Launch event for the network is taking place on January 25th 2018 as part of the University of Plymouth Research Festival with a symposium titled: Human & Urban Displacement From Crises to Creativity. Please register to ensure a place. Here are the event’s programme and webpage. Join our conversation with #PlymDisplacement

Displacement Studies is a research network based at the University of Plymouth with global partners and members. It is an interdisciplinary network of researchers, policy-makers, academics and aid workers whose work straddles diverse fields covering the many facets of displacement. We have a breadth of research expertise in topics including resilient community building, urban mapping, conservation in conflict, creativity and psychology of the displaced, refugee law, identity, literature, poetry, art and dance. In recent years, conflict, poverty, and natural and human inflicted disasters have caused an unprecedented rise in the numbers of internally and externally displaced persons and forced migration. Plymouth has witnessed a steady increase in the number of charities, development and support programmes for asylum seekers and refugees since acquiring the status of the centre for arrival and distribution in the South West of England. This research network seeks to provide a voice for the displaced and facilitates a platform for inter/trans/cross-disciplinary research projects with our global partners.

Current members of the network include:

• Dr Sana Murrani (Faculty of Arts and Humanities – Founder of Displacement Studies Research Network)
• Dr Haya Al-Dajani (Faculty of Business – Co-founder of Displacement Studies Research Network)
• Professor Waleed Al-Murrani (Population Genetics, University of Plymouth)
• Professor Iain Stewart (Director of the Sustainable Earth Institute, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science & Engineering)
• Rosie Brennan (Faculty of Business)
• Professor Mick Dumper (Professor in Middle East Politics, University of Exeter)
• Professor Sue Denham (Faculty of Health & Human Sciences)
• Professor Michael Punt (Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
• Professor Bob Brown (Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
• Professor Anthony Caleshu (Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
• Dr Hannah Drayson (Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
• Mr Christopher Cook (Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
• Dr John Martin (Faculty of Science and Engineering)
• Dr Diana Walters (International Heritage Consultant, UK)
• Saif Ali (Founder and director of www.integr8uk.org charity/programme)
• Professor Nasser Yassin (Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut, Lebanon)
• Dr Aida Essaid (Information Research Centre, King Hussein Foundation, Jordan)
• Said Ebbini (Research Section Head, Information and Research Centre, King Hussein Foundation, Jordan)
• Dr Ahmed Masoud (Writer and Director of Al Zaytouna Dance Theatre, UK)
• Professor Ghada Siliq (Authority on Iraq’s architectural heritage and worked extensively on urban conservation)
• Dr Marta Hawkins (Director of The Futures Entrepreneurship Centre)
• Paul Hardman (Manager of the Sustainable Earth Institute)
• Diego Maranan (Interaction Design and Embodied Technologies, University of the Philippines)
• Pamela Cajilig (Design & Business Anthropologist, Communication Strategist, and Human Rights Advocate)
• David Feindouno (Devon Area Manager, British Red Cross)
• Isaac Kelly (Students and Refugees Together charity START management team)
• Lucy Durneen (Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
• Hoayda Darkal (PhD researcher, Human Geography and Resilience)
• Rupert Allan (Humanitarian Community Mapping Coordinator; Research Associate: Transtechnology – AHRC)
• Nadeen Albitar (PhD researcher with Architecture, Urban/Social Mapping)
• Eugenia Stamboliev (PhD researcher with Trans-Technology and CogNovo, Media Archaeology)
• Francis Cetti (expert on Refugees Studies, previously affiliated with the University of East London, The Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB))