Title of the PhD project: "Neither here, nor there" - Narratives of home and belonging of Syrian Refugees in Germany".
"My study focuses on Syrian refugees in Germany and their efforts to integrate. I focus on how they experience home in everyday life and which homemaking practices they employ. Thousands of families have traded their lives to pursue better opportunities for their children and for the potential of a new, fresh and stable life. They no longer have to face bombs, snipers, kidnapping and other life-threatening fears, but instead they have to face bureaucracy, language barriers, social isolation, integration challenges and the daily struggle to find inner peace, acceptance and protection. Such profound life changes in the sociocultural area may result in a disrupted lifestyle, leading to unstable patterns of social relations within refugee families, along with the transient foundation of rights, which often confronts families with a sense of fear and might even push them to the margins of society. The experience of flight and asylum status may produce multiple ambiguities and destabilizes their sense of belonging. Making home in the host country becomes more complicated and related insecurities put them in a liminal, 'in-between' position, affecting their vision of and plans towards their future. In my dissertation, I therefore aim at exploring Syrian refugees' construction of home and belonging and to show how it is differently negotiated within family and its consequences on family relations as a part of everyday lives. Therefore, the diverse standpoints of home-making within family affiliates and the negotiation of home and belonging shall be researched along with exploring the new emerging relationships due to differing attitudes towards core topics."
Contact: shaden.sabouni@sk.hs-fulda.de
Start of the PhD project: since April 2021 until April 2024
Curriculum vitae
Education:
09/2020 Internship at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.
04/2018 - 12/2020: Master studies: Intercultural Communication and European Studies at the Hoschule Fulda
11/2018 - 03/2020: Volunteer with "Wir" (We)
01/10/2017 - 28/02/2020: Voluntary work at "Welcome In e.V.".
23/04/2018 - 24/04/2018: Further training "University didactics for lecturers".
01/09/2018 - 12/11/2018: Training at the district of Fulda
06/1997 - 09/2001: Bachelor studies at the Aleppo University of Human Sciences.
Work experience:
From 04/2023: University of Oxford/ Refugee Study Centre: Teaching Assistant.
From 04/2023 University of Fulda Doctoral Centre for Social Sciences: Leading discussion groups for doctoral students at the University of Fulda
From 09/2021 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH: Cultural trainer
04/2018 - 03/2020: University of Applied Sciences Fulda Lecturer/ Business English
02/2021 Internship in the "Team Departure Preparation
09/2020 The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH
07/2019 - 10/2019 Youth Welfare Office/ Fulda: Internship in the Integration and Inclusion Department
09/2014 - 06/2016: Al-Mashreq Private School: Head of department in High School
09/2008 - 06/2014: Al-Mashreq Private School: English teacher
06/2000 - 06/2002: German Technical Cooperation (GTZ): Interpreter Coordinator
Social engagement:
- Refugee counsellor in the municipality of Wachtberg
- Interpreter German-Arabic in Fulda district
- Integration course instructor at Welcome In e.V. Fulda
Publications:
07/2022 Workshop report-"Struggle for hope"
Contributions:
11/2021 Fulda University of Applied Sciences: Fulda International Autumn School "Global Inequalities and Human Rights".
12/2021 Munich University of Applied Sciences: Guest Lecturer/The Lived Experience of Being a Refugee
05/2022 Hoschule Fulda: Research Week for PhD students of the FGCSS
05/2022 (ACCS2022) The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)Tokyo/ Toshi: The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies
07/2022 International Webinar/ University of Vienna/ University of Winchester: Education, displacement, and the enduring double standard: Resisting the construction of 'worthy' and 'unworthy' refugees
07/2022 University of Belfast: 17th EASA Biennial Conference European Association for Social Anthropologists
09/2022 Ghent University: CESSMIR2022 Conference Contemporary forms of racism and discrimination
09/2022 (NWFF 2022) Conference of Refugee Sciences/ Chemnitz: 4th Conference of the German Network for The Forced Migration Studies
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