Phase 2 report (2020 - 2022)

  1. Executive summary
  2. Our key objectives
  3. Phase 2 – who are we now?
  4. Our approach to covid-19
  5. Our research projects
    5.1 Migration for Equality and Development (MIDEQ)
    5.2 Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network Plus (CUSP N+)
    5.3 CUSP N+ case study
    5.4 New Scots Refugee Development Integration Project (NSRIDP)
    5.5 New Scots case study
  6. Sites Unseen - our new project!
    6.1 Sites Unseen - case study
  7. Influence on policy and practice
  8. Website, socials, media engagement
  9. Public engagement
    9.1 Spring School
    9.2 Spring School 2022 memories
    9.3 Exhibitions
    9.4 The People’s Global Summit ‘Co-building a New Eco-social World: leaving no one behind’
  10. Postgraduate researchers
  11. Our researcher community
  12. Celebrating our team
  13. Talks, conferences, and keynotes
    13.1 Little Amal case study
  14. Publications

A PDF version of the report can be accessed here: UNESCO RILA Phase 2 Interim Report (2020 - 2022)

1. Executive Summary

UNESCO chair in refugee integration through languages and the arts.

UNESCO RILA

So... what is that? What do we... do?

Through our work, we seek to bring different perspectives together to inform practice and policy that is more sustainable, equitable, and just for those who seek or have sought sanctuary. The tendency is to assume that societies will always trend upwards on measures of freedom and equality. This is not the case, as recent global events have proven: freedom and equality require constant attention and defence.

As an introduction to this report and to our team, we would like to share some research findings from our projects. These “statements of practice” underpin the UNESCO RILA approach and methodology in our public engagement, continuing research programme, interactions with each other and our partners and community. The statements are borne of projects which grew out of Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State (2014-2017), the pre-cursor to the UNESCO RILA programme:

We consider and address aspects and challenges of multilingualism, specifically the reflexive process of what impact researching or writing in a language that is not a mother tongue has on the research process and the outputs of that research.

Culture, arts and languages play an important facilitating role in integration and understanding.

Taking an intentional, multilingual decolonial approach to research with international partners, especially those in the global south, is important in maintaining trust for future work.

We implement multilingual and multimodal creative methodologies when working across contexts and consider an “English last” approach.

Creative arts and multilingual approaches are included in participatory research methodologies to improve safeguarding and well-being of participants and project team members.

The use of idioms (sayings) of distress and resilience are important to widen and re-examine recognised concepts of mental health and well-being. In mental health contexts, idioms offer an explanatory framework which can be embedded in psycho-social remedy for trauma in humanitarian settings.

Enhancing and supporting women and girls’ voices in leadership of cultural and arts work in cultural organisations is essential to the achievement of SDG 16 "Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions", as is the resourcing of regional and local cultural organisations.

Peace-building and conflict transformation are not always easily achieved within the frameworks favoured by governments and INGOs, and they require dynamic co-built and participatory approaches which work with arts, culture and languages.

The arts and languages bring both comfort and discomfort to researching migration in the global south across a range of disciplinary fields and contexts in a way which is intentionally not extractivist. The arts and languages enable expressions of migration justice to surface in ways that do not render migrants more precarious.

The importance of a human rights-based approach to refugee integration is fully documented for policymakers through the New Scots Strategy, and the role of language, culture and digital access is acknowledged. New Scots is now not merely a niche concern of the Scottish Government but a central driver of understanding the socio-cultural and intercultural needs of the whole of Scottish society.

We hope you enjoy reading our report. Please do consider signing up to our mailing list and joining us at one of our events in the near future.

Any questions or comments can be directed to the UNESCO RILA secretariat at unesco-rila@glasgow.ac.uk. 

Reporting period

June 2020– 30 Sept 2022

Authors

Lauren Roberts  UNESCO Chair Secretariat Coordinator

Alison Phipps  UNESCO Chairholder

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, Professor Margery Mcmahon, head of the School of Education, and our colleagues in the School of Education and across the university for their unwavering support for our work and our team. 

To our colleagues, friends and partners in Glasgow and beyond...

ngā mihi nui, grazie mille, شك†رًا†جزي†لًا†, merci beaucoup, muchas gracias, vielen dank, hartelijk dank, 谢谢, የቐንየለይ, hvala lepa, muito obrigado, maitabas, tusen tack, tapadh leat, akpe akpe akpe, eʋegbe, totenda, oyi wala dɔɔɔŋ, dziękuję bardzo, thank you.

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2. Our key objectives

Objective 1

Enhance and replicate models for refugee integration by intentional multilingual learning with refugees and with new host communities, in order to foster creativity, diversity of cultural expressions and intercultural capabilities.

Objective 2

Work with partners in distinctive contexts in the Global South – specifically Gaza and Ghana – with historical experience of refugee integration and population loss, in order to address needs in Europe and Third Countries presently receiving displaced persons. For this purpose, work with researchers, refugees, artists, NGOs, policymakers and governments to plan and evaluate research projects, programmes for action and policy change addressing their specific concerns relating to cultural diversity and languages.

Objective 3

Foster networking and collaboration with key scholars through visits, exchanges, events and video-link seminars, in the Global South, as well as with indigenous peoples.

Objective 4

Attend specifically to the academic freedom for refugee scholars and displaced persons thematically across activities in order to promote creative forms of freedom of cultural and academic expression.

Objective 5

Cooperate closely with UNESCO on relevant programmes and activities, as well as with relevant UNESCO Chairs. 

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3. Phase 2 – who are we now?

UNESCO RILA Phase 1 ran from January 2017 to December 2020. Phase 2 runs from January 2021 to the end of December 2024. Since our last report in mid-2020, we have welcomed new staff to the team to support our expanding research and engagement portfolio.

