UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration through Education, Language and Arts

Date

Event Details

Artist network meeting for UNESCO RILA Affiliate Artists and Artist from the Scottish Refugee Council's Cross Borders network.

Hyab Yohannes chaired the discussion panel at the CinemARC: Borderzone film screening.

Jour Fixe - Art in Conflict. Organised by Centre for Art and Peacebuilding in Zürich. Alison Phipps and Tawona Ganyamatopé Sitholé explored the keynote as a form of performative poetry. They described how a performance poet of the Global South interrupts the keynote of a white, female, northern professor with his own poetry. The two researchers pursued a practice-led, intercultural, decolonial research approach. Possible questions that guided them and us: Does a keynote have the potential to contribute to conflict transformation? What does “intercultural” mean in such a context? How do we react when we unexpectedly encounter speech or words that we do not understand? 

UK Book Launch for Affiliate Artist Hannah Rose Thomas' book Tears of Gold in London.

What next for the Rwanda Bill, asylum and sanctuary in Britain? Online panel with Professor Alison Phipps and Professor Nando Sigona (Chair of International Migration and Forced Displacement, Director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham) to explore what the government is setting out to do through this legislation and the potential impacts for people seeking asylum.

Tawona Sitholé was part of Zimbabwean Book Festival 2024. Organised by the Britain Zimbabwe Society.

Alison Phipps and Tawona Sitholé were part of the Scottish Crannog Centre Opening Ceremony.

Watch the video compilation of the day made by Charlie Stuart below.

Scottish Crannog Centre Opening Ceremony video compilation made by Charlie Stuart

Glasgow premiere of Effie Samara's film TAXI DRIVER in the Andrew Stewart Cinema, 9 University Avenue, Glasgow. The screening was followed by a Q&A with Effie Samara, hosted by Alison Phipps. Three animated shorts were also screened.

UNESCO RILA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2024! Theme: Word Springs.

Full programme

Hyab Yohannes gave a keynote presentation at the 2024 European Regional Freedom from Slavery Forum

Tawona Sitholé was part of theatre performance 'Three Words for Forest', performed in the Gilmorehill Centre in Glasgow as part of the Future Treescapes 24 conference.

Alison Phipps spoke at the Welcoming Languages event, led by Giovanna Fassetta.

Alison Phipps hosted a Vigil for Peace at the Solas Festival in Errol Park.

Full programme

Alison Phipps appeared as a guest on BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Morning with... as part of Refugee Festival Scotland.

The University of Glasgow Sanctuary team hosted a number of events during Refugee Week, including Refuweegee's Letters Fae the Locals mailboxes on campus, a film screening of 'Nezouh' and an art display from the Springburn Unity Network. More info here

As part of Refugee Festival Scotland, Alison Phipps and Tawona Sitholé joined the discussion panel following the screening of Surviving Translation, organised by Edinburgh College of Art and GRAMNet

As part of Refugee Week, Esa Aldegheri facilitated the discussion after Mike Elm's talk 'Rolling with the Punctures' at The Alchemy Experiment.

As part of Refugee Festival Scotland, Esa Aldegheri hosted 'The Future of UNWRA and Palestinian Refugees', a talk by Admir Skodo, in the Adam Smith building of the University.

As part of Refugee Festival Scotland, Tawona Sitholé hosted Raising Voices, a family-friendly concert at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s New Auditorium. The Joyous Choir (Maryhill), Harper African Voice (Govan) and Soloway Choir (Springburn) performed with an 18-piece ensemble from the RSNO.

Tawona Sitholé spoke at the James McCune Smith Annual Conference 2024.

Alison Phipps spoke on support and partnership at Overcoming Barriers, Building Links: Emergency Support for Palestinian Higher Education, Fobzu (Friends of Birzeit University)'s second annual conference.

Hyab Yohannes spoke at a panel session as part of the 21st IMISCOE Annual Conference in Lisbon.

Esa Aldegheri chaired four events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival:

Adania Shibli: Against Forgetting (11 August)

Kathleen Jamie: New Landmarks (16 August)

Nathan Thrall: Anatomy of a Tragedy (16 August; pay what you can to watch online now)

essa may ranapiri and Jenni Fagan: Island to Island (23 August)

Once again we teamed up with the Scottish Crannog Centre to host the Rise and Shine Festival. This year's edition included storytelling with Tawona Sitholé, an Eritrean coffee ceremony with Alison Phipps and Hyab Yohannes, group poetry writing with Esa Aldegheri, and much more. Find out more about Rise and Shine here.

