{"id":7366,"date":"2022-11-06T08:46:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T08:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/?p=7366"},"modified":"2022-11-06T09:03:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T09:03:06","slug":"publishing-as-an-agent-of-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/publishing-as-an-agent-of-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Publishing as an agent of change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, while\u00a0Allison Chaplin<\/a>,\u00a0IU Press<\/a>\u00a0acquisitions editor for a new series on refugees and migration, was getting ready to travel to\u00a0IU\u2019s European Gateway<\/a>\u00a0in Berlin, Germany. It was her first time in Europe. \u201cJust a few weeks before we arrived, there was news about the Brandenburg airport and crowds coming there seeking refuge,\u201d Chaplin explained. To date, according to the\u00a0United Nations Refugee Agency<\/a>, 6.5 million Ukrainian refugees have crossed the border of their homeland into neighboring countries.<\/p>\n

Against this background, Chaplin attended\u00a0In Dialogue: Symposium on the Displacement of Peoples between Africa and Europe<\/a>\u00a0to promote\u00a0Worlds in Crisis:<\/em>\u00a0Refugees, Asylum, and Forced Migration<\/em><\/a>. Chaplin found her fellow presenters, like herself, did not want to appear like they were taking advantage of the crisis, but it was there in stark reality, asking the essential questions the symposium attendees had been raising for years: How do artists and activists, publishers, writers, and concerned citizens bring solutions and attention to the refugee crises? How do they affect change?<\/p>\n

Chaplin\u2019s\u00a0Worlds in Crisis<\/em>\u00a0presentation<\/h3>\n
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Allison Chaplin, IU Press acquisitions editor for\u00a0the World in Crisis series.\u00a0Image courtesy of IU Libraries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
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Chaplin attended the symposium on March 18 and 19, 2022. \u201cMy presentation used the first three books from the\u00a0Worlds in Crisis<\/em>\u00a0series as a lens to discuss best practices in writing and the arts, asking the audience to think about how we can represent refugees most mindfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaplin presented on the second day.\u00a0Utilizing the book series as a perspective and example, Chaplin \u201cdiscussed how authors and publishers can represent and help others to understand displacement through the works they create.\u201d\u00a0 She addressed the question: \u201cHow are written publications most persuasive as a public voice on forced migration to motivate people on a global scale to address the problem and hash out solutions?\u201d<\/p>\n

She explains, \u201cLooking at art that serves as an agent of change in relationship to forcibly displaced peoples was a goal of the symposium as it was presented to me.\u201d She continues, \u201cTo more meaningfully and intimately understand the experience of refugees is a goal of IU Press\u2019\u00a0Worlds in Crisis: Refugees, Asylum, and Forced Migration<\/em>\u00a0book series.\u201d Chaplin wedded the two motives by using both creative and academic writing as an art that not only \u201cserves as an agent of change,\u201d but also \u201ca gateway to more meaningfully and intimately understanding the experience of refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaplin is thankful to one of her mentors, Jennika Baines, an IU Press acquisitions editor before her. \u201cIt was an incredible personal and professional opportunity for me and for the\u00a0Worlds in Crisis<\/em>\u00a0series. I’m excited that I was able to attend the IU Europe Gateway the same year that this series is launching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because\u00a0Worlds in Crisis<\/em>\u00a0is a new series for IU Press, Chaplin wanted to discuss best practices in refugee studies. \u201cFor example, I have one author who decided to include zero images in their book,\u201d Chaplin says. \u201cOn the other hand, I have an author who included over 70 images, some very sensitive, because she wrote that she viewed it to be particularly important to display the images to raise awareness about the suffering of refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many reasons for not including pictures beside their being sensitive. \u201cI would want the author to get to speak specifically on her reasoning for not including images,\u201d Chaplin explains. \u201cWhether it was a permissions issue — getting permissions to display those images — or if she just didn\u2019t think it was necessary for the material, or she didn\u2019t want to reveal their identities. I think all of this was and is implied when authors face these decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere must be someone to work with these authors who are doing the good work of working directly with refugees. I\u2019m pleased to be working on this series with them,\u201d Chaplin says with a smile. \u201cThe series editors \u2013 I don\u2019t do the series alone,\u201d she explains. \u201cI am the IU Press representative who works on the series.\u00a0Elizabeth Cullen Dunn<\/a>, who is also with IU, and\u00a0Georgina Ramsay<\/a>, who is from the University of Delaware, are the series editors. They consult with IU Press about the books invited for the\u00a0Worlds in Crisis<\/em>\u00a0series, and they consult throughout the review process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The symposium and discussion<\/h3>\n