Our team

Prof Alison Phipps OBE, PHD, BA (HONS), FRSE, FRSA, FACSS

UNESCO Chair Refugee Integration Through Languages and the Arts
Co-Director MIDEQ
Principal Investigator CUSP N+
Co-Investigator NSRIDP

UNESCO Secretariat

  • Secretariat Coordinator: Lauren Roberts
  • Secretariat Coordinator (Arts): Bella Hoogeveen
  • Project Administrator: Brittnee Leysen

Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ)

  • Research Associates: Dr Gameli Tordzro and Tawona Sitholé
  • Research Assistant: Naa Densua Tordzro
  • PhD Researcher: Hannah Rose Thomas

Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network Plus (CUSP N+)

  • Academic Coordinator: Dr Hyab Yohannes (from Jan 22) and Dr Maria Grazia Imperiale (Sept 20 - Dec 21)
  • Project Administrator: Jennifer McArthur

New Scots Refugee Integration Development Project (NSRIDP)

  • Research Associates: Dr Dan Fisher and Dr Esa Aldegheri (from Aug 22)
  • Project Administrator: Nicola McRobbie
  • John Smith Centre Emerging Leaders Intern: Savan Qadir

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4. Our approach to COVID-19

We continued our programme of research and events throughout COVID-19 lockdowns learning how to use new and existing technologies as we went. We chose to see the necessary pivot to online delivery during and post-COVID as an opportunity to develop our capabilities and resources. Widening our online engagement with overseas partners and improving our digital media output became an essential, rather than peripheral, activity. We developed an online methodology of encounter which strove to nurture and sustain wellbeing for those experiencing isolation and fear.

Despite these mitigations however, COVID-19 impacted our team and our partners in ways we did not foresee...

Research during COVID and Overseas Development Assistance Cuts

Our work alongside Global South partners with historical experience of refugee integration continues through our MIDEQ and CUSPN+ projects (project details are on the research section of our website).

The UK Government announced a decision to slash overseas development assistance (ODA) spending in November 2020 from 0.7 to 0.5 of GDP due to the impact of COVID on the UK economy. The ODA reduction resulted in deep cuts to research projects supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund for 2021/22, with funders requesting that projects make immediate savings of up to 70%. The cuts significantly and materially impacted our partners, partnerships and research agenda.

During this reporting period, much of our work with Global South partners necessarily centred on mitigating the effects of these cuts. We sought to repair and restore the trust of our partners in the viability of pursuing research with UK HEIs.

In 2021 Professor Phipps resigned as Co-Chair of the UKRI AHRC International Strategic Advisory Board in objection to GCRF project cuts and the harm caused to research partners and partnerships in the chaotic process, and the absence of governance procedures. The Chair was a key voice of resistance on social and print media towards the cuts and even co-authored a journal article about it (Imperiale and Phipps (2022)).

Thankfully, and due in no small part to the determined lobbying of UK researchers, funding has been restored to projects for 2022/23.

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5. Our research projects

Full details of all our research and links to project websites can be found at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/research/ 

5.1 Migration for Equality and Development (MIDEQ)

Feb 2019 - Feb 2024, UKRI GCRF ESRC ES/S007415/1

MIDEQ is the largest project on human migration ever funded by UKRI. Co-Director Phipps leads work package 11 “Arts, creative resistance and well-being” to establish an interdisciplinary, evidence-based understanding of the complex and multifaceted relationships between South-South migration (SSM), inequality and development on which policy makers, programme specialists and donors can draw to ensure that the development potential associated with SSM is harnessed for individuals, households, communities and the countries of the Global South.

We’ve recently attracted flexible funding to support additional collaborations with partners in Zimbabwe and Ghana.

Justice: A Migrating Dance 

With Noyam Institute for African Dance will stage and choreograph a piece which tells the story of the different ‘look and feel’ of justice in different contexts within the Global South, and from the perspective of migrants as opposed to those privileged in international instruments and human rights frameworks or legal remedies (April 2022 – March 2023).

Working with Cultural Data and Creating Artistic Outputs: Training guide, workshops and performance for researchers and knowledge brokers

An artistic team (led by Tawona Sitholé) will work with researchers who have not engaged in artistic or cultural work with social scientific data in the past, to enable capacity development in research (1 June 2022 – 31 Dec 2023).

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5.2 Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network Plus (CUSP N+)

April 2020 – Sept 2023, UKRI AHRC GCRF AH/T005424/1

A collaboration with organisations in low- and middle-income countries on conflict transformation in communities experiencing tensions and fragility using arts and cultural work to foreground and support women into leadership roles. We work with partners in Ghana, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine and Zimbabwe. Several CUSPN+ initiatives have been launched:

  • Publication Scheme: open to academics and non-academics to cover costs associated with publishing.
  • Podcast: Focused on different aspects of peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
  • Commissioning research: £375K of ODA funding awarded through our Grant Scheme to expand the network. 11 projects funded with 17 partner organisations.
  • Massive Open Online Course - Safeguarding in Collaborative Research and International Development: Contexts, Challenges, and Opportunities (2022). Three-week course hosted on by FutureLearn which supports learners to ensure safeguarding is a central part of collaborative research projects across diverse global situations.

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5.3 CUSP N+ case study

The Role of Drama Theatre Activities in the Empowerment of IUG students

7 - 14 March 2022, Islamic University of Gaza

CUSP N+ supported a five-day arts festival produced by Palestinian university students in celebration of International Women’s Day. 168 talented students took part in the first-ever drama theatre festival organised by the English Department at the IUG "Palestine Theatre and Arts: Women and Inclusive Peace”.

Universities are more than just a place where students gather for academic achievement: they are communities in which students interact with everyday reality and prepare for the future. Accordingly, it has become one of the most important functions of university education to teach, empower and develop the skills, abilities, and talents of students to contribute to building a society capable of facing today’s challenges.

Female students at IUG now represent over 60% of the student body. IUG has identified it is necessary to develop focused events and activities which broaden the capabilities and skills of their female students to help them as they prepare for life beyond academic education. Extracurricular activities which support the students to explore their social and emotional development alongside their academic skills play a major role in shaping cultural awareness, enhancing self-confidence, sustaining motivation for learning, and promoting self-reliance. Through developing and producing artistic and cultural shows for the arts festival, students enhanced their abilities and skills in active participation, problem-solving, and decision-making.

