Critical Refugee Studies Conference:

Concurrent Sessions

Thursday November 3

9:30-11Concurrent Sessions:

Internal DisplacementsUnion 181

Moderator: Greg Carter, History, UWM

  • Gita Barali, Independent Scholar, “Who is a Refugee? The Indian Experience”
  • David Silkenat, History, North Dakota State University,“The American Civil War Considered as a Refugee Crisis”
  • Sierra Adare-Tasiwoopa api, University at Buffalo,“The Trail Where They Cried: Prisoners, Survivors, Refugees?”

Contesting Literacies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literacy and Refugee Studies Union 183

Moderator: May Vang, Bilingual Education, UWM

  • MaiGer Moua “Contesting Literacy and Illiteracy: Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet, Pahawh, and Nationalism”
  • Chong Moua “From the Familial to the Female: Constructing the Hmong Subject in Kao Kalia Yang’s The Latehomecomer”
  • Michael T. MacDonald “Currency and Consequence: Intersections of Literacy Research and Refugee Studies”

Refugees and the Margins of NationsUnion 179

Moderator TBA

  • Kim Tran, Ethnic Studies, University of California-Berkeley: “Vietnam as Spectacle: Social Death and Abjection in the Refugee Paradigm”
  • Rainer U. Schultz, University of Exeter, Forced Migration of German Populations during and after the Second World War

1-2:30 Concurrent Sessions:

Legal Policies and Regulatory StructuresUnion 181

Moderator: Robert S. Smith, History, UWM

  • Dulce Abigail Perez Aguilera, Justice Studies and Social Inquiry, Arizona State University, Tempe& Rosa E. Monterrubio Torres,Department of Law, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, “Justifiable Conditions: The African Descendant Refugees in Mexico City: Status and Regulatory Challenges”
  • Dahlia Malek, King’s College, London,“Exhausting Local Remedies in Accordance with the African Charter in Host Countries: The Case of Detained Refugees in Egypt”
  • Pinar Celebi, University of Exeter, “The Construction of Refugee Presence as a Security Threat”

Rethinking CategoriesUnion 183

Moderator: Lisa Silverman, History, UWM

  • Tina Shrestha, Anthropology, Cornell University,“The Everyday Immigrant Integration: Nepali Refugees, Asylum Seekers & Migrant Workers in New York City”
  • Bernadette Ludwig, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, ““The Label Refugee: A Blessing or a Burden?”
  • Laura Hilton, History, Muskingum University,“Are You Who You Say You Are? Identification and Screening of Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany”

Friday November 4

8:30-10:00Concurrent Sessions

Self Representation: The Politics of Agency and VoiceUnion 181

Moderator: Oody Petty, Comparative Ethnic Studies & English, UWM

  • Alison Remillard, Cornell University,“Wandering Birds: Burmese Refugee youth Narratives of Inclusion, Exclusion and Hopes for the Future”
  • Jennifer Way, Art History, University of North Texas,“Domesticating Handicrafts: Representations of Refugee Handicraft Artisans in South Vietnam, 1956”
  • Pa Her, “The Stories We Share: Hmong Women’s Identity and Socialization Strategies in the United States”

Locating Refugees: Spaces and SitesUnion 183

Moderator: Erica Bornstein, Anthropology, UWM

  • Lynne Horiuchi,Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California at Berkeley, “Managing Camps: The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter and Japanese American Sites of Confinement”
  • Emily A. Lynch, University of Texas at Austin, “Time in Forced Migration: Life in a Rwandese Refugee Camp”
  • Father Linh Hoang,Religious Studies, Siena College, “Southeast Asian Refugees: Negotiating Religious Markers”

10:30-12:00Concurrent Sessions

Refugee Collaboration with Local ActorsUnion 181

Moderator: Adejumoke Afolayan, Visiting Scholar, Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Bryan McGinley, “Refugee or Asylum Seeker: What’s in a Name?”
  • Nora Danielson, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford and Themba Lewis, Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies, American University in Cairo, “Refugee Participation in Cairo, Egypt”
  • Christie Shrestha, Anthropology, University of Kentucky,“Complexities in Resettlement of Bhutanese Refugees: What it Means to Integrate and Become American”

Identity & Refugee NarrativesUnion 183

Nan Kim Paik, History, UWM

  • Pa Der Vang, “Hmong in the U.S.: Acculturation and Socialization Strategies”
  • Edwin Otieno Makori, Omega Foundation, Kenya, “The Experiences of Somali Refugees in Nairobi, Kenya: Their Perceptions of Citizenship and Home”

A Refuge of Identity: Contesting Discourses of Refugee in Literature, Film and Political Culture Union 179

Moderator: Kristin Sziarto, Geography, UWM

  • Aline Lo, Manifested Destinies: Refugee Narratives in American Literature
  • Lee Abbott, “Not refugees: the struggle for self-identification of Katrina survivors”
  • Thang Dao, “Vietnamese People Don’t Die”: Discourses about Vietnamese Undocumented Immigrants in the European Union.

1:30-3Concurrent Sessions

Mediated Representations of RefugeesUnion 181

Moderator: Richard Grusin, English & Center for 21st Century Studies, UWM

  • Michele James-Deramo, ASPECT (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought), Virginia Tech, “An Insurrection of Subjugated Information: The Perceptions of Aid Organizations in Kakuma Refugees”
  • Phuong Nguyen, Asian American Studies,Northwestern University, “The Voice of America & Becoming Refugee American”
  • Jane Seok Jeng Lim,State University of New York at Buffalo, “ ‘A Flag on a Map’: A Cars Study of a Karen Refugee Child’s Sense of Identity in the Settlement Country”

Refugees in Context of American GeopoliticsUnion 183

Moderator: Sarah McKinnon, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Chieko Kitagawa Otsuru,Kansai University, “Accepting Refugees of Failed U.S. Wars as Minority Members”
  • Emily M. Feuerherm, Linguistics, UC-Davis, “Discourses around Refugees: Positioning Iraqi Refugees through Policy and the Media”
  • Stanley Thangaraj, Sociology, Vanderbilt University,“The Veil and Empire: The Gendered Politics in US Empire and the Iraqi Elections”

Hmong Refugees or Hmong Americans? Why Labels MatterUnion 179

Moderator: Scott Walter, Comparative Ethnic Studies & Cultures and Communities Program, UWM

  • Vincent Her, Ethnic and Racial Studies, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse & Mary Louise Buley-Meissner, English, UWM“Reading 'Bamboo Among the Oaks' as a Narrative of the Hmong American Journey from Refugees to Citizens"
  • Mitch Ogden,English, University of Wisconsin-Stout,"Poetics & Polemics of Refugee Utopias: The Poetry of Hmong Diaspora"