About the talk:

In the wake of digital transformations in social life and social research, this seminar examines the role of the digital in research with, on and by refugees and forced migrants. In the emerging field of digital forced migration and refugee studies, the digital refers to the object of inquiry, its methods, and its platforms. Using selected examples from my collaborative research, I show how the digital affects the relations between forced migrants’ everyday life and its analysis in diverse ways. Digital methodologies can be used to maintain unequal power relations in refugee research but also to rethink “refugee voices”, representation and power within the growing movement that calls for decolonizing forced migration and refugee studies. Integrating theory, methods, and practice, I then describe our collaborative Digital Storytelling Action Research, which uses co-produced digital narratives and platforms as decolonial praxis for social change.

About the series:

‘Localising’ refugee research and practice

Trinity Term 2021 Seminar Series

Convener: Dr Evan Easton-Calabria

This public seminar series aims to examine research on refugees and forced migration within the broader localisation agenda, as well as methodological attempts to ‘localise’ refugee research through co-creating and co-conducting research with refugees and local hosts. Through a blend of practically-, methodologically-, and theoretically-focused seminars, this series aims to present current research designs and methodologies involving refugee and local researchers, and the challenges and opportunities that lie therein, as well as theoretical work reflecting on issues of ethics and power. Concomitant with these discussions will be ongoing examinations of the relationship between advocacy and scholarship, and the extent to which both can and should be met together