February 2025
In a collaborative effort with several scholars and contributors, Principal Investigator Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh launched the Special Issue of the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs on Southern Responses to Displacement. Published as part of the multi-year ‘Southern Responses to Displacement’ research project, the Special Issue explored the roles of Southern countries, civil society networks, and individuals with lived experiences of displacement in addressing issues of conflict and displacement. The event also served as an opportunity to reflect collectively on Southern responses to displacement in a global context.
Additionally, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh co-led a closed workshop in partnership with the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), titled “South-South Collaborations in Diplomatic and Humanitarian Responses to Conflict and Displacement”. Held on February 26, 2025, in Doha, Qatar, the workshop brought together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to explore the critical roles of Southern and non-traditional actors in addressing displacement, with a focus on Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. The discussions culminated in a Workshop Report and a Policy Brief, which will be a key component of the project’s final outputs.
November 2024
In a collaborative effort with Palestinian poet Yousif M. Qasmiyeh and photographer Saiful Huq Omi, Principal Investigator Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh has published The Southern Eye: Co-Seeing Displacements. In the book’s postscript, published by Broken Sleep Books, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh reflects on the perspectives of the refugee camp, the host city, and the border in shaping the conceptualization and representation of displacement.
October 2024
Our Principal Investigator, Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, has published “A Manifesto for Bread and Roses” and a co-authored editorial titled “Global and Intersecting Solidarities” in the journal Migration and Society. This volume was co-edited by Professor Mette L. Berg (IOE, Faculty of Education and Society), Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, and Dr. Tatiana Thieme. The issue underscores the journal’s ongoing commitment to critically addressing “the processes and effects of displacement, evictions, and expulsions experienced by individuals and communities rendered vulnerable by situated and global forces.”
July 2024
Dr. Zadhy-Cepoglu presented on the panel “De-migrantisation of mobile individuals” at 21st IMISCOE Annual Conference, hosted in Lisbon, Portugal. Still, at the same event, Dr. Zadhy-Cepoglu chaired the panel “Categorisation and boundary-making in migration studies”
June 2024
Dr. Aminath Nisha Zadhy-Cepoglu joined the project as the news Research Fellow, while Gabriela Bazzo became the Project and Communications Coordinator.
Still in June, Dr. Zadhy-Cepoglu presented on the panel “Care-ful practice: the ethics and ethos of researching with migrants”, at the Innovative Methods in Migration Research event, held by the Migration and Interdisciplinary Global Studies Research Network (MIGS) from Manchester Metropolitan University.
May 2024
Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh was an invited Plenary Speaker at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network 5th Annual Science for a Sustainable Future (SSF) Conference. Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh participated in a panel named “Migration – the missing link” that discussed how to effectively measure, predict, and respond to migration, and what the research tells us about solutions for managing and adapting to population movement across various disciplines.
February 2024
Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh participates as an invited plenary speaker at the Humanitarian Xchange H24 Inaugural Global Event. She was invited for the session titled “Is Localisation Another Fad Headed for the Scrap Heap?”, which aimed to take an honest look at why the sector has struggled to engage at a local level, as well as make tangible recommendations for how to overcome the challenge. The session also explored wider partnerships and collaboration, including the role of business.
February 2023
Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Southern Responses to Displacement’s PI, has been awarded a Cornell-UCL Global Strategic Collaboration Awards. The award was won jointly with colleagues Dr. Saida Hodzic and Dr Eleanor Paynter from Cornell University.
November 2022
On the 4th of November 2022, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, delivered the NCHS Annual Lecture at the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies. In the lecture, Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh proposes ‘moving beyond, or even against, what I conceptualise as “the humanitarian grain”, including by exploring what can be gained both analytically and in practical terms by setting aside the ‘humanitarian frame’, and instead focusing on multi-scalar responses to displacement. Going beyond my earlier project to ‘write the Other into humanitarianism’ Listen to the lecture here.
September 2022
Drawing on Southern Responses to Displacement’s research, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, delivered the keynote lecture at the 4th Conference of the German Network for Forced Migration Studies on Wednesday the 28th September 2022. The abstract for her lecture was built in particular on her article, ‘Recentering the South in Studies of Migration.’ For more information about the conference visit our news item here.
