Behind the Headlines
Syria: The Local and the Global
Five years into the Syrian conflict, the scale and complexity of the crisis continues to deepen with many more local and global actors involved. We are confronted with a European Union that is struggling to find suitable courses of action and political strategies to cope with the biggest humanitarian crisis of this era. This discussion explored Europe’s ethical-political responsibilities with respect to the region’s historical background and reported on personal experiences of the conflict in Syria and of the refugee crisis in Europe.
Responsibilities in Times of War and Ungrievable Lives
- Dr Rachel Hoare (Department of French TCD with a special interest in language and identity and in her role as a child and adolescent psychotherapist), talked about the importance of the therapeutic use of sensory-based, creative interventions with Syrian refugee children, in the externalization and transformation of trauma memories.
Responsibilities in Times of War and Ungrievable Lives
- Dr Anna Babka (Trinity Long Room Hub Visiting Research Fellow from the University of Vienna) examined critically Europe’s responsibility for Syria, its reluctant position and hesitant responses on the crisis. Drawing on her research on identity politics she interconnected certain ways of non-action with the question ofwhose lives are mourned and whose lives are considered ungrievable.
Syria from a Syrian Perspective
- Razan Ibraheem is a Syrian born journalist. She came over to Ireland to do her MA (ELT) at the University of Limerick. The escalating violence in her country made her seek to stay on in Ireland and she is now a journalist with Storyful as well as an activist for human rights and the rights of refugees, especially women and children.
Syria, The Theatre of Geopolitical Battle and the Rise of the Far Right in the West
- Dr Jude Lal Fernando (Irish School of Ecumenics, TCD) reflected on how, in Syria, what one finds is not simply a civil war, but a massive geo-strategic political battle.
For a full news story on this event, please click here
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