After the festival, CUSP N+ team members at IUG analysed data collected from a 38-item questionnaire distributed to 88 female students, and conducted focus group interviews with 10 female students who participated in the event. The quantitative and qualitative data showed a positive impact from their engagement in the festival, enhancing reported measures of linguistic and literary competence. The participants kept echoing “we can’t believe that we did it”.

Finally, the study found that having a permanent theatre in Palestinian universities could be a practical and powerful way to empower university students and enhance their talents and convey their messages by reaching their voices to the world.

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5.4 New Scots Refugee Development Integration Project (NSRIDP)

1 Oct 2020 – 31 Dec 2022, European Commission’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund

Led by the Scottish Government in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), the Scottish Refugee Council and the University of Glasgow. The New Scots refugee integration strategy (2018-22) aims to ensure refugees live in safe and welcoming communities that enable them to rebuild their lives from the day they arrive in Scotland.

Projects which work to help refugees settle in Scotland are benefitting from £2.8 million of funding. NSRIDP will review integration projects to date and those funded under this scheme to learn lessons and provide evidence that will support the development of the next iteration of the New Scots strategy from 2023. The intention is to improve refugee integration in Scotland so that it may act as an international exemplar of successful refugee integration.

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5.5 New Scots case study

Evidence in Progress Workshop

An Evidence in Progress Workshop was held in the COSLA event space in Edinburgh on the 23rd of August 2022 with NSRIDP partners, the New Scots Core Group, representatives of funded projects, and researchers from refugee backgrounds. The workshop aimed to:

(i) present tentative findings and research methods,

(ii) sense-check findings and methods with attendees,

(iii) gather learning to assist planning for the third New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy.

Summary of presentations and feedback:

  • The New Scots strategy has an innovative rights-based approach, but when compared to other national integration policies it lags behind in delivering a clear cross-sectoral approach to integration governance (see Finland) and considering the role & impact of receiving communities (see Berlin).
  • Social attitudes towards refugees remain fairly high in Scotland despite only 14% of people knowing or having had contact with someone who is a refugee.
  • ESOL classes play a vital role in New Scots’ lives.
  • Research on interpreting in asylum appeals highlighted the lack of guidance on how to use court interpreters, and a lack of standardised system for checking mutual comprehension.
  • Approaches to refugee integration have expanded and improved recently and, though there is an appreciation for the NSS, there is no uniformity in how it is used on a day-to-day basis.
  • The funding landscape for projects and organisations supporting New Scots creates competition rather than solidarity. Fundraising takes time away from other work. Suggested solutions: creative partnership working involving New Scots to share resources and minimise fundraising efforts.
  • Insufficient ESOL provision and digital access for learning was exacerbated by COVID lockdown. Suggested solutions: Increased funding for trained ESOL providers who can also teach online and increase digital access for new Scots.
  • Insufficient information upon arrival regarding resources, services and choices available to New Scots. Suggested solutions: Clear maps of services/resources in different languages. Better explain the devolved/reserved powers affecting New Scots.
  • Inadequate housing. Suggested solutions: Support campaigns to de-privatise asylum housing.

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6. Sites Unseen - our new project!

Sites Unseen represents the majority of UNESCO RILA activity for the remainder of Phase 2. Sites Unseen builds on The UNESCO Trail in Scotland and seeks to take the existing trail forward into new areas. Scotland has 14 UNESCO sites, including Glasgow UNESCO City of Music, Wester Ross UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and the North-West Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark.

We are working with people who live in and around these sites to create digital learning packs which use these sites as case studies, drawing out broader themes relating to cultural heritage, language, identity, place, migration and sustainability. The learning packs will also consider links between these sites and other UNESCO sites around the world: we’ll consider Scotland’s global relationships, and draw out points of commonality and difference, kinship and conflict, across oceans and continents.

The aim is to facilitate intercultural communication and join the ongoing project of decolonising education. We hope that through the creation of these learning packs, we’ll also be able to create international partnerships between the sites which continue beyond the end of the project.

What are we making?

14 Learning packs for use in schools, community groups, libraries and museums. Each chapter will be based around short films which tell stories from the site. Each film will serve as a starting point for a flexible program of arts-based activities and games.

Why are we doing this?

Sites Unseen represents an ambitious program designed to:

  • Celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity.
  • Make space for Scotland’s lesser-heard voices and stories in education.
  • Help learners to develop a stronger understanding of the place they live in, and how it connects to the rest of the world.
  • Contribute to a stronger understanding of UNESCO’s work, and what it means for a place to be a UNESCO site.
  • Support the educational work of schools and community learning environments, particularly in relation to peace-building, intercultural capabilities, and the development of empathy.

Where are we at with all this?

We have held information sessions with Site Coordinators and are now in the stakeholder engagement phase with physical scoping trips. Our first will be to the North-West Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark and Wester Ross UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in November 2022. We are actively applying for funding support focusing on these sites plus the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music.

We wish to acknowledge the School of Education Small Grants Fund which supported our first scoping trips and a pilot event at the Scottish Crannog Centre in 2022.

Visit the UNESCO Trail in Scotland to find out more about the sites we will be working with https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/unesco-trail/

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6.1 Sites Unseen - case study

North-West Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark collaboration

We’ve recently completed our community consultation with people in the North-West Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark in Scotland. We wanted to find out about the stories that matter to this community, and to tap into the conversations that they are currently having.

Some of the things people spoke to us about were:

  • It’s a rural area that’s facing catastrophic depopulation. A lot of the housing is being bought by people from outside of the area to be used as holiday homes, meaning that it’s becoming much too expensive for young people from the area to stay there. Instead, they are moving away and the community is dying.
  • The area has a traumatic history: in the 18th century, many people were forcibly displaced from their land. The landscape is still littered with the ruins of Cleared villages. Some of the people we spoke to suggested that the Highland Clearances are not over: the area is still being depopulated, and people are still being displaced from the land.
  • Many of the people who were Cleared from the Highlands moved to Nova Scotia, taking Highland culture and the Gaelic language with them. Many of them settled on the lands of First Nations people, in particular the Mi’kmaw people.

We’ve found that many people in the North West Highlands are ready to have conversations about the complex and difficult aspects of the region’s history, and to use these conversations as a way to shed light on the issues they face in the present. This is what we hope to do with our first learning pack.

We plan to link up the North-West Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark with the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark in Nova Scotia in order to explore the historical and contemporary relationships between these places and the communities that live there. While we do plan to engage with people in Nova Scotia who have Scottish Highland ancestry, we will focus our energies on creating connections with the Mi’kmaw people on whose land many displaced Highlanders settled.

We plan to commission two short documentary films, one by a Scottish Highland filmmaker and one by a Mi’kmaw filmmaker, to explore this relationship from different perspectives.

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7. Influence on policy and practice

Throughout 2021 and 2022 the Chair and UNESCO RILA team have contributed to a number of consultations and events which seek to influence policy and practice vis-à-vis refugees and migrants, humanitarian emergencies, voluntary resettlement, and assisted voluntary return schemes.

Prof Alison Phipps Chaired the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) written response to planned Government reform of the asylum system, which was referenced by UK policymakers in their own responses. The RSE response led to consultation with the Home Office and all four main political party spokespeople in the Scottish Government, speaking engagements at Party Political conferences, and appearances on panels at RSE, and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as the Festival of Politics at the Scottish Parliament.

We are desperately disappointed that the UK Government was able to pass the flagrantly anti-refugee Nationality and Borders Act 2022, but we remain undeterred.

As chair of the New Scots Core Group, Prof Alison Phipps continues to support and influence evidence-based policy-making and implementation in Scotland through the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. The Core Group aims to enhance and replicate models of refugee integration by intentional multilingual learning for refugees and for new host communities, in order to foster creativity, diversity of cultural expressions, and intercultural capabilities.

As noted earlier, Prof Phipps is a Co-Investigator on The New Scots Refugee Integration Development Project led by the Scottish Government in partnership with COSLA, the SRC, and the University of Glasgow. The project seeks to investigate, review and promote employability, education, and health interventions, and social and cultural connections for refugees.

Prof Phipps regularly provides evidence at the New Scots Leadership Board Annual Meeting in the Scottish Parliament, to all-party parliamentary groups, Cabinet Secretaries, MSPs, and Senior Civil Servants. She also sits on the Scottish Government Warm Welcome Ukraine Response Senior Oversight Group.

Prof Phipps has also provided testimony to the Asylum Inquiry Scotland regarding the asylum provision in Scotland during the pandemic, commissioned by Refugees for Justice. The Inquiry is chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC.

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8. Website, socials, media engagement

Our Twitter following has doubled this period to 1300+, averaging at least 25,000 impressions a month (@UofGUnescoRILA). Prof Alison Phipps’ personal Twitter following has almost doubled in this period from 5200 to 9500+ (@alison_phipps).

Followers of both accounts include major opinion leaders in the media, policy, academia and the arts, editors of leading newspapers and broadcasters, several Vice Chancellors, and relevant Scottish Cabinet Secretaries.

Our website (www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/) is a repository of our research projects, activities and publications and has maintained pre-COVID traffic of around 600 views a month (Google Analytics).

We started generating additional content, hosting and posting it on our YouTube channel, SoundCloud and Instagram accounts. Our eclectic and varied Podcast series “Sounds of Integration” has over 30 episodes featuring guest lectures, interviews, poetry and music from our team and partners.

The team contribute widely to Scottish and UK print and online media. The Chair has a regular column in the Scottish National and Sunday National, has contributed to pieces in The Guardian, Scotsman, Sunday Herald, The Herald and The National.

The Chair team members have all authored pieces and columns, and we are delighted to report that Savan Qadir, our John Smith Centre Emerging Leaders Intern was accepted into a refugee journalism programme. Prof Phipps is a regular house guest on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sunday Morning ethics programme and contributes widely across other radio channels.

You can see a summary of our news contributions here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/resources/newsandviews/

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9. Public engagement

We explored new collaborations and opportunities to expand our reach and impact delving into cultural exhibits and installations, seminars and conferences, and performances. We continued long-running collaborations such as that with GRAMNet on their annual film series, support for University of Glasgow’s Black History Month, the Refugee Cycle, and our Warm Welcome Walks.

See the events section of our website for full details of all our events https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/

9.1 Spring School “The Arts of Integrating”

Our free Spring Schools are open to everyone with an interest in the place of the arts and arts-based methods, languages and multilingual methods, in the work toward intercultural integration with refugees. Three-day events blend artistic and academic forms of presentation, with networking and exhibitions, food and hospitality.

Our Spring Schools attract a broad range of participants including researchers, students, community organisations, musicians, practitioners, artists, and members of refugee and migrant communities.

On 5-7 May 2020 we hosted a small online event for contributors who had submitted proposals prior to lockdown. It was uncertain that the Spring School would translate to an online environment, but it was well received and during this initial phase of complete lockdown it was a welcome distraction for many. The event brought together 34 presenters for 21 presentations around the theme of MayDay.

In 2021 we held our first fully Virtual Spring School over the two weeks 17- 28 May. Many activities were offline and self-directed, to allow people in different time zones to participate. Participants tried their hands at photography, playwriting, debating, listening, walking, poetry, and meditation. To counter the increased amount of screen time we were all facing, we took steps to care for participants' eyes, mental health, and social needs, through a variety of online and offline well-being extras.

Our 2022 Spring School was a hybrid event (one day online, two days in person) in an attempt to retain some of the accessibility and international collaboration benefits of an online event, and we attracted 158 participants over three days.

Further information about our Spring Schools and a full event report and evaluation for

2022 can be found on our website https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/

During this reporting period, we integrated the Chair Annual Lecture into our Spring Schools as Keynote addresses given by Prof Phipps and colleagues. We supported key partners with existing programmes such as the Scottish Refugee Council with Refugee Festival Scotland and The Crannog Centre with the 2022 Rise and Shine Festival.