July 2022
On the 4th of July 2022 the Southern Responses to Displacement project hosted a roundtable discussion on ‘Critical reflections on ‘Decolonising’ Humanitarianism and Refugee-Related Research.’ Speakers at the event drew on a range of historical, geographical and epistemological perspectives to collectively explore the future of humanitarian practice and research, including how to go beyond the fetishization of ‘decolonising’ humanitarianism and refugee-related research. Together, the speakers explored the opportunities and challenges of developing and actively supporting non-hegemonic ways of producing knowledge in relation to displacement, and the extent to which, and with what effects, the ‘decolonisation’ of humanitarianism and refugee-related research is meaningful or tokenistic in nature.
You can watch a video of the event and read an edited transcript here.
December 2021
On Tuesday 2nd of December 2021 Southern Responses Research Associate, Dr Estella Carpi, spoke at the Izmir University of Economics in Turkey. Dr Carpi’s presentation, ‘The Politics of Aid and Aiding in Lebanon and Turkey’ drew on her research conducted for the Southern Responses to Displacement research project and focused on faith-based humanitarian assistance and the commonalities and dissimilarities across the academic literature relating to war-induced displacement and humanitarianism. You can read more about this here and here.
March 2021
On the 16th of March 2021 Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh delivered a seminar as part of the Yale PRFDHR Spring 2021 Virtual Seminar Series. At this event, Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh traced the different ways that residents of Baddawi refugee camp in North Lebanon have been affected by COVID-19 since March 2020, and how they have been responding to protect themselves and other conflict-affected people in the midst of the pandemic.
Also on 16th March 2021, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh spoke about ‘The Ethics and Politics of Representation’ at the Power and the Politics in/of Ethnographic Research Seminar Series, hosted by University College London.
This seminar was the fourth in a series of events organised by the PAPER project which aims to addresses questions of decoloniality (anti-racism, anti-colonialism, class, (dis)ability, and gender/sexual discrimination) in ethnographic fieldwork.
On Wednesday the 3rd of March, Dr Estella Carpi presented at the ‘Sociology Talks Series’ at Koc Universitesi, Turkey. Her presentation, ‘The Politics of Aid and Aiding in Lebanon and Turkey. What Geography Matters?‘ draws on her research conducted for the Southern Responses to Displacement project and examines how people respond to the ‘political geographies’ that define models of assistance in forced migration settings.
February 2021
On Friday the 12th of February 2021, Southern Responses to Displacement’s PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, joined Juilano Fiori, Head of Humanitarian Studies at Save the Children and Patricia Daley from Oxford University, to discuss ‘Decolonisation in Forced Migration and Humanitarian Response.’
January 2021
On January 21st 2021, Southern Responses to Displacement’s PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh delivered “Shifting the Gaze: Southern-led Humanitarian Responses to Displacement” for the Mellon Sawyer series: ‘Humanitarians. Migrations and Care through the Global South’ hosted by the Simpson Center, University of Washington. Her presentation was followed by a graduate seminar on Jan 22nd, in which graduate researchers lead a discussion with Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh vis-a-vis her longstanding work on “Recentering the South in Studies of Migration”, including her 2020 open access article of that title published in Migration and Society, which you can read here.
November 2020
On the 11th of November 2020, Dr Estella Carpi presented the talk (online) at The University of Melbourne ‘The Politics of Crisis-Making: Neither for Rights, Nor for Needs.’ For more information click here.
July 2020
We are delighted to announce that the Open Access book, Refuge in a Moving World – Tracing Refugee and Migrant Journeys Across Disciplines, edited by Southern Responses to Displacement PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and including chapters authored by our RA, Dr Estella Carpi, has been published. Access an Open Access PDF copy of the volume here.
May 2020
On Friday 22 May 2020, Dr. Estella Carpi, Southern Responses Research Associate, taught a seminar class titled The Syrian Exodus in Lebanon and Turkey. Humanitarian Aid, Governance and Social Spaces. The event was hosted at the Faculty of Historical, Geographic, and Antiquity Sciences at the University of Padua (Italy).
May 2020
The Southern Responses to Displacement project announced the publication of the Open Access Special Issue 3 of Migration and Society, examining the question of “Recentering the South in Studies of Migration”. The issue examines this question by asking: What does it mean to “recenter” that which has, and those who have, been placed and kept at the margins? Whose voices and perspectives should be involved in recentering? And to what or who does “the South” refer in such contested domains?
