Critical Migration and Refugee Studies Series: Yến Lê Espiritu, "Feminist Refugee Epistemology: Reading Displacement in Vietnamese and Syrian Refugee Art"

Petteruti Lounge, Stephen Robert '62 Center, 75 Waterman Street, Providence RI 02912

Joining the fields of transnational feminist studies with critical refugee studies, this talk introduces the concept feminist refugee epistemology (FRE) to re-conceptualize war-based displacement as not only about social disorder and interruption but also about social reproduction and innovation. FRE does more than critique Western media representation of refugees; it underlines the refugees' rich and complicated lives, the ways in which they enact their hopes, beliefs, and politics, even when they live militarized lives.

Critical Migration and Refugee Studies Series: Sofian Merabet, "Strange Hospitality: Gay Syrian Refugees in Lebanon"

IBES Room 130, 85 Waterman Street, Providence RI 02912

This paper engages with the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon and, specifically, considers how queer-identified Syrians navigate an often-hostile environment in and around the Lebanese capital Beirut. Drawing on hospitality as a philosophical concept and on the sociological notion of the stranger, this paper focuses on discourses and aspirations these refugees express, in terms of language and bodily practices, in the face of what many experience as “hardened borders” within the social fabric of the host country. 

The Third Rail Series aims to address some of the most thorny and contentious social, political, and cultural issues related to race and ethnicity in contemporary society. 

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As a research and programming unit, our charge at CSREA is two-fold. First, to support scholarly research among faculty and advanced students and to extend research networks for scholars on campus and beyond. Second, to host academics and artists as well as pundits and critical thinkers external to Brown who address not only timely and cutting edge research topics, but also persistent and pressing issues regarding race and ethnicity in society.

Mission

The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University supports and generates rigorous and accessible research, performance, art, and scholarship on a broad range of pressing issues related to race and ethnicity to help build greater understanding and a more just world.
 

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