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9.2 Spring School 2022 memories

Spring School Poem

by Esa Aldegheri

Our Spring School Keynote Poets distilled the activities of each day into a poem to share during the wrap-up sessions. Thanks for this gorgeous contribution, Esa!

There’s this thing called Spring School. It’s good.
And we do it.
This day – a chord of many notes –
began with song and the sound of rain:
a welcome
flowing through us.

This day – a cord of many strands –
began with gathering
our paths and lives like threads
converging here
into a rope
of questions, answers,
hopes.

And so
we saw
how ropes can bind and strengthen
if they are like
lifelines –
lines of notes and words
cast
against violence
to hold
and shelter
and value.

Because
we know
how ropes can also bind and strangle –
stifle, still
all movement –
if they are like
the laws that still
tell us who gets to stay
who gets to live
who has more
value.

And so, and then, this day
we named
the things that make us
into makers
of worlds worth sharing:
welcome, solidarity;
Joy, respect, community;
mana – power, our power;
pasichigare – our connectedness
al insaniyya - our shared human-ness

And so, and then, and now
we breathe
here – in this land
this island
of time shared.
Outside
a garden flourishes
its paths awash with flowers
planted for peace
where not that long ago
a factory made lorries.
Inside
we carry today’s seeds:
new ways of weaving restoration
new stories threading through us.

And so, and now, and then
we will do
the things that make us strong.
Unlike Funtunfunufu
we will sing (in pentatonic scale),
and think, and eat;
grieve, and laugh, and greet
and listen.
Listen.

Listen –
there –
the sound
of all of us
together:
another song
about to start. 

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9.3 Exhibitions

Virtual Exhibition: Colouring Outside the Lines

The first UNESCO RILA virtual art exhibition launched on 23 April 2021 and showcases over 70 pieces from all 23 members of our Affiliate Artist Network. Since 2017, this network has brought together global artists, who work with and reflect on the role Arts and Languages play in bringing people together and strengthening social cohesion.

In paintings, photographs, videos, audio, poetry, music and 3D installations, the artists offer their perspectives on migration, integration, and identity in a globalised world. At the heart of Colouring outside the lines are three collaborative works, commissioned by UNESCO RILA. These artworks are specifically designed to stimulate critical reflection on our understanding of refugee integration through languages and the arts.

View the exhibit at: https://curat10n.com/unesco-rila/

Hannah Rose Thomas and ‘Tears of Gold’

Hannah is a highly acclaimed artist and a PhD Researcher with the UNESCO RILA programme. She holds our PhD studentship linked to MIDEQ in collaboration with UNESCO ArtLab. Her PhD Thesis is entitled “Evaluating The Human And Social Impact Of Art for Migratory And Marginalized People: An Intercultural, Multilingual Approach to Equity.”

Hannah’s work has been included in several major exhibitions, two of note below:

UN 75th Anniversary Programme: ‘The Future is Unwritten: Artists for Tomorrow’ A virtual exhibition with Google Arts & Culture to mark the UN’s Official 75th Anniversary Programme.Tryptch of Yezidi Women by Artist Hannah Rose Thomas

Ukraine Portrait unveiling and panel discussion in Westminster

The weeklong exhibition of ‘Tears of Gold’ to mark World Refugee Day (20 June 2022) was sponsored by UNHCR UK, the UN Refugee Agency, and Rehman Chishti MP. This series of portraits of women from across the world profiles the stories, suffering, and search for justice that define just a handful of those millions forced from their homes worldwide. A new portrait of Ukrainian refugees Maria and her mother Nadiia from Kyiv was unveiled.

Hannah took part in a panel discussion alongside Vicky Tennant, UNHCR’s Representative to the UK; Ferozan, a former female judge from Afghanistan who features in the exhibition and Baroness Sarah Ludford, sponsor of the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill.

Hannah’s portraits of Yezidi, Rohingya, and Nigerian women are a visual testimony not only of war and injustice but also of humanity, dignity, and resilience. The works use art as a tool for advocacy and bringing stories into places of influence in the West.

Visit Hannah's website: http://hannahrosethomas.com

Picture of A Mother and Daughter from Ukraine - By HR Thomas

Hannah Rose Thomas with Maria and her mother Nadiia from KyivHannah with Ukrainian refugees Maria and her mother Nadiia from Kyiv. During the unveiling, Maria noted: ‘It does not matter what nationality you are, what matters is what you are doing in this present moment. For humanity has no geography and kindness has no nationality’."

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9.4 The People’s Global Summit ‘Co-Building a New Eco-Social World: Leaving No One Behind’

The People’s Global Summit (29 June – 2 July 2022) was a starting point for a continuing global conversation, in which the broken social contract with the planet and with each other, took centre stage. MIDEQ team members within UNESCO RILA at the University of Glasgow contributed to and co-organised the Summit with the International Federation of Social Workers, UNRISD, and partners from around the world.

The Summit, opened by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, maintained five reference points to guide the conversation around our shared futures:

  • Buen Vivir, love and care for people and the planet, responsibilities, and rights.
  • Respect, dignity, harmony, and social justice
  • Diversity, belonging, reciprocity and equity
  • Ubuntu, togetherness, accountability, and community
  • Solidarity, equality, inclusion, and collaboration

Contributions and feedback were distilled into the first version of “The People’s Charter for an Eco-Social World,” a living document that will grow as the world’s populations share their solutions to our joint challenges which was submitted as an invitation and call to action to the world’s leaders gathered at the 2022 United Nations High-Level Political Forum and World Assembly.

MIDEQ team members launched the Summit with a live panel discussion “Those Left Behind: Radical Dependency, Arts and Refuge” featuring Professor Alison Phipps, Dr Hyab Yohannes, Tawona Sithole (Ganyamatope), and Dr Piki Diamond. Together they called for policy and practice to welcome and integrate forms of knowledge and understanding from communities and peoples who are at the sharp end of experiencing loss and damage in eco-cultural life.

