THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2019

Panel VI 9:00–11:00 am

Title: The Modern Refugee Crisis and its Many Facades
Chair: Sari Hanafi (American University of Beirut)
Billie Jeanne Brownlee, “Displacement, Dispossession, and Forced Migration: How the Refugee Crisis
Transforms the Middle East”
Maziyar Ghiabi and Billie Jeanne Brownlee, “A State without People Revisited: Multidimensional
Displacement during the Great Civil War, 2003-2019”
Rebecca Granato, “Educational Pathways: Refugee Learners and Writing-Based Approaches in the
Tertiary Classroom”
Nouran El-Hawary, “Refugees/ Migrants’ Access to Health in Hosting Countries: Politics of
Adaptability, Enactment of Slow Death, and Inevitability of Pain”

COFFEE BREAK 11:00–11:30 am

Panel VII 11:30 am–1:30 pm

Title: Humanizing and Gendering the Refugee Crises
Chair: Livia Celine Wick (American University of Beirut)
Dalia Abdelhady, “Discursive Constructions of the 2015 Refugee Crisis: Ambivalence, Humanization
and Othering”
Maria Holt, “‘Abject creatures’: Palestinian Women and the Struggle for a Future in the Camps of Lebanon”
Zeynep Kaya, “Displacement and Community Survival after Genocide: The Yazidi Perspective”
Kalina Yordanova, “Melancholic Response to War Violence and Displacement”

LUNCH BREAK 1:30–2:30 pm

American University of Beirut
Panel VIII 2:30–5:30 pm Center for Arts and Humanities (CAH)
Title: Critical Perspectives on the Role of the State
Chair: Nergis Canefe (York University, Toronto)
A conference marking 100 years of Human Displacement and Dispossession
Monika Baár, “Disabled Refugees and Disabling Displacement: International Norms and Local Realities”
Fiona B. Adamson and Gerasimos Tsourapas, “Embracing and Expelling Populations: State-Building,
Sovereignty, and Migration Management in Greece and Turkey”
Şahizer Samuk Carignani, “What is Wrong with Integration Policies and Processes? Examples from the
A Century of Human Displacement
EU and Turkey in a Comparative Perspective”
and Dispossession:
Europe and the Middle East
COFFEE BREAK 4:00–4:15 pm
Yara el-Moussaoui, “Dissecting the Lebanese Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis, 2011-2018: A

1919–2019
Critical Perspective”