Perhaps because of COVID, the symposium was smaller. \u201cThere was no audience so whereas you usually attend an academic conference with presenters and a big audience, everybody who attended the conference presented something for the group. That made it unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Chaplin, her fellow presenters were exemplary. Though organized by the\u00a0Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies<\/a>\u00a0here at Indiana University, people attended from many other organizations such as the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies, University College London, Warwick University, and the University of Rwanda to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love working with academics,\u201d Chaplin says excitedly. \u201cThere was a freelance journalist who had just returned from Ukraine to attend the conference. He had been in Ukraine reporting there on the refugee situation as it was unfolding.\u201d In addition,\u00a0Prerna Rathi\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Clementine Dupont\u00a0<\/a>from\u00a0People Beyond Borders<\/a>\u00a0(PBB) impressed Chaplin especially. \u201cThey took the group through a — I’m going to call it a self-help exercise. We all drew trees.\u201d Delighted, Chaplin explains, \u201cThey handed out construction paper and markers. The purpose of the exercise was to identify the root causes of any problem. The root cause of your problem is represented by the roots, and then there\u2019s the trunk which signifies the main conflict. The branches are for new opportunities and fruits that come from the conflict. They use this in their organization to encourage people to take control of the issues they can.\u201d Chaplin asks, \u201cHonestly how often as adults do you go anywhere, not to mention an academic conference, and draw?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I took from what they shared about their experiences working directly with refugees,\u201d Chaplin states, \u201cis there is so much refugees cannot control. They have so little power over where they get to live and their citizenship status.\u201d Organizations such as PBB attempt to help refugees feel like they belong.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Women from People Beyond Borders present their tree exercise at the conference. (Image courtesy of Europe Gateway staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy other favorite presentation was a woman named Deborah Haber with\u00a0<\/span>Deep Arts<\/a>. It was Deborah Haber and Casey Filiaci and a man named David Marshall with\u00a0<\/span>Blue Sky Films<\/a>,\u201d Chaplin shares warmly. Haber, who is the executive director of Deep Arts, wrote a play based on the lives of her parents who fled Austria during the Holocaust. Filiaci turned the script into a musical, \u201cMoses Man, the Musical.\u201d Marshall is working on a documentary about their\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0work<\/a>. They have Indiana University connections: Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies\u2019 Center for Global Change and the Department of Jewish Studies at IU. Chaplin adds, \u201cThey are going to be artists-in-residence at IU.\u00a0<\/span>Judah Cohen<\/a>, who is with the Jewish Studies program at IU and a member of the IU Press faculty board, knows Deborah Haber and Casey Filiaci. That\u2019s a connection I am excited about and hopeful I get to talk to them again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The work<\/h3>\n

\u201cWorking closely with refugees \u2013 I want to be clear: I haven\u2019t worked closely with refugees,\u201d Chaplin emphasizes. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with authors who represent their own experiences working closely with refugees.\u201d Since the conference, more refugees have crossed borders in Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. Chaplin\u2019s work of connecting vital information with an audience continues. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten at least one book proposal from the conference. I\u2019m meeting with the author and I\u2019m excited.\u201d There is work to be done.<\/p>\n

At the symposium, the work was close at hand with Ukrainian refugees traveling to escape war. \u201cAll that news was unfolding just before and during \u2013 Deborah, Casey, and David arrived earlier and left immediately \u2013 upon arriving they told us they put on the volunteer vests at the airport and started helping refugees find their way about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bitter time,\u201d she said, \u201ca bitter feeling to be trying to navigate the personal and professional opportunity that presented itself; to present on the work in the series we\u2019re really proud of but to be doing it with the undertone that this crisis that is happening might raise greater awareness. It\u2019s difficult. It\u2019s important to talk about it, and I\u2019m glad we were there to talk about it, but there was another layer. As if refugee studies needed another layer.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, while\u00a0Allison Chaplin,\u00a0IU Press\u00a0acquisitions editor for a new series on refugees and migration, was getting ready to travel to\u00a0IU\u2019s European Gateway\u00a0in Berlin, Germany. It was her first time in Europe. \u201cJust a few weeks before we arrived, there was news about the Brandenburg airport and crowds coming there seeking […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[100,101,118,105,102,98],"blog_country":[92,199,197,148,152,70],"facebook":[],"youtube":[],"twitter":[],"class_list":["post-7366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-forced-displacement","tag-humanitarian-action","tag-migration","tag-peacebuilding","tag-protracted-conflict","tag-refugee-events","blog_country-europe","blog_country-geneva","blog_country-germany","blog_country-global","blog_country-u-k","blog_country-usa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7366"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7375,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7366\/revisions\/7375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7366"},{"taxonomy":"blog_country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_country?post=7366"},{"taxonomy":"facebook","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/facebook?post=7366"},{"taxonomy":"youtube","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/youtube?post=7366"},{"taxonomy":"twitter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplebeyondborders.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/twitter?post=7366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}