Paul V Dudman

This paper will explore the concept of preserving refugee rights in the records that we keep, and will explore how we have undertaken civic engagement and outreach work with refugees and asylum seekers in London and beyond to explore ways of documenting their stories through the us of bottom-up oral history methodologies and the use of objectives and textiles as a means of preserving collective memories and a new modes of representation beyond the traditional written word. It will also consider the role of ethics and the role of archives in documenting under-represented communities. The Refugee Council Archive at UEL is a growing collection of archival materials documenting the refugee experience. This paper will reflect on our work exploring the very nature of what we mean by the concept of an “archive,” and explore the challenges of bottom-up methodological approaches for helping to preserve the collective memory of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in way that enables their v...

This issue of Displaced Voices, published during Refugee Week, reflects on the 70th anniversary of both the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the establishment of the third sector organisations that were to become the Refugee Council. Our theme for this issue was: Twentieth Century Histories of Civic Society Responses to Crises of Displacement. Throughout these seven decades, the issues of refuge and displacement, and the challenges faced by those undertaking the migration journey, have continued to require an engaged response from third sector organisations, often filling the void left by the relative inaction of national governments. This article considers the key narratives located within this issue, whilst also exploring our role as the host archival repository of the Refugee Council. The anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on our work undertaking anti-oppressive, participatory and collaborative methods working directly with refugees, communit...

This report is an excerpt of a working paper on a civic engagement project that focuses on the oral narratives in which contradictory narratives of transcultural encounters of refugees and undocumented migrants in London are being illustrated. The project, entitled “Democratic Access or Privileged Exclusion? Civic Engagement through the Preservation of and Access to Refugee Archives,” was undertaken in 2015 by focusing on the preservation of refugees’ and migrants’ lived experiences in London. It sought to use existing archives held within the University of East London’s (UEL) Library as a basis to forge new partnerships between students, academics, archivists, and refugee community groups in order to deconstruct and preserve refugee-history. The aims and objectives of the project, among others, included: (a) to engage with local communities in an attempt to establish a Living Refugee Archive and to promote and enable accessibility and engagement with existing collections, (b) to incorporate digital content collected as part of UEL’s Oral History Project which would ultimately help facilitate continued discussions and civic engagement activities, and (c) to help encourage interaction between archivists, historians, NGOs, and the communities themselves as to how the refugee experience can be adequately collated, preserved, and documented. In this report we draw on the collated oral histories of refugees, in particular those in which paradoxical narratives of transcultural encounters of refugees and migrants from outside the European Union are obvious. By way of examples, we document that whilst refugees and migrants from outside the European Union bring in significant resources (such as culture, food, dress, language), their encounters with British residents in London are paradoxical. The report sought to substantiate the argument that in an era of global movement and global conflict the meaning of home to a refugee is “multiple, complex and in process” (Taylor, 2015, p. 11), while the home they hope for is often denied to them, and they are being constructed as “others.” The report also demonstrates that experiences of refugees and migrants vary based on their ethnicity, nationality, and geopolitical situation, and lived experience of EU and non-EU refugees and migrants can be different.

Presentation aims to investigate the role of Archives in preserving the history of the nation-state and to consider the notion that the voices of refugees are often marginalised or left un-heard with the Archive, or even deliberately overlooked in favour of the dominant narratives of the nation. This paper will also briefly consider the approaches being undertaken to collect and preserve the history of the refugee experience.

Welcome to the inaugural volume of our new journal-Displaced Voices: A Journal of Archives, Migration and Cultural Heritage. Displaced Voices sits at the interdisciplinary nexus of archival science; refugee and forced migration studies and cultural heritage and is published by the Living Refugee Archive, an online portal managed and curated by colleagues at the Refugee Council Archive located within the University of East London. Displaced Voices is committed to the values of open access and all facets of the journal including articles, poetry, multimedia and related content will be made freely accessible to all.

