SOCSI Seminar Series Spring 2009: Professor Gill Valentine (School of Geography, University of Leeds) - "How other people see you, it's lik's nothing that's inside": the impact of processes of disidentification and disavowel on young refugee and asylum seeker's subjectivities
Starts: 26 February 2009
26th February – 4:10pm in Committee Room 1, Glamorgan Building
Speaker – Professor Gill Valentine (School of Geography, University of Leeds)
"How other people see you, it's lik's nothing that's inside": the impact of processes of disidentification and disavowel on young refugee and asylum seeker's subjectivities
Discussant: Mike Lewis, Chief Executive, Welsh Refugee Council
Chair: Dr Sally Holland, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
Attendance is free, but you need to book a place as space is limited.
Event Abstract
In this paper I draw on research with young (aged 11-18 years old) Somali refugee and asylum seekers currently living in the UK to explore their narratives of identity in the context of complex histories of mobility. In doing so, I focus on how processes of disidentification or disavowal impact on young people's subjectivities and are lived out in particular spaces. Specifically, I examine the young people's experiences of having their claims to be British denied, of disidentifying as black, and as having to negotiate the complex ambiguities of being positioned as Somali in the UK but British in Somalia. In the conclusion I reflect on the importance of the young people's emotional investment in the subject position Muslim as an explanation for why they prioritise their faith above their racial, gender or ethno-national identities in their narratives of the self.
Other information
Open To: Staff and Students