Dr Estella Carpi speaking at Lebanese American University (LAU)

On 27th of March 2019 at 4pm Southern Responses Research Associate Dr Estella Carpi will offer a lecture at LAU, exploring:

‘The Displacement of Religious Authorities from Syria and their Involvement in Aid Provision: Looking beyond Humanitarianism.’

The event is hosted by The Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution (ISJCR) and the Department of Social Sciences (DSS) at LAU.

Abstract of the Talk

The longstanding Syrian conflict has displaced nearly 7 million people inside the country, and more than 5 million have fled the country as refugees. Among the latter, religious authorities – rijal ad-din – from different communities have relocated to Syria’s neighboring countries, namely Jordan, Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan and Lebanon. In this framework, the general de-historicization and de-subjectification that the refugee population typically undergoes in media and humanitarian narratives have often removed people’s intimate and professional past, overshadowing the peculiar experience of religious authorities. In her talk, Dr. Carpi firstly aims to map a geography of displaced religious authorities following their physical trajectories outside of Syria. She will then focus on how displacement from war, violence and persecution reconfigures their spiritual role and their social status within receiving societies. By doing so, Dr. Carpi seeks to capture how such religious leaders are (un)able to continue their spiritual mission, and how the latter changes in response to their own refugee status and their intent to provide aid, support and solidarity to the displaced communities.

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To access further resources by Dr Estella Carpi please see our Resources page, here.

For more articles on the topic of faith and displacement see below:

Carpi, E. (2017) Localising Response to Humanitarian Need.

Carpi, E (2017) Does faith-based aid provision always localise aid?

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) Faith-based humanitarianism

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) The Localisation of Aid and Southern-led Responses to Displacement: Beyond instrumentalising local actors

Wagner, A. (2018) There are no missionaries here!” – how a local church took the lead in the refugee response in northern Jordan