Beginning with a pilot series in 2024, ISRF Lectures will provide a platform for ISRF Fellows to present their research to a wider audience.
The ISRF and Gresham College have jointly established a three-part lecture series on the theme of migration. This series will feature three lectures, by former ISRF Fellows.
Humanitarian agencies are increasingly relying on satellite imagery and testimonies from social media to understand – and communicate – why people feel compelled to seek refuge. This lecture will explore digital humanitarianism and the visual politics of refugeehood. It will discuss how such practices allow us to see the places where violence takes place but often also serve to simplify complex situations. It will focus on undocumented migration from Pakistan towards Europe.
Governments increasingly use detention as a central component of immigration and asylum policy. The lecture addresses several important questions. What does immigration detention look like? How is it a reflection of those societies that tolerate its use and the policies that support and endorse its expansion? What place does it have in the journeys of those migrating across borders today? Using photography and testimony, this lecture visually translates several immigration detention systems and shares first-hand stories.
Most of the world’s 102 million forcibly displaced people – refugees – lack access to reliable, affordable, sustainable energy. Attempts to provide such energy in refugee camps have been marred by governance challenges, and a lack of technical expertise within humanitarian organisations. But new research discussed in this lecture on the lived experience of refugees is helping cast a light on ways to address it. However, developing inclusive approaches and supporting refugee-led action on energy is no easy task.
We would like to thank the Gresham College for their partnership in developing and hosting this series.