The New Scots Integration Strategy was celebrated at the University of Glasgow. Read more about the event here.

Tawona Sitholé was on the judging panel of the University of Glasgow's Visualise Your Thesis (VYT) Competition, which took place at Glasgow Film Theatre. VYT is an internationally renowned academic communication competition which challenges postgraduate researchers at any stage of their studies to present their projects in a 60-second, eye-catching video aimed at a non-specialist audience.

Gameli Tordzro spoke at Humanising narratives around migration, a free film screening, panel discussion and networking event co-hosted by the Migration for Equality and Development (MIDEQ) Hub and PositiveNegatives, at Rich Mix London. Read more about the event here.

Esa Aldegheri chaired a launch event at Waterstones Edinburgh (West End) to celebrate the release of Rodge Glass's memoir Joshua in the Sky: A Blood Memoir. Find out more about the event here.

As part of his recently secured Fellowship at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, UNESCO RIELA Affiliate Artist  delivered a talk on his project 'And the Ocean for Ink'. This is is a long poem exploring the close relationship between the future of humanity and the oceans and their place in human life. The recording of Bertony's talk can be viewed on the Hutchins Center's YouTube channel.

Alison Phipps, Tawona Sitholé and Hyab Yohannes attended the Museums addressing legacies of empire and slavery reception at the Scottish Parliament. Hosted by Foysol Choudhury MSP, the event followed the Scottish Government’s acceptance of the recommendations of the Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums Steering Group. It offered an opportunity to look at what has begun, and all that still needs to be done, to address the legacies of empire and historic slavery in Scotland’s museums.

UNESCO RIELA Online Spring School 2024: The Arts of Integrating (Word Springs)! Timed to coincide with the Southern Hemisphere's Spring, this virtual edition of RIELA's annual Spring School conference focused on words and languages, on communication and on discourse, on repertoires and on silence. Find out more here.

Tawona Sitholé spoke at a half-day seminar co-hosted by the University of Glasgow's Global Majority Network and Equality and Diversity Unit in the Advanced Research Centre. The seminar took the theme of 'Reclaiming Narratives' as part of Black History Month 2024.

Alison Phipps delivered a Sir Run Run Shaw lecture titled 'Enabling Environments, Fugitive Spaces, and Restorative Practices for Intercultural Dialogue and Linguistic Justice' at the MIC Symposium 2024 - Multiple Perspectives on Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication at Stony Brook University, New York.

Looking ahead to Refugee Festival Scotland 2025: Listening Conversation & Gathering Events - With Tawona Sitholé. This in-person gathering (21 Oct) and online gathering (23 Oct) was an opportunity for those who have previously been involved in Refugee Festival Scotland, or are interested in being involved for 2025, to exchange ideas and to gear up to next year’s Festival.

Esa Aldegheri took part in a panel discussion on 'How can sanctuary work today?' as part of the University of Oxford's Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) in-person Sanctuary Study Day.

Alison Phipps gave a keynote Healthy Societies lecture titled 'Restorative, Intercultural, Trauma-Sensitive: Schizmogenesis and the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy' at the University of Sydney's Centre for Healthy Societies.

Hyab Yohannes presented on 'Embodied Knowledge' for staff at Refugee Action. This session was not open to the public, but you can read a short blog co-authored by Hyab with Tesfalem Yemane on a related topic: 'Experts by Experience': What's beyond the label?

Esa Aldegheri was invited to join Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees (SFAR)'s coordination group to discuss the process of developing the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy and the role of faith and faith groups.

Screening of Evripidis Karydis's new short documentary Trash Walk, starring our Affiliate Artist Christina Kyriakidou, at Transmission Gallery, Gallery. "Trash Walk is a short documentary that follows Christina during Christmas. She is an art activist based in Glasgow who through street performances conveys her stance against consumerism. By adopting a hybrid approach of documentary modes (observational, expository) this film tries to explore the concepts of art activism (artivism) and street performance."

Watch the trailer here.