Fadi Skeiker

This article addresses the potential use of applied theatre in facilitating new language acquisition among refugees who are resettled in European countries such as Germany. The article charts the applied theatre work carried out by one of the authors with Syrian refugees in Europe, with a special focus on participant reactions to the host country’s expectations surrounding language acquisition and identity-making. The authors challenge current ‘integration’ practices that prioritize focused language learning as a major indicator for the refugees’ re-nationing process, arguing for higher consideration of the trauma surrounding displacement, especially when refugees have first arrived in their host community.

Call for Papers: Diacrítica 31.3
2017-06-09
CALL FOR PAPERS DIACRÍTICA 31.3

Immigration, refugees and the Humanities: Critical engagements with new challenges/opportunities

Immigration can be echoed in other terms such as refugees, migration, citizenship, inclusion, innovation, inequality, exclusion, social capital emigration, assimilation, local, global...etc.

Diacrítica 31.3 is interested in writings that engage in a productive dialogue about the broad concept of immigration. The submission can address immigration from cultural, artistic and linguist perspectives with reference to the discourses that contribute to the construction of our knowledge about immigration as well as to the individual / collective experience and memory in this context. Different perceptions and imaginaries as marked by gender, age, social class, religion and ethnicity are particularly relevant.

We particularly welcome contributions that address the current refugee questions within the European context.

Possible questions to be discussed can be related to refugees/ stateless/asylum seekers, and the processes, which inform the public opinion/ politics/ economics of their livelihood and their host culture. Scholars are encouraged to critically and closely examine such questions going beyond the traditional discourse of human rights and minority inclusion and transcending the concept of crisis limited in time and space.

Papers may focus on the liminality of the refugee experience; their identities’ construction processes especially within the sites they reside in, e.g. Refugee camps or centres, that tend to be less ephemeral than we think.

Scholars are also invited to analyze and argue for the necessity of creative processes as complementary or alternative methodology to engage with refugees as a community and in connection with their host context.

In this issue, we would like to welcome submissions that may deal with manifestos, notes from the field, testimonials, observations, and creative writing that engage critically with the topic.



Deadline for submission: September 1, 2017

Invited editors: Marie-Manuelle Silva; Fadi Skeiker (CEHUM, Universidade do Minho)

Contact:  diacritica@ilch.uminho.pt