Conflict, Memory, Displacement

Abstract

Conflict, Memory, Displacement explores our understanding of global conflict as it relates to the European refugee crisis, focusing on the UK and Italy. We examined how this understanding is constructed through media representations, official and popular discourses, and institutional and citizen-led initiatives. We explored how this understanding in turn shapes institutional and popular responses to population movement. The project also explores how asylum seekers can offer a collective analysis of the institutional processes of ‘becoming migrant’, at the hands of the state and members of society. This collection of materials, including slides, images, and video, form an 'online exhibition', which arose from the research project, 'Performing memory & memorialising conflict at a distance: innovative approaches to understanding the views of displaced people & receiving communities', a project funded by The Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (PaCCS), through the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The material in the exhibition (UK) arises from: analysis of UK media; a survey of 130 people; 25 individual interviews; and arts workshops in Birmingham and Nottingham. Research team: Kirsten Forkert (School of Media, Birmingham City University); Gargi Bhattacharyya (Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging, University of East London); Federico Oliveri (Sciences for Peace Interdisciplinary Centre, University of Pisa); Janna Graham (Goldsmiths, University of London) Partners: Birmingham Asylum and Refugee Association (Birmingham, UK); The Women’s Cultural Exchange (Nottingham, UK); Implicated Theatre (London, UK); and Cantieri Meticci (Bologna, Italy)