April 2020
Southern Responses to Displacement PI Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh was a guest on Channel 4 News to discuss how Covid-19 is impacting people living in poverty around the world. Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh highlighted the diversity of national and international responses to the pandemic, including by Low and Middle Income Countries. Drawing on her work on South-South Cooperation and Southern-led responses to displacement, she argued for global solutions based on principles of solidarity to address the global pandemic in ways that are inclusive and socially just.
February 2020
Southern Responses to Displacement Research Associate, Dr Estella Carpi, presented at the Decolonising Humanitarian Aid: Syrian Refugees in the North of Lebanon at SOAS, University of London on the 7th of February 2020.
The conference focused on ‘the situation of Syrian refugees in the North of Lebanon and the urgent need for humanitarian reform in the context of the Syrian crisis.’ The conference defined “Decolonising” humanitarian aid’ as ‘recognising the agency of those who have been displaced and supporting in a spirit of solidarity those who are struggling for the future of their country.’
December 2019
Southern Responses to Displacement PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, delivered her Inaugural Lecture: Refuge in a Moving World: beyond hospitality and hostility on the 10th of December 2019. You can listen to the podcast and view the lecture slides, here.
August 2019
Southern Responses’ PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, participated in the inaugural South-South Forum, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, held from the 13th – 15th of August 2019. Contributing to the workshop roundtable themed ‘In-Between Spaces and Border Ecologies’, and drawing on recent field work conducted for the Southern Responses to Displacement research project in Baddawi Camp, Lebanon, Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh offered reflections on the heterogenous connections that exist between Baddawi and diverse peoples and places across what is often referred to as the Global South.
On Monday 12th August Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh also offered a plenary lecture at Dartmouth College, on past and present forms of Southern-led responses to displacement in and from the Middle East. Her lecture focused on the Southern Responses to Displacement project’s ongoing research in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
June 2019
Southern Responses Principal Investigator, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh presented the closing keynote speech at the 4th Refugee Law Initiative Annual conference. This year the conference’s special theme was ‘Rethinking the ‘Regional’ in Refugee Law and Policy’ and Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s keynote drew on the work of Southern Responses to Displacement project to explore ‘South-South humanitarian responses to displacement: views from the Middle East.’
May 2019
The Southern Responses to Displacement Team celebrated the launch of the Routledge Handbook of South-South Relations at UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies on the 20th of May. On the occasion, the Handbook editors, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Prof. Patricia Daley and a number of contributing authors discussed the roles of decolonial and Southern theories in contemporary research.
April 2019
Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh attended the Rising Powers Workshop at the Institute of Development Studies to present the work of the Routledge Handbook of South-South Relations. The workshop was convened in the context of the overarching question: How is the South being recast as result of the interplay between its own Southern powers and other established powers, institutions and ideas in international development?
March 2019
On the 27th of March Dr Estella Carpi delivered a lecture at the Lebanese American University, exploring
‘The Displacement of Religious Authorities from Syria and their Involvement in Aid Provision: Looking beyond Humanitarianism.’
Jan 2019
Southern Responses to Displacement Research Associate Dr Estella Carpi participated in the Ideas Globally Voices from the South event held at Newspeak House in London on the 9th of January 2019.
Insights from the South is a new event format by IDEAS Globally, to create the space for knowledge exchange between London and the Global South. Authors present insights on key issues in development today, and challenge perspectives of development and North-South relations.
Dec 2018
The Southern Responses to Displacement from Syria team is pleased to announce that the Handbook of South-South Relations (edited by Southern Responses PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, and Prof. Patricia Daley) was published in December 2018. The Handbook includes chapters by Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, and Dr Estella Carpi (Southern Responses Post-Doctoral Research Associate), and a wide number of other chapters that are of direct relevance to the project.
We look forward to hosting a launch event at UCL in early-2019, where we will discuss and debate different approaches to studying and responding to ‘the South’ in contexts of insecurity, conflict and displacement.
Read an extract from the Introduction, ‘Conceptualising the Global South and South-South Encounters,’ by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Patricia Daley here; a brief reflection by Estella on her chapter, ‘The “Need to Be There”: North-South Encounters and Imaginations in the Humanitarian Economy’ will soon be posted as part of our series.
Nov 2018
On the 9th of November Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Dr Carpi contributed to the Humanising Refugee Research workshop at the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE), University of Oxford, and shared critical reflections on approaches to refugee research and the roles of decolonial, anticolonial & postcolonial theories and methodologies.
Dr Carpi attended the “Working Together: Human Rights, the Sustainable Development Goals and Gender Equality” workshop, held at the British Academy, on 12 November 2018 in London. Read her blog post on the workshop here.
