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Tagged / refugee

7 December 2018

BU-Community Partnership Workshop (Refugee & Migrant Leisure Network)

Dr. Jaeyeon Choe, Dr. Varuni Wimalasiri, Dr. Nicola De Martini Ugolottiand, and Dr. Jayne Caudwell in Faculty of Management organised the Refugee and Migrant Leisure Network workshop on December 5th with community partners including Dorset Race Equality Council and Unity in Vision.

During the two-hour workshop, we discussed how to support refugee and migrant communities in Dorset including ‘vocation’ and language learning. We also discussed other mechanisms that help their re-settlement and integration such as cooking workshops, community events, music and art, all which might provide a broader scope of support such as social and emotional/psychological well-being.

We agreed that we need to listen to refugee and migrant ‘voices’ for their settlement, integration, meaning making and well-being in order to develop supportive programmes. It’s often seen that existing programmes don’t meet what refugee and migrant populations actually need. There is an urgent need to listen to their problems, challenges, so as to develop effective support programmes.

We also discussed ‘qualitative’ data that community organisations often collect including stories, lived experiences and anecdotes do not communicate well with policy makers. What will be an effective strategy to convert the ‘messy’ data (from community events, sport, music, and art) into policy making? This is a challenge for both community organisations and researchers.

Our community partners also shared that they are facing new challenges (ie funding). All councils and community organisations face difficulties in developing, managing and ‘sustaining’ support systems for refugee and migrant populations. Whilst discussing the role of a local university when supporting refugee and migrant issues, securing some funding can be one area to work on for both researchers and community groups. For example, Dr. Jaeyeon Choe recently applied for a grant with two of the community partners to support their activities as well as her own research. The proposal focuses on Syrian refugee resettlement, belonging, subjective well-being and community ‘food’ events in rural UK. We are also looking into larger/future collaborative funding opportunities together.

For BU academics, it was very fruitful to listen to and learn from community workers about refugee and migrant issues in Dorset and beyond. Besides the productive discussions, it was inspiring to see people who are passionate about supporting and working hard for refugee and migrant communities!

If you are interested in our network, please follow us:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/400355213641367?tsid=0.41635546925909617&source=result

1 March 2018

Upcoming SURE conference – Student case study (Abigail Cox)

conferences, Public engagement, Student Engagement, student research sgardener

Abigail Cox is in her final year of Television Production in the Faculty of Media and Communication and is participating in the upcoming Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence (SURE) conference on 7 March 2018.

“I was inspired to submit an abstract to SURE as it looked like a great opportunity to showcase my research and also to develop my public speaking and communication skills,” says Abigail.

Her research explores the representation of refugee in contemporary documentary and current affairs reporting. “I have always followed the refugee crisis in the news. It is an incredibly important issue within humanity today, which is often not helped by negative media representation of the refugees themselves.”

Abigail was inspired by the BBC 2 series Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, “After watching this TV series, I knew that I had to use it as a case study,” she says. “I wanted to explore the key reoccurring representational themes within contemporary documentary and current affairs broadcasts which highlight the refugee crisis. This series offers new modes of documentary filmmaking which challenge the existing perceptions of refugees.”

“Overall, I think SURE is a great way to showcase work, especially to a wide variety of people. SURE offers students a chance to discuss their research with people outside of their faculty or programme, which is perhaps an opportunity we would not normally have.”

The Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence conference will taking place on 7 March 2018. Many undergraduate students from across the university will be presenting their research throughout the conference in a variety of different ways, from presentations to posters and art installations. Please register via the Eventbrite page if you would like to attend.

For more details, visit the SURE website or email the SURE team.

25 April 2017

Update on the Migrant & Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being post Brexit project

BRIAN, Festival of Learning, Fusion, Public engagement jchoe

The ‘Migrant & Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being’ research project is focused on building research capacity to respond to social and cultural shifts in Dorset following Brexit with regard to migrant and refugee wellbeing. – See more at: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2017/01/27/we-love-eu-migrant-refugee-leisure-spaces-and-community-well-being-project/

The project brings together academics and community partners, including b-side Arts Organisation, Poole Museum, Dorset Race Equality Council, Bournemouth & Poole City of Sanctuary and Bournemouth University STAR (Student Action for Refugees). In particular, we are interested in past and present migration flows and the inclusion of displaced peoples in Dorset, and we are keen to explore and document the positive ways individuals and groups make connections through leisure, including sport, art, heritage and culture.

One of the projects related to this research is this socially-engaged art work entitled: Shahre Farang by Farhad Berahman produced by b-side. Farhad and his art work will appear at Bournemouth University Festival of Learning in July as well as Refugee Week (June 19th – 25th) events and b-side Outpost Art Festival.

“If you could never return home, what would you do and where would you go if you were granted just one minute to be there?”
Iranian photographer Farhad Berahman presents the memories of 20 Iranian asylum seekers who are unable to return home. Look into the beautiful Shahre Farang (an Iranian peepbox used by wandering storytellers) and see their memories made real, meet the artist and join in with discussion and activities.