This paper will explore the concept of preserving refugee rights in the records that we keep, and will explore how we have undertaken civic engagement and outreach work with refugees and asylum seekers in London and beyond to explore ways of documenting their stories through the us of bottom-up oral history methodologies and the use of objectives and textiles as a means of preserving collective memories and a new modes of representation beyond the traditional written word. It will also consider the role of ethics and the role of archives in documenting under-represented communities. The Refugee Council Archive at UEL is a growing collection of archival materials documenting the refugee experience. This paper will reflect on our work exploring the very nature of what we mean by the concept of an "archive," and explore the challenges of bottom-up methodological approaches for helping to preserve the collective memory of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in way that enables their voices to be heard in a positive way and is documentation along the best methodology to achieve this. Izvleček: Avtor v svojem prispevku raziskuje koncept ohranjanja pravic beguncev v evidencah, ki jih hranimo, ter kako so se v Londonu in širše angažirali, da se ozavešča javnost o delu z begunci in prosilci za azil. Prav tako raziskuje načine dokumentiranja njihovih zgodb po metodologiji ustne zgodovine od spodaj navzgor-in uporabo ciljev in tekstilij kot sredstva za ohranjanje kolektivnega spomina in novih načinov predstavitve netradicionalne pisane besede. Prispevek preučuje vlogo etike in vlogo arhivov pri dokumentiranju premalo zastopanih skupnosti. Arhiv Sveta beguncev pri UEL je vse večja zbirka arhivskega gradiva, ki dokumentira izkušnjo beguncev. V prispevku avtor raziskuje naravo tega, kar se razume pod pojmom "arhiv", kot tudi izzive metodoloških pristopov od spodaj navzgor za pomoč pri ohranjanju kolektivnega spomina beguncev, migrantov in prosilcev za azil, kar omogoča, da se njihovi lasovi slišijo na pozitiven način ter ali je dokumentiranje tega najboljši način za dosego tega? Ključne besede: begunci, kolektivni spomin, kulturna dediščina, ustna zgodovina, zastopanje Biography:

This paper will explore the concept of preserving refugee rights in the records that we keep, and will explore how we have undertaken civic engagement and outreach work with refugees and asylum seekers in London and beyond to explore ways of documenting their stories through the us of bottom-up oral history methodologies and the use of objectives and textiles as a means of preserving collective memories and a new modes of representation beyond the traditional written word. It will also consider the role of ethics and the role of archives in documenting under-represented communities. The Refugee Council Archive at UEL is a growing collection of archival materials documenting the refugee experience. This paper will reflect on our work exploring the very nature of what we mean by the concept of an "archive," and explore the challenges of bottom-up methodological approaches for helping to preserve the collective memory of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in way that enables their voices to be heard in a positive way and is documentation along the best methodology to achieve this. Izvleček: Avtor v svojem prispevku raziskuje koncept ohranjanja pravic beguncev v evidencah, ki jih hranimo, ter kako so se v Londonu in širše angažirali, da se ozavešča javnost o delu z begunci in prosilci za azil. Prav tako raziskuje načine dokumentiranja njihovih zgodb po metodologiji ustne zgodovine od spodaj navzgor-in uporabo ciljev in tekstilij kot sredstva za ohranjanje kolektivnega spomina in novih načinov predstavitve netradicionalne pisane besede. Prispevek preučuje vlogo etike in vlogo arhivov pri dokumentiranju premalo zastopanih skupnosti. Arhiv Sveta beguncev pri UEL je vse večja zbirka arhivskega gradiva, ki dokumentira izkušnjo beguncev. V prispevku avtor raziskuje naravo tega, kar se razume pod pojmom "arhiv", kot tudi izzive metodoloških pristopov od spodaj navzgor za pomoč pri ohranjanju kolektivnega spomina beguncev, migrantov in prosilcev za azil, kar omogoča, da se njihovi lasovi slišijo na pozitiven način ter ali je dokumentiranje tega najboljši način za dosego tega? Ključne besede: begunci, kolektivni spomin, kulturna dediščina, ustna zgodovina, zastopanje Biography:

Article reflecting on the work of our "Past in the Present" wokshop as part of the IASFM Working Group for Archiving and Documentation of History of Forced Migration and Refugees.  Article focusing on issues surrounding archives, agency and activism in the context of refugee and forced migration studies.

Dzhangal the book was launched to coincide with an exhibition and installation of the photographs by the photographer and author Gideon Mendel held at Autograph in London between 6 th January and the 11 th February 2017. The title of this book, "Dzhangal" relates to a Pashto word meaning 'This is the forest", which apparently is the origin for the Calais refugee camps becoming known as the `Jungle.'