisation in everyday Czech society and Terezin, a concentration camp 30 miles north of Prague. The analysis is of wider relevance to studies of racist oppression, secret resistance, and the power of materiality.

The paper addresses three domains of visual production: Avantgarde art, Nazi symbols and posters, and drawings made by Jewish children during their stay in Terezin. It zooms in on the life history of Helga Hošková-Weissová, who survived Terezin, Auschwitz, and Flossenbürg labor camp, and who was trained after the end of the war as an artist. It also draws on a recent encounter with Vojtĕch Liebl, a young Czech graphic designer whose great-grandmother Hana Tvrská, née Weilová, was a Holocaust survivor. Our encounter has led to an ongoing conversation that intersects artistic and research practices.

Professor Maruška Svašek is co-director of the Centre for Creative Ethnography . She is Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queens University Belfast.

 [email protected]

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Mr Ioan Suhov, Dublin City University, Ireland

Navigating Highly-Skilled Migration: The Intersection of Activism and Academic Research as Experimented by the GéoRécits Project

This abstract explores the challenges of representing highly skilled migration, particularly through the lens of the GéoRécits project, a collaboration between the Institut Convergences Migrations and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). The project, straddling academic research and activism, focuses on the migratory trajectories of scientists, artists, and intellectuals since the early 20th century, particularly under conditions of war, civil unrest, and political persecution. GéoRécits employs deep maps for narrative representation, offering a nuanced understanding of qualified migrations and challenging the conventional refugee/migrant dichotomy. It contextualizes these journeys within historical and social contexts, exploring the evolving meanings of exile and the complex process of social decline (déclassement) experienced by individuals.The project’s collaborative ethos involves global researchers, archival materials, and various sources, making it a unique blend of activism and academic research. By documenting and disseminating stories of those forced into exile, GéoRécits acts as an advocacy platform, enriching scholarly discussions on migration and resonating with broader societal narratives. GéoRécits extends its impact beyond academia through educational initiatives like "Parcourir la (Nan)terre," public engagements like photo exhibitions "Poser pour la liberté," and documentaries like "Scientifiques en exil, 1933-1945." This presentation aims to highlight GéoRécits as a successful academic research method, demonstrating its commitment to understanding the complexities of highly skilled migration and the challenges faced by individuals in forced exile scenarios.

Mr Ioan Suhov  is a Doctoral Candidate at Dublin City University, deeply engaged in researching media dynamics and societal issues. His doctoral research, supervised by Dr. Tanya Lokot and Dr. Alexander Baturo, focuses on the discourse of conspiracy theories in Romanian media. He also holds an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Leeds and an M.A. in Political Science (focused on Diversity and Fighting Discrimination) from Université Paris 8. His work at Paris 8 centred on the French press's coverage of the 1989 Romanian revolution. Professionally, he is part of the GéoRécits project team at The French National Centre for Scientific Research, coordinated by Dr Pascale Laborier. His role as a Part-time Tutor at Dublin City University complements his research activities. He has actively contributed to various academic conferences, presenting on subjects like media and war, academic exile, and narrative cartography. Additionally, he has organized seminars, exhibitions, and contributed to the FuturEast blog and various print and online publications. He is the recipient of a doctoral scholarship from Dublin City University's Faculty of Humanities, as well as a prestigious French Government International Scholarship for his master's studies. In 2021, he was involved with the National Council for Combating Discrimination in Romania, reflecting his commitment to civil society and issues of social justice. This experience has been instrumental in shaping his research interests, which span topics such as media, digital humanities, narrative cartography, and the societal impacts of media in conflict situations.

[email protected]

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Hadjer Taibi, Dublin City University 

Exploring the Fluidity of Communicative Repertoires in Online and Offline Contexts of Mobility: A Case of Four Algerian Academic Sojourners in the UK

 This study examines the impact of mobility on the online and offline use and emergence of communicative repertoires among four Algerian PhD students in the UK. Situated within the evolving paradigm of the sociolinguistics of mobility, it aims to shift the focus from 'codes' to the analysis of speakers' dynamic and expanding 'repertoires.' By adopting this perspective, the study explores multifaceted communication processes that extend beyond specific languages, encompassing various linguistic and non-linguistic resources. Addressing the call to study online and offline communication interaction (Blommaert, 2016), the research collected data through ethnographic interviews, art-based methods, and online observation. Analysis employed a combination of Androutsopoulos’s (2015) “online ethnography” approach and thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Findings show that in both online and offline interactions, participants engaged in a process of repertoires’ construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. This process is shaped by the lived experiences of people and occurs in particular 'chronotopic moments' during social interactions. Moments that can be filled with instances of exclusion, stereotyping, and linguicism.  The process provides a theoretical and methodological lens for studying the communicative repertoires of various mobile individuals, including those experiencing forced displacement, who might be at a greater disadvantage. By emphasizing the diversity, complexity, and fluidity of languaging practices in the lived experiences of mobile individuals, the study challenges discourses of linguistic fixity that may contribute to mechanisms of othering, essentialism, and exclusion, raising concerns for social justice (Piller, 2015). It contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the human aspects involved in mobility and displacement and offers a counter-narrative to populist sentiments by humanizing the experiences of migrants, fostering empathy, and challenging divisive ideologies. The use of art-based methods in studying the diverse experiences of migrants can also provide valuable insights, overcoming language barriers and offering a unique perspective on their narratives. 
 

