Oral history with refugees and migrants - an online lunchtime seminar

• How does oral history support our understanding of the refugee and migrant experience?

• Can oral history contribute to effective advocacy and awareness-raising initiatives to support refugees and migrants

Please join us for our second lunchtime oral history seminar in October with Tania Gessi and Nairy Abdel Shafy.

(Zoom details will be shared with attendees before the event)

Tania Gessi and Nairy Abdel Shafy will introduce their work and respond to these questions individually and in dialogue. Participants will be invited to contribute to an online discussion that covers oral history theory and practice rooted in experience and reflections from different geographical and thematic contexts.

Tania Gessi is a project lead at the Roma Support Group. She has implemented a wide range of Roma projects over the years, and is currently delivering a project called "Ketane - Together: Roma Shaping Futures", which seeks to empower Roma communities with training, information resources, and specialist advice regarding living in a post-Brexit Britain. The Roma Support Group (RSG) is a Roma-led Registered Charity working with East European Roma refugees and migrants in terms of service provision but also promoting an understanding of Roma culture in the UK. Tania implemented the "Roma Stories" Oral History Project (2018-2020) which explored life before the Second World War, persecution during the war, discrimination in the home country, migration and life in the UK.

Twitter: @RomaSupport

Nairy Abdel Shafy is an Egyptian educator, oral historian, and social researcher. She draws from her experience in volunteering and working with refugees through different local NGOs in Egypt and international humanitarian organizations to attempt at a documentation of identity and movement narratives for social change. She has worked on documenting personal stories within different communities: Nubians, Palestinian, and Syrian refugees in Egypt; Nepalis, Salvadorans and Puerto Ricans in the U.S. In 2020, she was the Oral History Coordinator at the Education 2.0 Research and Documentation Project documenting the Egyptian educational reforms. She holds an MA in Oral History from Columbia University, a BSc. of Political Science from Cairo University and is currently studying documentary filmmaking.

Faces of Nuba - وشوش النوبة - YouTube

Faces of Nuba - وشوش النوبة by Nairy AbdElShafy - Issuu

The Newcastle University Oral History Unit and Collective (NUOHUC) is directly involved in research and teaching on oral history and activism and has supported the Roma Stories Oral History Project. Unit staff with other colleagues in History, have designed and deliver a history undergraduate module Oral history and activism for Level 2 students. NUOHUC has been involved in a variety of research projects with activists and movements across the UK, for example: the Covid-19 and Mutual Aid project (Dr Alison Atkinson-Phillips and Silvie Fisch) and Andy Clark’s research and publications documenting the response of Scottish women to factory closure, particularly the wave of occupations that took place in 1981.

We hope to expand and enhance our thinking around the relationship between oral history and activism and the value of undertaking oral history with refugees and migrants, by listening to and dialoguing with other experts in these fields.

*The first seminar to be held on October 12th 1-2pm is on Oral history and activism with Tionne Parris (Young Historians Project) and Nandini Oza. Details here