Student blog - Inaugural Lecture | Refuge in a Moving World: Beyond Hospitality and Hostility
11 February 2020
Written by Jonathan Ren, BSc Geography student, UCL Department of Geography
The traditional gaze on refugees, and the places and labels associated with them has long been that of a one-way relationship. Specifically, as passive recipients to aid from international actors and the ‘Global North’. Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s research has been focused on challenging this assumption and shifting the paradigm towards considering refugees as active rather than passive.
While not a geographer by trade, Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s research utilises an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about place and space, as well as the actors within. As the name suggests, the tempo-spatial relationality takes varying spatial and temporal scales into consideration in thinking about refugees and the places associated with them.
Her research has been conducted across the ‘Global South’, with a specific focus on the Middle East and North African regions. Some examples include Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Turkey – and to understand the interrelationships between them and the refugees, and their hosts, within. Additionally, she has been active in writing workshops, allowing those who have been displaced to archive their own experiences from their point of view, effectively empowering them.
In the context of climate change driving additional population displacement and refugee movements, there is a clear impetus to further develop our understanding from a different point of view, effectively challenging the labels that currently define displaced populations. This is especially important for the development of policies that will shape the future of refugees and those who host them.
In addition to leading research projects spanning Jordan, Turkey and Syria, she is the Co-Director of the UCL Migration Research Unit and the Coordinator of the Refuge in a Moving World Research Network.
Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s work can be followed on multiple platforms, including Twitter: @FiddianQasmiyeh, @RefugeMvingWrld, @RefugeeHosts, @SouthernResp; and individual project websites: www.refugeehosts.org and https://southernresponses.org
Listen to Elena's lecture:
Inaugural Lecture Series 2019/20
This lecture is part of the 2019/20 series for UCL's Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences. The series provides an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our professors who are undertaking research and scholarship of international significance, and offers an insight into the strength and vitality of the arts, humanities and social sciences at UCL.
All our lectures are free to attend and open to all. You don't have to be a UCL staff member or student to come along.
Lectures begin at 18:30 and are typically one hour long. A drinks reception will follow, to which everyone is welcome to join.
We look forward to meeting you at one of our events.
For information on other upcoming lectures please visit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/news-events/inaugural-lectures