Hadjer Taibi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Evaluation, Quality & Inspection in the Education department of Dublin City University. She completed her PhD in Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022. During her PhD, she also worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and a Research Assistant for the Horizon 2020 Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe (MiCREATE) project at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she was involved in various research activities. Prior to her PhD, she obtained a master’s degree in English Language and Linguistics from Abdelhamid Ibn Badis- Mostaganem University, Algeria, and a bachelor degree in Anglo-Saxon Language, Literature, and Civilization from the same institution. Her research interests encompass a range of topics related to language, migration, and education. They fall within the various areas of sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, online communication, intercultural communication, language teaching and learning, and social justice. 

[email protected] 

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Dr Aoife Titley, Maynooth University, Ireland 

Barriers to Initial Teacher Education for Prospective Pre-Service Teacher Candidates from International Protection Backgrounds 

Notwithstanding efforts to increase higher education participation in Ireland, there remains inadequate representation from groups such as lower socio-economic, minority ethnic and individuals with a disability (HEA, 2016). This is particularly the case for primary initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland, where despite the diversification of teaching emerging as somewhat of a policy priority in recent years (DE, 2018; 2023), student teachers remain overwhelming white, female, settled, middle-class and Catholic (Keane & Heinz, 2016). Prospective pre-service teachers from racialised groups face a myriad of cultural complexities, institutional limitations, and economic constraints to becoming a primary teacher. These barriers span the continuum of access and admissions, post-entry to ITE and transition to the teaching profession itself. These challenges become even more pronounced and layered when the prospective candidates are from international protection backgrounds. Critical Race Theory (CRT) draws upon a series of innovative methodological tools to address racism, discrimination, and relentless inequalities in society. Counter-storytelling, also known ‘oppositional storytelling’ (Delgado, 1995, p. xv) is one such device in the ‘conceptual toolbox’ of CRT (Gillborn, 2007). Counter-stories centre the significance of experiential knowledge and are positioned in direct opposition to stereotypical scripts or ‘stock stories’, (Delgado, 1989) that society tells about a certain phenomenon. This presentation will use the tool of counter-storytelling (Delgado, 1989; 1995), within a CRT framework, to reveal findings from a PhotoVoice research project with minoritized ethnic young people interested in pursuing a career in primary teaching in Ireland. PhotoVoice is an approach to data collection which marries self-directed photography with participatory action as a way for marginalised groups to enact social change. PhotoVoice privileges democratic practices and pursuits (Sánchez, 2015) and can support the exploration of complex topics and support participant-generated visual data as a form of ‘cultural self-portrayal’ (Pauwels, 1996). The presentation will focus on the narratives of those currently seeking sanctuary in Ireland who are interested in pursuing a career in primary teaching about the myriad of disincentives which prevent them from accessing the profession. A range of counter-stories will be shared which mitigate the cultural de-valuation of participants and give voice to their untold stories about the permanence of racism(s) in their lives. These photos and the accompanying rich narratives represent first-hand experience of exclusion and marginalisation from ITE and aim to foreground authentic voices which have been hitherto silenced in dominant discourse about diversifying the teaching profession in Ireland. 

Dr Aoife Titley is the lecturer in Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education. Before becoming a teacher educator, she worked as an education researcher and a post-primary teacher. Prior to joining the Froebel Department as a lecturer, Aoife was also the Programme Manager of the DICE Project. The DICE Project is a national strategic programme funded by Irish Aid which supports the embedding of development education and intercultural education into initial teacher education in Ireland. Aoife has a doctorate in teacher education from the Institute of Education in Dublin City University (DCU). The empirical research for her dissertation explored the experiences of minoritized ethnic young people interested in pursuing a career in primary teaching. In addition to diversifying the primary teaching profession, her other research interests include international service learning (sending programmes) and social activism in primary schools. She is the Co-Chairperson of the MU Sanctuary Committee, a collaborative community and cross-departmental initiative, working to make Maynooth University an inclusive space for students from asylum seeking and refugee backgrounds. 