Also on the 12th of November, Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh gave a presentation at the Transregional Studies Lecture Series: Emerging Regional Powers and South-South Interventions at the Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute in Germany.
And on the 13th and 14th of November Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh attended the UNHCR consultation in Geneva to discuss the set up of a new academic network as part of the new global compact on refugees.
October 2018
On the 5th and 6th of October, Dr Estella Carpi, presented her research on “The Displacement of Religious Authorities from Syria and their Involvement in Humanitarian Action” at the Migration, Social Transformation and Differential Inclusion in Turkey Conference organized by the Istanbul Policy Center (Sabanci University).
June 2018
From 5th to 7th June 2018, Dr. Estella Carpi presented a paper titled ‘The Displacement of Religious Authorities from Syria and its implications for Community Responses to Crisis’ at the Faith Leaders and Communities: Influence, Engagement and Channels of Hope Research Workshop organised by World Vision in Amsterdam.
The Southern Responses to Displacement team also convened a panel on ‘Southern-led Responses to Displacement in the MENA Region at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) conference, at Kings College London.
May 2018
On May 31st 2018, Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Dr Estella Carpi convened a conference as part of the UCL Humanitarian Institute Evening Conference Series on the UN Sustainable Development Goals: “South-South Humanitarianism: New Aims, Old Challenges”
The event brought together a group of renowned international experts to debate different perspectives on the importance of making the Sustainable Development Goals and the South-South Cooperation framework uphold and actively promote the well-being and dignity of people affected by conflict and displacement across the global South.
February 2018
Sorcha Daly joined the Southern Responses Team as the Project and Communications Coordinator.
She will be responsible for the day to day management and administration of the project and will support the research team to ensure that the project’s findings are widely disseminated.
December 2017
In December 2017, Prof Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh was invited to present insights from her research at the UNHCR High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges.
The UNHCR High Commissioner’s dialogue aimed to help the UN refugees’ agency move forward in drafting the new Global Compact on Refugees which will be presented in 2018. Read Elena’s short blog piece on the conference here.
November 2017
In November 2017, Dr Estella Carpi participated in the conference “The Politics of Reception. The Syrian Neighbourhood as a Social Field”, organised by the Lebanese American University (LAU)–Byblos and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), in Lebanon.
Participants discussed the effect of the international humanitarian apparatus on local and regional systems of governance, and the nature of national responses to Syrian displacement. To read Estella’s blog on the conference click here.
October 2017
The Southern Responses to Displacement team participated in a Global Challenges Research Fund Conference entitled ‘Protracted Conflict, Aid and Development: Research, Policy and Practice’. The conference aimed to examine ways in which Southern led responses complement and, at times, challenge Northern led responses. Prof Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Dr Estella Carpi attended the conference at the British Academy in London. In this text, Dr Carpi reflects on her experience as part of a panel exploring South-South humanitarianism and self-reliance amongst conflict-affected populations. Read the blog here.
October 2017
The Southern Responses research team participated in a Forum organised by the Partnership in Faith and Development and a wide range of secular and faith-based NGOs, which took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Dr Estella Carpi from the Southern Responses project joined the displacement and forced migration panel. In her blog post about the conference Dr Estella draws some of the contrasting views of various participants together, providing a starting point for building common ground between secular and faith-based understandings of need and cultures of crisis management. Read more on her blog here.
September 2017
On 14 September 2017, Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh was invited to deliver the keynote address at the recent ODI Disasters Conference, which celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the renowned Disasters journal.
Her keynote addressed key approaches and lenses that have enhanced our understanding in contemporary Disasters Studies, and have helped improve responses to disasters around the world. To read more about key approaches to understanding Southern led responses to crisis relief, take a look at ‘Our Approach’ page here.
September 2017
Dr Estella Carpi starts working as Research Associate on the Southern Responses Project. Dr Carpi previous work has focused on displacement, forced migration, social welfare, gender equality, and humanitarian aid provision in the Arab Levant and Turkey. To read more about her work, click here.
July 2017
The launch of our ‘Southern Responses’ project, “Analysing South-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey,” is announced.
Funded by the European Research Council and led by UCL’s Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, the Southern Responses project builds upon Dr Fiddian-Qasmiyeh long-standing research into ‘South-South humanitarianism’. Read more about her research here.
Southern Responses to Displacement 