WG5 Human Stories for Humane Reactions
“Nothing about us without us” This is the mantra of WG 5. Migrants, refugees, asylum seekers are often the focus of academic research but mainly as objects of study. WG 5 aims to go beyond this approach and directly involve them in the activities of the working group, where they are perceived as key actors rather than objects of study. To better understand the impact of ID regimes on people’s lives and how the population navigates them, WG 5 will adopt a bottom-up approach, focusing on their lived experiences. To do this we will draw on the interdisciplinary expertise of the group’s members to collect and combine stories from the past and the present. Most importantly, by collaborating with migrants, refugees, asylum seekers but also organisations, WG 5 aims to find ways to create more empathic reactions to these groups in European societies, which respond to and embrace the unsettling nuances and complexities of their stories in ways that break down stereotypical classifications of migrants.
WG 5 objectives and outputs:
- Identify important ethical issues in research practices and surrounding ideas and citizenship in society. Identify innovative best practices for ethical research involving vulnerable groups and individuals and develop adequate training.
- Translate research findings into recommendations for practice and into non-academic outputs (e.g., immersive exhibitions experiences, research-based online resources for teaching at all levels).
- Co-construct an art-based output which brings together the scholarly expertise of the network with the personal stories of migrants and citizens who have important experiences to share in relation to their ID. This will connect research and policy to a public facing output that has a greater reach into European societies and standard scholarly outputs that often sit behind paywalls or discussions excluding the general public.
- Facilitate interaction and cooperation between researchers, artists, and stakeholders (migrants, international and non-governmental organisations, states, institutions) across countries, disciplines, and research communities.