So pleased to have been invited to participate in an online conversation looking at the work refugee and non-refugee artists, academics, activists and art spaces are doing at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet.
The conversation took place online on Thursday, 28 March 2024.
It was a real honour to share the 'stage' with these other activists:
THE SESSIONS
2.00pm - 3.30pm (UK Time): Session 1: Theatre, Visual Arts & Moving Images
Matthew Hahn, an international theatre director, playwright and theatre for development facilitator, post-graduate with experience of creating, coordinating and implementing theatre projects in the United Kingdom, the United States, East & Southern Africa. He is also the Artistic Director of the Folkestone Performing Arts Company, an artist-led international theatre ensemble creating vibrant, relevant and compelling theatre through the celebration of local stories in Folkestone, UK. Currently, Hahn is working with refugees and asylum seekers at Napier Barracks, Folkestone.
Dr Tetyana Hnatyuk, a human migration researcher with 20 years of experience in the field, has a PhD degree in Political Science. Her research focuses on forced migration (internally displaced persons, refugees, asylum seekers). She is the author of more than 60 publications. She also has experience working in the migration sphere for a British local authority-led partnership, international organisation (the UNHCR), local NGOs, Ukrainian governmental authorities and academia. Dr Hnatyuk has been a participant of the Ukrainian Sponsorship Scheme “Homes for Ukraine” in the UK since September 2022. In June 2023, she joined a British local authority-led partnership Migration Yorkshire (Leeds, UK) as a community researcher and worked on a research project on Ukrainians in the UK via the “Homes for Ukraine” programme. “Living Your Life in Someone Else’s Home” is the second part of the Migration Yorkshire research project focusing on the “Homes for Ukraine” scheme from guest perspectives.
Innocent Creus Rugamba, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2012, spent 12 years in Uganda, where he witnessed first-hand the challenges faced by refugees: food shortages, educational barriers, and livelihood struggles. Despite fleeing his homeland after completing secondary school with dreams of becoming a doctor, conflict shattered those aspirations. Rugamba then began teaching English to adults in the settlement and co-founded a refugee-led organisation focused on adult literacy and financial management training. Now, pursuing a Master’s Degree in International Relations at the University of Cagliari in Italy on a scholarship, his goal is to leverage his experiences and education to advocate for refugee rights and access to education.