Join us for the Department of Social and Policy Sciences' lunchtime Research Seminar Series where we showcase research from our department and invite guest speakers to present on their work. The event lasts an hour, with about 45 minutes of research presentation and 15 minutes for questions at the end. The topics are as varied as the research centres within the department: the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), the Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy (CASP) and the Centre for Death and Society (CDAS).
About this talk
Philip’s book project – Rebel Populism – tells the history of the Syrian uprising through the eyes of migrant workers in Beirut. Lebanon has long maintained a significant population of Syrian labourers. Men undertook mostly seasonal work for extended periods of wage labour abroad. However, there was little evidence of permanent settlement and few signs that a second-generation of Syrians were making homes across the border. In 2011, when the first rumbling of uprising began to break, many migrant workers returned home, hoping to participate through peaceful protest or, later, armed resistance. But now, against the realities of the present, most are just trying to survive.
In the second part of his talk, Philip will connect this previous project’s insights into his ongoing research among LGBT activist-humanitarians in Beirut and Athens. In both locations, ‘out’ or ‘outed’ refugees endure a unique combination of structural and physical violence. In response, LGBT activists and their allies have established grassroots aid and solidarity networks. Examining the day-to-day life of these organisations reveals how they are ultimately situated by, yet also in tension with, broader neoliberal forms of NGOised relief.
About the speaker
Philip Proudfoot is a British Academy Post-Doctoral fellow at The University of Bath. Previously, he was Assistant Director of Council for British Research in the Levant (CRBL) Amman, one of the British Academy’s International Research Institutes and part of The Council for British Research in the Levant. His background is in political anthropology specialising in Syria & Lebanon. His work examines issues including forced migration, humanitarianism, civil war, gender and sexuality, and working-class culture. He has just completed a book manuscript that describes the lives of Syrian migrant labourers in Beirut during the Syrian uprising and civil war. He is now working on a post-doctoral project that examines “activist-humanitarians” responding to the European refugee ‘crisis.’