[email protected] 

 
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 Dr Ulrike M. Vieten,  Queen's University Belfast 

Don’t Wake up the Dragon: Socio-Economic Crisis and the Rise of the Racist Far-Right in Ireland and Beyond

In this key lecture I will introduce some of the core arguments of my book Normalization of the Global Far Right: Pandemic Disruption? (Vieten & Poynting, 2023) and further reflect on the ways the far-right evolved in Continental Europe as well as internationally, over the last ten years. (Vieten & Poynting, 2016; Yuval-Davis & Vieten, 2018). Due to its rather recent visible emergence, I will talk about the Irish situation, too. 

The underlying argument is that the boundary between extremist racist perspectives and ‘normal’ entitlement discourses, the latter be regarded as anchored in national majority claims and exercised through territorialized democratic rights (e. g. voting), is blurred. I will focus on two aspects, first, the ideological making of ‘national community’, and second, how  gendered discourses get intertwined with the fear of the other sexualised man in these national boundary discourses. 

The ‘normal’ national gendered community imagination (Anderson, 1983; Puar, 2007) frames who is included as having a legitimate right to hold (social) rights. Socio-economic crisis, for example, the lack of affordable housing or health facilities, and dwindling reasonably prized food can trigger social-political unrest. This public social grievance is ideologically exploitable by (far right) populists doing exactly what the ethno-national community boundary suggests: demanding that (re-) distribution and allocation is only for those imagined as belonging to the national community. But ‘crisis’ is an effect of the late capitalist glocal market. It is not a force of nature but produced by commercial interests and failures to redistribute wealth. It means there is a political vacuum, which is not taken seriously by middle classed academia and a socialist left, for years.

Dr Ulrike M Vieten is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Sociology of Gender, Migration and Racisms), at Queen's University Belfast.  She is a comparativist, looking at the transformation of (European) societies and considering the increasing meaning of transnational identities. 

[email protected]

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Ms Nada Yehia, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Between Hospitalities and Hostilities: Cultivating Refugees’ Agency in Humanitarian Encounters 

This research enlists critical hospitality scholarship as a reflexive lens to examine how humanitarians who have experienced displacement gain access to and navigate international humanitarian organizations as aid workers. It explores the tensions and contradictions arising in their negotiations of hierarchical ‘structures of admissibility’ and working conditions. It focuses on the clashes between the constructions of refugees as ‘victims’, ‘aid recipients’ and ‘guests’ on one hand, and the inherent agency of their work as gatekeepers, service providers and frontliners on the other. In the latter roles, because of their close proximity to and extensive knowledge of local cultures and traditions, these humanitarian practitioners carry great responsibilities in relation to welcoming and granting organizations access to their communities and leading the delivery of services. 

The drive behind the research was inspired by what I witnessed in the field as a humanitarian practitioner between 2013 and 2018. Across the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia I have observed how refugees operate as indispensable service providers and crucial members of the workforce of international humanitarian organizations yet are often peripheralized as “volunteers”. These experiences contradict mainstream humanitarian discourses repeatedly adopted in academic and public discourses. Such narratives create dichotomies between those who provide help and those who receive it, between ‘expats-as-experts’ and ‘locals-to-be-trained by the expats’ and ‘refugees as victims-to-be-saved’. Informed by decolonial and critical race theories, the research employs autoethnographic methodology that incorporates a variety of data collection and analysis practices. These include participant and digital observation, oral history interviews, thematic analysis, critical race theory methods of counter-storytelling and arts-based practices. The methods adopted critically explore the experiences of 13 interlocutors who worked in international humanitarian organizations across the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and southeast Asia. Their personal journeys vary -from those who have directly experienced forced migration or have intergenerational legacies of forced migration, to those who have not experienced displacement but have closely worked with humanitarians who have. Composite counter-storytelling techniques illuminate interlocutors’ trajectories and their agential constructions against the backdrop of ‘stock stories’ that reflect on the hierarchical structures. Arts-based techniques are used to critically explore the commonalities and intersections of their differing circumstances and positionalities. Together, these techniques counter mainstream narratives and towards reimagining and ‘re-existing’ humanitarian action ‘otherwise’. 

Nada Yehia is a PhD researcher and humanitarian practitioner, from Cairo Egypt, based in the School of Sociology, at University College Dublin. Her research interests relate to humanitarian action, forced migration, decolonial theory, critical race theory, critical hospitality studies, and qualitative research methods. Besides working on the research, she guest lectures at University College Dublin and teach Sociology at Dublin City University. Before joining the PhD program, She did NOHA Erasmus Joint Master of International Humanitarian Action and worked as a humanitarian practitioner on the inclusion of marginalized populations in emergency settings around the Middle East, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. 

[email protected]