The Art of Refugee Research: Creative Collaborations in Practice

This event will show three short films by University of York staff relating to refugees and community (Crossing Borders by Zulfiya Hamzaki; Unity and Community by Simona Manni and Finding Your Feet: A Field Guide to Belle Isle by Emilie Flower.

Crossing Borders - Khansaa and her family fled the Syrian war in search of a better life in the United States. As refugees living in Oakland California, they adapt to an unfamiliar culture with the help of a young American mother. Zulfiya Hamzaki's Crossing Borders looks at the migrant story through motherhood and friendship that crosses language and cultural barriers.

Unity and Community - A short film co-created by Simona Manni with women from the Sudanese community in Bradford. The film is part of a project developed by Bradford UNESCO City of Film bringing a diverse range of communities together through film and conversation.

Finding Your Feet: A Field Guide to Belle Isle - In May 2015 a group of people from Leeds came together in Belle Isle to attend a participatory video training hosted by The Young Foundation. Together with Emilie Flower, they designed this film named “Finding your Feet”, which, drawing on their strengths as a group, sheds a new light on the process of finding your feet in a new environment and presents Belle Isle with a fresh perspective.

by Emilie Flower. 

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the researchers/filmmakers about refugee research and creative methods, facilitated by the co-chairs of the University of York Migration network, Simon Parker and Sara de Jong. The interdisciplinary panel discussion will cover questions of representation, participation and collaboration, including who can speak for whom; what are the synergies and tensions between academic and artistic work in the area of refugee rights, and finally, how do we combine our different and overlapping identities of artists, academics, migrants, refugees, and/or activists?

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

York Medical Society, 23 Stonegate, York, United Kingdom