Symposium

This event has been canceled. 

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Friday, April 17, 2020

8:30am - 5:30pm

The 1980 Refugee Act after 40 years: Is There a Minnesota School of Refugee Studies?

The symposium will feature the keynote address by Cathy Schlund-Vials, followed by two panels and a roundtable discussion. The panels will explore (1) the relationship between coloniality and refugee displacement and resettlement, including how the concept and language of self-governance seep into and structure refugees' futurity and in turn activate the logic of "settler freedom"; (2) the experiences of refugees in the context of existing society structured by punishing forces of racialization, criminalization, and militarization; and (3) deeper analyses of refugee stories and narratives, their lifeworlds, so as to repudiate the dominant discorse on refugees as "a problem to be solved."

Keynote Address: Dr. Cathy Schlund-Vials

Panel #1

• Dr. Evyn Le Espiritu Gandhi, University of California, Los Angeles
• Dr. Simi A. Kang (Postdoctoral Fellow), Carnegie Mellon
• Dr. Evan Taparata (Mitchel Center Postdoctoral Fellow), University of Pennsylvania
• Commentary: Dr. Juliana Pegues (American Indian Studies), University of Minnesota 

Panel #2

• Dr. Mohamed Abumaye, California State University - San Marcos
• Dr. Ryan Allen (Humprey School of Public Affairs), University of Minnesota
• Dr. Arifa Raza (Ph.D. and J.D.), New Mexico Immigrant Law Center
• Commentary: Dr. Yuichiro Onishi (African American & African Studies/Asian American Studies), University of Minnesota

Roundtable Session: Refugee Lifeworlds

• Dr. Kong Pha, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
• Dr. Vinh Nguyen, University of Waterloo
• Dr. Charlotte Karem Albrecht, University of Michigan
• Moderator: Dr. Tim August, Stony Brook University