The Shahre Farang piece is touring Dorset visiting Bridgeport and Dorchester markets, Portland, Poole and Bournemouth University Festival of Learning:

Outpost, Portland 17 – 22 June
Poole Museum 24 June
Dorchester Market 28 June
Bridport Market 01 July
Bournemouth University 08 July

While we are very excited for the upcoming socially engaged art events, we are currently discussing how we can encourage members of Dorset refugee or migrant communities to attend the Festival of Learning at Bournemouth University. We are working with members of the newly formed network of community partners to extend invites to as many groups as possible.

Later this year, core academic members will attend the Leisure Studies Association (LSA) annual conference (July) and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) annual conference (August/September) to present work and chair sessions. The details are as follows:

Associate Prof. Jayne Caudwell and Dr. Katherine King are presenting in the ‘Leisure and Social Justice’ session at the LSA International Conference in Leeds. They will reflect on the development of the co-created, socially engaged arts event. In framing their critical reflection, they discuss the role of leisure spaces and practices in building connections between previously disconnected groups of people living in Dorset.

Dr. Jaeyeon Choe and Prof. Janet Dickinson are session organisers for ‘Migrant Leisure Spaces and Community Wellbeing’ at RGS-IBS International Conference in London. The session includes a number of diverse papers from the UK, Mexico, Canada and Australia addressing key issues surrounding migration, leisure and space. http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/12/22/cfp-rgs-ibg-annual-conference-2017-migrant-leisure-spaces-and-community-wellbeing/

If you are interested in our project, please follow us:
Project web-page: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/project/migrant-refugee-leisure-wellbeing/
Facebook: Migrant Leisure Spaces
Twitter: @migrantspaces

27 January 2017

Migrant & Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being project

Awarded & submitted bids, BRIAN, Fusion, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement jchoe

‘We Love EU: Migrant & Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being’ project

16179422_217000012040197_2571879194070632645_o

Bournemouth University academics and community organization partners had a first meeting for an internally funded project (QR Fund), ‘We Love EU: Migrant and Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being’ on January 25. The ‘We love EU’ project is focused on building research capacity to respond to policy changes with regard to migrant wellbeing and Brexit. The project is based in the Department of Events and Leisure (Faculty of Management) and hence the project has a leisure focus. Previous research indicates that leisure spaces and practices are productive to marginalised and excluded communities and individuals in terms of generating resilience and well-being.

The BU academics are: Janet Dickinson, Jayne Caudwell, Kat King and Jaeyeon Choe (Department of Events and Leisure), Adele Ladkin (Department of Tourism and Hospitality), Darren Lilleker (Media School), Nicola De Martini Ugolotti (Department of Sport and Physical Activity), Rosie Read and Holly Crossen-White (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences). We have come together as a very interdisciplinary group with different backgrounds and knowledge. The external partners are: Sally Watkins and Sandy Kirkby from Bside, Nathalie Sherring from Dorset Race Equality Rep, Trudie Cole from Poole Museum, Samineh Richardson, researcher with Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Steph Farr from Corporate Policy and Performance Officer (Syrian Resettlement Programme), Mark Forsyth, Cenan Chappell and Gwen Scolding from the British Red Cross / City of Sanctuary. The partners are working with refugees/migrants or involved with community leisure related activities to explore how we can make research work as a tool to help and address current challenges.

In our three hour meeting, we primarily discussed the community input for the project and planning for collaborative activities to make a broad and meaningful impact. The community partners shared their challenges and issues working with migrant and refugee communities in Dorset. For example, they reported that one of the challenges migrants are facing is ‘Uncertainty’ and we should seek ‘two-way integration’ and think about how to encourage the two way integration. It was a good opportunity to think of what integration or inclusion really means, and how we should approach these concepts. Discussion centred around addressing community partner challenges, including organizing awareness, conducting research projects and publicizing or communicating some significant issues through various media.

The productive meeting revealed many collaboration opportunities with the community along with potential short-medium to long term positive impacts. For example, the community partners value the development of a network and we will organize a community art event with b-Side during Refugee Week (19-25, June 2017). As the organizations have lots of hands-on research opportunities, we are also thinking of liaising with our students to get them involved in research projects alongside community organizations. I personally thought that there is great hope if 20 community partners and academics are passionately discussing what we can we do about these issues on a cold foggy Wednesday for three long hours.

We just have to keep asking, what makes migrants feel belonging, and try to understand what they need, and how leisure spaces (public or private) can help them feel more welcome and healthy.

We look forward to co-producing positive impacts in our community and beyond through this project.

Please follow us on twitter @migrantspaces or join us on Facebook, ‘Migrant Leisure Spaces’ if you are interested in our work or want to share your stories or comments.

#migrantleisurespaces

Janet Dickinson, Jayne Caudwell, Kat King & Jaeyeon Choe

Tagged / refugee

BU-Community Partnership Workshop (Refugee & Migrant Leisure Network)

Upcoming SURE conference – Student case study (Abigail Cox)

Abigail Cox is in her final year of Television Production in the Faculty of Media and Communication and is participating in the upcoming Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence (SURE) conference on 7 March 2018.

Update on the Migrant & Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being post Brexit project

Migrant & Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being project

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Tagged / refugee

Abigail Cox is in her final year of Television Production in the Faculty of Media and Communication and is participating in the upcoming Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence (SURE) conference on 7 March 2018.

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