We followed our panel with workshops by UNESCO RILA staff and Artists in Residence.  A music session led by Dr Gameli Tordzro started with the passing of a calabash and other percussion instruments and sparked an impromptu dance session in the heart of the ARC. Next, Brittnee Leysen immersed the participants in a soundscape of birdsong, the sound of the sea, and Māori waiata (song) by Shanara Wallace. This journey began in the Highlands and Islands before taking listeners south to Glasgow, and across the sea to Aotearoa New Zealand. MIDEQ researcher, Naa Densua Tordzro, introduced participants to the language of fabric in Ghanaian culture. Beautiful hand-dyed fabric was measured and cut by participants, whilst they learned how to style hair wrapping according to the message you were trying to convey. We ended with Ganyamatope taking participants through a series of short spoken-word exercises to create a shared poem for their experience of the summit.

Bringing someone with you, always walk in pairs,
But be cognisant of political Western contextualization.
Language comes from the animal that we are.
Everyone and everything stays together, grounded.
Caring,
sharing,
connections,
affections.

The People´s Global Summit will continue to promote and support local and global action to unlock the means to co-design and co-build a new eco social world. A YouTube playlist with our team’s contributions is on our YouTube Channel and you can also see all the contributions at the Summit Youtube Channel.

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10. Postgraduate researchers

The following postgraduate researchers have joined our team in this reporting period:

NameTitleStart Year and Funding

Hannah Rose Thomas

Evaluating The Human And Social Impact Of Art For Migratory And Marginalized People: An Intercultural, Multilingual Approach To Equity

2020
MIDEQ / College of Social Sciences Studentship

Eva Hanna

Effective Support for Progression to Higher Education for University - aspiring Refugees

2020
Economic Social Research Council

Sawsan Ali Abdelghany

Expand and evaluate the impact and reach of the ‘New Scots’ Strategy, to support refugees

2021
NSRIDP MPhil Studentship

Adam Williamson

Towards a specific definition of the role of the asylum system interpreter: expectations, realities and training needs

2021
NSRIDP MPhil Studentship

Pinar Aksu

Art and Justice: using art-based practices for social change

2021 UNESCO RILA Studentship

Nerea Bello Sagarzazu

Soinean daramat. I carry it in the body. The pedagogy of human mobility. Moving beyond

2021
College of Social Sciences Studentship

Leena Nammari

Exploring the nature of Haneen: framing thoughts and representations on ‘post-locational’ home and belonging as an enduring force in Palestinian art and culture

2022
Arts and Humanities Research Council

Gavin Baillie

‘Unconcealing’ the stage for Extinction Rebellion

2022

Pheona Matovu

 TBC

2022
James McCune Smith Scholarship

Hsiao-Chiang Wang

Co-creating the Meanings of World Heritage Sites with Migrations: A World View Perspective 

2022
UNESCO RILA Studentship 

Submitted Theses

NameTitle

Sarah Cox

Language Ecologies: Experiences of women involved in the process of separation and reunion and the impact on intergenerational language learning

Lucy Cathcart-Froden

'A Language we all understand'? A practice-led exploration of the role of musical communication in (re)integration of people who have migrated and people who have offended

Catrin Evans

The Arts of Integration: Scottish policies of refugee integration and the role of the creative and performing arts

Esa Aldegheri

Not just pretty words: narrative media, forced migration, community education and integration in Scotland and Italy

Hyab Yohannes

The realities of Eritrean refugees in a carceral age

Piki Diamond

Indigenous and Critical Hospitality perspectives on refugee integration

A special mention also for Brittnee Leysen who submitted her thesis in 2022 whilst working with our team. Brittnee's thesis was entitled "Pākehā Place-Names in New Zealand's Central Otago & Clutha Districts: An anthropological-onomastic study".

Congratulations everyone!!! We're so happy for you!

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11. Our researcher community

Visiting Scholar Programme

Prof Phipps and the team continue to receive a high volume of requests for supervision and mentoring. In March 2020 Sean Smith from the University of Hong Kong arrived in Glasgow just as Covid restrictions were implemented meaning that we were never able to meet him in person! We were unable to host other Visiting Scholars for the remainder of 2020-2021.

In the Summer of 2022 we hosted Dr Joanne Tippet (University of Manchester), creator of Ketso for a Take Over at our new partner organisation site of The Scottish Crannog Centre.

We were delighted to have international visiting Scholar Arianne Maraj from McGill University in September 2022, which shall strengthen the links between our two institutions.

More information on our Visiting Scholars can be found at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/aboutus/visitingscholars/

The Fire Pit

Established during COVID lockdown to establish connections and a peer group for our current and prior researcher cohorts, the Fire Pit is a joint writing, presenting, and discussion group. The initiative has led to several publications and outputs and will continue to enhance the research environment for our PGRs and Postdocs.

Grad on the Island (May 2022)

Camas is the Iona Community’s outdoor activity centre on Mull. It’s a place of great beauty, ‘off-grid’ and powered by renewable energy. 26 Students and staff working with UNESCO RILA and Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet) attended Camas for a researcher development programme of events. This included postgraduate students with refugee backgrounds and experiences and 15 different language backgrounds were represented.

Participants were all working within themes of migration and reported to have benefitted from the networking opportunities provided at Camas. After two years of virtual meet-and-greet experiences, this was many students' first time getting to connect with fellow researchers in person. The programme included peer reviewing and reflexivity workshops.

The residential was so successful that UNESCO RILA and GRAMNet have attracted financial support from the University of Glasgow to run a repeat residential in 2023.

A Taste of Camas

Pinar at Camas signBella paints signsMaking booksAlison Nerea Pinar Neeya outside the houses at CamasGable end and coffeeMusic time

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12. Celebrating our team

Hyab Yohannes

Hyab was our first RILA PhD Scholarship holder. He was awarded his PhD in 2021 and is now employed on CUSPN+ as the Academic Coordinator. His winter graduation interview on UofG Twitter attracted 97k engagements and counting!

Poetry Commissioned for opening of the University of Glasgow's new Advanced Research Centre (ARC)

Artists in Residence Tawona Sithole was commissioned to write ARC to celebrate the opening of the University of Glasgow’s new interdisciplinary research hub, the Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre.

Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Young Academy of Scotland (YAS)

YAS members represent some of the nation’s most innovative young professionals from across the arts, business and industry, government, the public sector, research and academia, the third sector and beyond. Our team members join YAS’s existing members in realising its mission to achieve transformative societal change through citizenship, innovation, collaboration, evidence, and leadership.

  • Mrs Paria Goodarzi - Freelance Visual Artist and Public Art Practitioner, RILA Affiliate Artist (2022)
  • Mr Savan Qadir - JSC Emerging Leader Intern and affiliate researcher with RILA (2022)
  • Dr Sadie Ryan - UNESCO-RILA Lecturer in Languages and Intercultural Studies (2022)
  • Dr Hyab Yohannes – Academic coordinator, CUSPN+ (2021)

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13. Talks, conferences and keynotes

Key events hosted or facilitated by the Chair

PGR-led Seminar Series: Decolonising Forced Migration (2020-2021)

This series aimed to ‘interrogate’ the persistency of socio-political, epistemic, and representational inequalities (and fallacies) inherent in the narratives and constructions of forced migration as a ‘threat’ and forced migrants as ‘objects’ of elimination and containment. The series shed light on forced migrants: their stories, histories, cultures, ways of knowing and unknowing as well as their struggles.

UNESCO Chair Keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKTihmW_CHY&feature=youtu.be 

Spotlight Eritrea: 75th anniversary of UNESCO (Nov 2020)

We celebrated the culture of our friends and colleagues in Eritrean communities worldwide with a cultural and critical presentation which recognised Asmara World Heritage Site, designation in 2017, and other ancient sites in Eritrea. The event combined conversation with a traditional Eritrean coffee ceremony performed, the ceremony by which peace is made or restored to families, communities and ethnic groups. Participants received a care package from the team so they could conduct their own coffee ceremony at home. More info in our news archive. 

Art-Lab 4 - The imperative of cultural justice: Arts for inclusion, equity and human rights (10 December 2020)

Art-Lab Platform brings together practitioners, cultural operators, artists, experts in human rights, cultural rights and intercultural dialogue, and humanitarian workers to mainstream the arts in humanitarian and development programmes. Members of the Art-Lab platform presented findings and recommendations of the four working groups. A key issue running through the entire programme is the exploration of the idea that cultural rights might be brought to embrace cultural justice. What new spaces can be accessed through such a move and with what gains for human rights and dignity? This event featured UNESCO Chair Prof Alison Phipps and RILA Artists in Residence Dr Gameli Tordzro and Tawona Sitholé.

More at https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375117

UNESCO RILA Sofa Café (Oct 2020 – Sept 2021)

Held on a monthly basis, Sofa Cafés were a series of eight discussions around topics that touched on integration through languages and the arts. These informal discussions held on Zoom were a place of conviviality during COVID, where we encouraged the audience to join in and ask their own questions to the panellists.

Events summary at our past events website. 

Sensation of Blackness – Black History Month 2021

What does it say about a society that, almost a century after its inception, black history month is still important, or necessary? Sometimes a nuanced sense, sometimes sensationalised, how is blackness experienced by those described as black? Poet Tawona Sitholé hosted a discussion of these questions with four guests from different parts of the world.

Heritage and our sustainable future: Research, Practice, Policy and Impact (Virtual Conference 22nd February - 2nd March 2021)

PRAXIS focuses on Arts and Humanities research across the GCRF and Newton Fund portfolio. Specifically, its aims are to consolidate learning across research projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), to amplify their impact and policy relevance, and to champion the distinctive contribution that Arts and Humanities research can make to tackling urgent development challenges. PRAXIS authored this report and hosted the Conference, the UNESCO RILA team hosted panels and provided content to the report on reducing inequalities through people-centred and decolonising approaches. Read the report here. 

Unsettled Objects: Post-Colonial Perceptions of Belonging, Exile and Home (28-30 September 2021)

A Virtual global forum organised in collaboration with Glasgow Museums for those working within the context of cultural conservation, mediation and presentation. 

Crannog RoundView Takeover - Sites Unseen scoping project (3 – 4 June 2022)

The RoundView is a big-picture, positive vision of sustainability that can inspire action. It sets out a clear, simple set of positive guidelines based on the opposites of the root causes of environmental damage. The Roundview uses the story of the earth to view certain landscapes in a geological time context and explore the heritage of that landscape. We collaborated with Dr Joanne Tippet, our Visiting Researcher and creator of the RoundView, on this project at the Crannog which was funded by the School of Education Small Grants fund.

Visitors to the Scottish Crannog Centre (within the newly designated Perth UNESCO City of Craft and Folk Art) discussed the UNESCO Trail in Scotland and what it means to be an UNESCO designation with RILA team members. These conversations were recorded to turn into a podcast and short video. Visitors also joined in a sharing session where they wrote what they knew about any of UNESCO Sites in Scotland.

Outputs

Podcast – to document the development of Sites Unseen project

Video – to show the content of the day, but also to act as proof of concept for Sites Unseen project.

Keynotes

The Chair and UNESCO RILA Team have given over 50 Keynotes, seminars and public addresses in this reporting period. Some highlights:

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13.1 Little Amal case study

Amal means ‘hope’ in Arabic. Inspired by a real story of A 10-year-old girl’s hope to find her mother, Little Amal Walk was a collaboration between, 4 theatre companies, dozens of independent artists, schools and communities in at least 8 countries. ‘Little’ Amal is in fact a 3.5-meter tall puppet who makes the epic journey from Syria to the UK. Epic and ambitious, it emulates the journey made by thousands forced to flee their home.

“Throughout history the movement of people has fuelled human progress, enriched culture and accelerated the acquisition of knowledge.”

As one of the artists involved in this project, Tawona Sitholé brought current and emerging knowledge from the MIDEQ Hub and UNESCO RILA, to contribute to the brief of trying to understand the journey of someone left behind, lost and found, welcome and unwelcome, abused and loved, in the figure of a puppet?