May 14, 15 and 16, 2019 | Auditorium B1, College Hall

Post-WWI treaties not only carved nation-states out of two great empires in Europe and the Middle CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2019
East but also authorized these nascent states to displace and dispossess populations in the name
Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn (professor, Department of History and Archaeology, director, Center for Arts
of peace and order. These two regions have witnessed, over the course of a century, recurrent
and Humanities), Onur Yıldırım (Alfred H. Howell Chair in History and Archeology, American University Panel III 9:00–11:00 am
invocation of this prerogative by states, supplemented by the erratic movements of peoples that
of Beirut/Middle East Technical University (Ankara)), and Bachar El-Halabi (program officer, Asfari
permeated the global history of human displacement and dispossession. The Syrian refugee crisis Title: WWII and the European Refugee Crisis
Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship, American University of Beirut).
marks yet another tragic episode in this century-long history. Much like earlier protracted cases Chair: Onur Yildirim (American University of Beirut/Middle East Technical University)
of massive displacement, it is beset with pain and suffering of women, men and children who
experience an existential limbo with a destroyed past, no future, and a precarious present. Their CONFERENCE PROGRAM Viorel Achim, “Population Transfers and Exchanges in Southeastern Europe during
the Second World War – An Overview”
precarity lingers on as the international public discourse continues to view them predominantly TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2019
through the prism of securitization. Be that as it may, it is now widely acknowledged that both Kornelija Ajlec, “‘Reversed Reality’: Displacement of European Refugees in Egypt during
global and local refugee regimes have failed to effectively manage “the most dramatic humanitarian the Second World War”
crisis,” galvanizing in turn the precarity of the displaced. The countries of the Middle East such as Registration 9:00–10:00 am Bojan Aleksov, “Jewish Refugees and Migrants in the Balkans,”
Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, which have received the lion’s share of the Syrian refugee population
Alexandros Lamprou, “Turkey and the management of refugees from Greece during
and are already covered with refugees of diverse backgrounds, are now particularly strained by the Opening Speeches 10:00–10:15 am the Second World War”
cost of their engagement, while the impact of the influx on their societies and economies becomes
Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn, professor, Department of History and Archaeology, director,
increasingly more visible. European countries also experience an impact as the ultra-right wing
Center for Arts and Humanities COFFEE BREAK 11:00–11:15 am
political parties are on the rise. All those countries in the Middle East and Europe are locked in a
search for a new set of institutions, policies, and practices to facilitate the solution of the problem Nadia El-Cheikh, dean and professor, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
and minimize the negative externalities of the refugee phenomena upon their societies. Although Panel IV 11:15 am–1:15 pm
several international organizations such as UNHCR, UNICEF, and UNESCO implemented their Title: Politics, Law, and Displacement from the Interwar Period through the Cold War Chair:
normative agendas to assist the national regimes, the latter has been generally left to their own Panel I  10:30 am - 12:30 pm Samir Seikaly (American University of Beirut)
devices in their handling of refugee matters. There is increasing realization that there is need for
Title: The Great War and its Great Legacy Guido Franzinetti, “Refugees, Migrations, and the Rise of Populism in Post-Cold War Eastern Europe”
more cooperation and collaboration on the international level and certainly a necessity to develop Chair: Selim Deringil (Lebanese American University)
an interpretive framework for a holistic approach to human displacement and dispossession. The Jakub Jajcay, “Edvard Beneš and the Politics of Displacement”
refugee pact recently adopted by the UN General Assembly and approved by 181 countries, except Antonio Ferrara, “Forced Migrations and People’s States after World War I”
Sophie Roche, “Defining the Refugee in German Legal Institutions”
for the United States and Hungary, should be seen as an attempt at this direction. Whether it is Michael G. Esch, “The Restructuring of East Central Europe and the Juridification of Migration 1919–50”
possible to form a common vision on a global level and especially between the countries of the Akram Al Deek, “The Politics of Home and Identity in Post-Colonial Contemporary English Fiction
Middle East and Europe for the current and prospective challenges is the question that provides the Eleftheria Daleziou, “Humanitarian Relief in the Aftermath of the Great War: NER and Local Relief (1956–2003)”
Committees in the Service of the Orphans in Greece”
leitmotif of this conference project.
Francesca Piana, “The Global Governance of Refugee Protection: Humanitarian Programs for LUNCH BREAK 1:15–2:15 pm
Displaced Armenians in the 1920s”
The Syrian refugee phenomenon provides a good opportunity to take stock of the history of human
displacement and dispossession at local, national, and international levels and put in dialogue Panel V 2:15–4:30 pm
multiple lanes of scholarship developed in Europe and the Middle East on the Syrian refugee case LUNCH BREAK 12:30–1:30 pm
Title: Spatiality and Temporality of Refugeehood
and other instances of massive displacements and dispossession in these regions. In pursuit of this Chair: Bachar El-Halabi (American University of Beirut)
goal, the conference is intended to provide a platform for a critical discussion of the workings of the Panel II 1:30–3:30 pm
global system while assessing the role of the national refugee regimes, instruments, policies, and Melis Cankara, “The Never-Ending Story of a Town: Human Displacement and Dispossession in
Title: Displacement and Dispossession in Longue Durée Crete—Rethymno, 1923–2019”
practices. The conference pays particular attention to the intellectual debates and discussions on the Chair: Ilham Khuri-Makdisi (Northeastern University)
population transfers and refugee phenomena from the end of WWI to the present, and aims to trail Sossie Kasbarian, “Refuge in the ‘Homeland’ – the Syrians in Armenia”
the evolution of national and international refugee systems over a full century. As it pursues those Kent F. Schull, “The Current Middle East Refugee Crisis: World War I’s Legacy”
Dragana Kovacevic Bielicki, “Those Who Left and Those Who Stayed. Diasporic ‘Brothers’ Seen
macro goals, the conference aims to bring to the fore individual, familial, and collective experiences Nergis Canefe, “Global Mobility and Forced Migration as Normalcy” as the “New Others” in the Bosnian Context”
of persecution, internment, and mass displacement in diverse contexts. One of the prime goals
Isa Blumi, “Transitional Boundaries: Balkan/Middle Eastern Post-State Refugees and Alaa Ahmad Kayali, “Ghurba as a Personal Matter: Connotations of “Ghurba” in Al-Tantouriah and I
of the conference is to provide a setting for scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to
a New Regime of Plunder” Saw Ramallah”
reflect on earlier experiences as well as on the most recent ones, including, but not limited to, the
Syrian refugee crisis. The practitioners from the field will enrich this dialogue through their personal Doğuş Şimşek, “The Intersection between Refugee Entrepreneurship and Integration: The Case of
observations and engagements. In brief, the conference seeks to lay the foundation for a more COFFEE BREAK 3:30–4:00 pm Syrian refugees in Turkey”
balanced regional and international discussion on human displacement and dispossession in the
past century. Keynote Address I 4:00–5:00 pm COFFEE BREAK 4:30–4:45 pm
Peter Gatrell, “Writing Refugees into the 20th Century History of Refugeedom”
Keynote Address II 4:45–5:45 pm
Laura Robson, “Displacement as State-Building: The Making of a Modern Middle Eastern Order”