The UEL Forced Migration Conference 2020:  Psychosocial theory and practice: What is the evidence?

This one-day event showcasing the perspectives of over 20 speakers who have had the experience of migrating across borders because of conflict, persecution or natural disasters, as well as academics and practitioners working in this field.
 
Date: Friday 4 September
Time: 11:00 – 17:00 GMT
Location: online
Fee: £20 

A number of free tickets are reserved for refugees, asylum seekers, those who have had the experience of being internally displaced, undocumented migrants and other people with a precarious immigration status.

A number of tickets will also be offered to student ambassadors who offer to contribute their support on the day of the conference. 

 

The University of East London Forced Migration Conference 2020 provides a platform for forced migrants (including refugees, asylum seekers, those who have had the experience of being internally displaced, undocumented migrants and other people with a precarious immigration status), as well as scholars, researchers, policy makers and practitioners who work in the field (e.g. humanitarian workers, NGO workers, or service providers). This platform is intended to promote knowledge exchange, challenge existing conceptualisations of what ‘psychosocial’ means in relation to forced migration, and propose alternative psychosocial practices (particularly evidence-based interventions).

In the contemporary context, issues of forced migration and ‘the refugee’ have become symbolic of wider social, cultural, epistemic, economic, political and psychological processes. One example is the securitisation of migration, bordering practices and representing the refugee as an emergency, a crisis or a problem to be solved. If we are to participate and promote a more ethical approach, the context out of which psychosocial theory and practice emerges, should be critically deconstructed.

The Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support (MHPSS) approach understands ‘mental health’ as existing within the individual psyche and ‘psychosocial’ as the interconnection between the person and their environment. In terms of the operationalisation of this paradigm, psychosocial support is often delivered through interventions that focus on behaviour, emotions, cognition, functioning and changes in relationships. Interventions themselves are varied, from women’s groups to one-to-one counselling. These interventions are also delivered by a wide range of actors – from professionals with no related training to specialists in the field. In summary the field of MHPPS is broad and complex, it is based on a particular understanding of what constitutes wellbeing, and its areas of policy and intervention are extremely diverse.

Online Exhibition Project and Digital Archive – Refugee Psychology and Psychosocial Interventions: A History.

As part of the UEL Forced Migration 2020 on the theme of:  Psychosocial theory and practice: What is the evidence?, we are pleased to announce the launch of a new online digital archive entitled “Refugee Psychology and Psychosocial Interventions: A History.”  This will be a collaborative project between the Living Refugee Archive – hosted by the UEL Archives, in conjunction with the UEL School of Psychology. We have a long history of collaborative working including a successful civic engagement project which enabled the development of our Refugee Mental Health Wellbeing Portal for Refugees.

The Refugee Psychology and Psychosocial Interventions: A History digital archive will be hosted in our Living Refugee Archive online digital portal, which is managed by the UEL Archives as a tool to help us support ethical access to digital resources documenting broad issues of displacement; agency and activism. 

We would be very interested to hear from Speakers and Attendees at the UEL Forced Migration Conference as we would like to document presentations and research outlined at the Conference to be preserved and accessible for the future.  We would also welcome advice on the range and scope of materials that we should be looking to incorporate into the Digital Archive.  Please do get in touch!

UEL Archivist Paul Dudman, “it is important we look beyond traditional forms of archival collecting if we want to ensure that we capture an archive diverse in experiences, encapsulating the research, impact and narrative approaches to Refugee Psychology and Psychosocial Interventions.”

Call for Submissions

Examples of the range and scope of materials we would be interested in collecting, include:

  • Conference posters from the UEL Forced Migration Conference 2020
  • Presentation notes and slides from the UEL Forced Migration Conference 2020
  • Vox Pop videos (3-5 minutes in length) on a subject related to one of the UEL Forced Migration Conference themes. See here: 
  • Academic Articles (open access)
  • Practitioner reports
  • Narratives and storytelling
  • Oral Histories
  • Photographs
  • Audio visual materials (e.g. videos, podcasts).
  • Artistic responses
  • Ephemera


Materials can be submitted via the our online form available via or the QR Code or the link here: https://bit.ly/3lksCmm

Contact

If you would like to contribute materials to the new online archive or if you would like to request more information, please contact the UEL Archivist Paul V. Dudman on E-mail at:  p.v.dudman@uel.ac.uk