For COP26 in November 2021 this project brought together 140 children from 6 schools, and 2 districts, to welcome Little Amal to Scotland. School children aged 9-10 years (the same age as Amal), worked for 12 weeks with 8 independent artists researching topics such as child refugees, activism and protest, environmental awareness, and caretaking. As part of the project, Tawona shared the Story of Migration video to the pupils involved. In response to this video, visual art, songs, and poetry to welcome Little Amal to Scotland were created and shared in the schools by the pupils and at the main event on the Clydeside in Glasgow.

In contrast to the common refugee narrative, Little Amal does not arrive in Glasgow as a pitiable or unwelcome intruder, but as a confident, albeit troubled child, inviting the children of Scotland, children of the world to demand a better future. And where else could be more fitting than COP26 in Glasgow where world leaders are gathering?

For information on the Walk With Amal project please visit the website https://www.walkwithamal.org

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14. Publications

Key recommendations from the Art-Lab review: presented on the 10th of December 2020 during "Art-Lab #4-The imperative of cultural justice: arts for inclusion, equity and human rights" https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375117  

Cox S, Phipps A, Hirsu L., (2022) Language Learning for Refugee Women in the Wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Restorative Pedagogies for Integrating to Place -Perspectives from Scotland, Frontiers in Communication, section Culture and Communication (in press) 

Cox S, Phipps A., (2022) An ecological, multilingual approach to language learning with newly reunited refugee families in Scotland, International Journal of Educational Research Volume 115, 2022, 101967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2022.101967 

Fassetta Giovanna, Al-Masri Nazmi, Phipps Alison. (2020). Multilingual Online Academic Collaborations as Resistance: Crossing Impassable Borders. United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. 

Imperiale M, Phipps A, Fassetta G. (2021). On Online Practices of Hospitality in Higher Education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, (6), doi: 10.1007/s11217-021-09770-z 

Imperiale M, Phipps A. (2022). Cuts destroy, hurt, kill : a critical metaphor analysis of the response of UK academics to the UK overseas aid budget funding cuts. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, doi: 10.1080/17447143.2021.2024838 

Jack, G., Phipps, A.; Barrientos Arriaga, O. (2020). Intercultural communication in tourism. In Jackson, J. (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication. 2nd Edition. Series: Routledge handbooks in applied linguistics.  (pp. 535-554). New York, NY: Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon. 

Ladegaard, H. J. and Phipps, A.  (2020) Epilogue: Notes towards a socially engaged LAIC. Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(2), pp. 218-219. (doi: 10.1080/14708477.2020.1722688) 

Ladegaard, H. J. and Phipps, A. (2020) Intercultural research and social activism. Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(2), pp. 67-80. (doi: 10.1080/14708477.2020.1729786) 

Phipps, A. (2020). What is a refuge for migrant women? Testimony, witness-bearing and ‘The Rape of Tamar’. In Shimada, L. D. (Ed.), Mapping Faith: Theologies of Migration and Community London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.  

Phipps, A. (2021). Decolonising the languages curriculum: linguistic justice for linguistic ecologies. In Beaven, T. (Ed), Rosell-Aguilar. (Ed.), Innovative Language Pedagogy Report. Research-publishing.net. 

Phipps A. (2022). Commentary for Part 3: Liberating Language Learning through Art: The Imperative of Cultural Justice. Liberating Language Education  (pp. 248-252). Multilingual Matters.  

Phipps, A. (2022). Conflict and the Cognitive Empire: Byram's Critical Cultural Awareness. In McConachy, T., Golubeva I, Wagner M. (Ed.), Intercultural Learning in Language Education and Beyond: Evolving Concepts, Perspectives and Practices UK: Multilingual Matters.  

Phipps, A. (2022). Decolonising Languages in Rural Settings: Towards Equatorial Epistemologies. In Ayers, W. F., Bennet L. (Ed.), Multilingualism and Identity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. UK: Cambridge University Press.  

Phipps, A. (2022) Subversities and Permaculture: When Close Up and Critical are Cut. HECU2022: Critical approaches to higher education research.  

Phipps, A., Sitholé, T.; Tordzro, N.D., Tordzro, G.K. (2022) in Creating Welcoming Learning Environments: Using Creative Arts Methods in Language Classrooms. Edited by: Jane Andrews, Maryam Almohammad, ISBN: 9781788925785 

Phipps, A., Sitholé, T.; Tordzro, N.D., Tordzro, G.K. (2020). English last: displaced publics and communicating multilingually as social act and art. In Scandrett, E. (ed.). (Ed.), Public Sociology As Educational Practice: Challenges, Dialogues and Counter-Publics UK: Bristol University Press.  

Phipps, A., McIntosh, A.; Barrow, S. (2020). Spirituality: nurturing life before, within and beyond COVID-19. In Hassan, G., Barrow S. (Ed.), Scotland After the Virus.  (pp. 203-213). Edinburgh: Luath.  

Phipps, A., Sitholé, T. (2021). Call and response. In Shimada, L. D. (Ed.), Migration and Faith Communities: Theologies of Migration and Community London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.  

Phipps, A. and Sitholé, T. (2022) Interrupting the cognitive empire: keynote drama as cultural justice. Language and Intercultural Communication, 22(3), pp. 391-411. (doi: 10.1080/14708477.2022.2039170) 

Sitholé, T., Crawley, H., Feyissa, D., Tapsoba, T. A., Meda, M. M., Sangli, G., Yeoh, S. G. and Phipps, A. (2022) The language of migration. Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies, 5(1/2), pp. 14-26. 

White, R., Fay R, Chiumento A, Giurgi-Oncu C, Phipps A. (2022). Communication about Distress and Wellbeing: Epistemic and Ethical Considerations. Transcultural Psychiatry 

Featured in and contributed to Giliberto F. (2021). Heritage for Global Challenges. A Research Report by PRAXIS: Arts and Humanities for Global Development. Leeds: University of Leeds. 

Briefing notes & Blogs 

UNESCO Think pieces and reports 

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