UNESCO RILA: The sounds of integration

In this episode, James Rann and Katherine Mackinnon from the University of Glasgow introduce their project 'Власними словами | In Our Own Words', which is a project that brings Ukrainians in Glasgow together with other Glaswegians and uses creative writing and multilingual translation to build confidence, community and mutual understanding. For more information about the project and the speakers, please go to the show notes: bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

This is the second of a two part conversation between Dr Dan Fisher, and researchers Sawsan Abdelghany, and Adam Williamson on their work on ESOL in the asylum system. In this episode, Dan and Adam are interviewing Sawsan. Sawsan Abdelghany is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Glasgow, and a heritage language tutor. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in TESOL and has worked as an English-Arabic interpreter for asylum seekers and refugees in the Scottish legal system. Her research interests centre around the role of language in helping refugees to integrate.

This is the first of a two part episode in which Dr Dan Fisher talks with Sawsan Abdelghany and Adam Williamson on their work on ESOL interpretation in asylum appeals. In this part, Sawsan and Dan are interviewing Adam. Adam Williamson is a freelance translator and interpreter based in Paris, where he works with English, Spanish and French. He began his interpreting career in the asylum system in Glasgow, where he encountered a variety of challenging circumstances and ethically compromising situations for which he felt his interpreter training had not fully prepared him. These experiences led him to complete an MPhil by research at the University of Glasgow, under the supervision of the UNESCO RILA team. Chiefly drawing on participant observation and interviews, his study looks at the mismatch between the expectations of interpreters in the asylum context and the reality on the ground. The research also includes a series of recommendations which will feed into the third iteration of the Scottish Government’s New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. For the full transcript, please go to https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

Afamba apota is a Zimbabwean proverb recited to remind ourselves of the unpredictability of going on a journey. This radio play is a playful look at the important matter of migration. Join self-proclaimed master documentary maker Paul Lamont as he enters the migration corridor and meets the inhabitants. Created by members of the Mideq team, a full list of credits can be found on the Mideq website: https://www.mideq.org/en/resources-index-page/afamba-apota/ For the show notes and the transcript of this episode, please visithttps://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this episode we hear from Mukuka Kasonde and Brice Catherin about their project Our Stories: a series of storytelling workshops in Zambia to create children's literature with a local slant. They are interviewed by Olivia Ndoti. For the full show notes including biographies, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration.

In this episode, Narjes Hashemi is interviewing two members of the Afghan community in Canada about their work to preserve Afghan cultural heritage. For the full show notes, please visit:https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

Listen to Esa Aldegheri interview Avril Bellinger and Deirdre Ford about their book 'The Strengths Approach in Practice: How It Changes Lives'. An incredibly uplifting conversation, just what we need in these challenging times. Can you hear the creaking chair? Avril Bellinger, Honorary Associate Professor in Social Work, University of Plymouth UK, is an academic activist, international volunteer, founder of Students and Refugees Together (START), co-author of The Strengths Approach in Practice: How It Changes Lives, grandmother and allotmenteer. Deirdre Ford is a registered social worker, associate of Research in Practice, trustee of Students and Refugees Together (START) and co-author of The Strengths Approach in Practice: How It Changes Lives. Buy the book: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-strengths-approach-in-practice Full show notes: bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

At the UNESCO RILA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, which took place in May 2023, Scotland-based curator Dr Deirdre MacKenna and psychologist Dr Laura Cariola hosted an online panel discussion, introducing their approaches to working with culturally plural mindsets. Through relational and interdisciplinary frameworks, these researchers have initiated a new collaboration to explore what it means to be ‘Third Culture’, and are working to activate consideration of and give voice to people who don’t define their sense of identity through a single nation-state. For growing numbers of people, describing “where I belong” or “where I’m from” is a challenge which cannot be described simply by indicating a single location/community; their sense of constituency is formed from instances, durational periods, journeys and multiple places (both territorial and online) as well as a process of continuous resistance of the assumptions inherent within concepts of monocultural society. This panel discussion provided a space to engage in an open, reflective interdisciplinary dialogue with a focus on the world from the perspective of Third Culture experiences, such as liminal places, belonging, and identity in-transition. For more information about the UNESCO RILA Spring School, please visit www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/ For the full show notes, including biographies of the speakers, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

On 14 October 2023, the UNESCO RILA team participated in the Fairies and Folktales event, held at New Lanark UNESCO World Heritage Site during the October week. Hope Wang, PhD candidate with the UNESCO RILA team, wrote a story for the event. Listen to her story and ask yourself: what is your utopia? Want to come and see New Lanark for yourself? Why not join our family-friendly event Shared Spaces: Migration Past & Present on 16 November: https://bit.ly/RILA_JoinUs

TW from around 41:30: rape and trauma In this episode we look at the Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives, which was published in February 2023. It is a conversation between one of the editors (Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi) and four chapter authors (Himadri Chatterjee, Agnes Woolley, Sydney Van To and Asha Varadharajan). Topics that get covered are the relationship between narrative and literature, between fiction and non-fiction, questions around witnessing and forgetting, traumatic repetition, the need to categorise, questions of audience, of purpose, individual versus communal trauma and contradiction within the narratives. Sociopolitical, historical, literary and legal perspectives all get covered in this fascinating discussion. For the full show notes, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

At the UNESCO RILA Spring School 2023: The Arts of Integrating, held in May 2023, 4 keynote poets captured the event in a poem. They are Marzanna Antoniak, Chantelle Warner, Anita Govan and S'phongo. For the full show notes, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this episode, as part of the Sites Unseen project, Sadie Ryan and Brittnee Leysen from the UNESCO RILA team travelled to Mi’kma’ki, the homeland of the indigenous Mi'kmaw people. Mi'kma'ki spans a big geographical area in Eastern Canada, including the area that's also known as Nova Scotia, meaning 'new Scotland'. The Mi'kmaw have been living in the area for at least 11,000 years, and possibly much longer. Most of the Scottish settlers started to arrive about 250 years ago. But it's the name Nova Scotia, not Mi’kma’ki, that you'll usually see on maps. This Sites Unseen project explores relationships between Scotland’s UNESCO sites and other UNESCO sites elsewhere in the world. This episode explores the relationship between the North West Highlands Global Geopark in Scotland and the Cliffs of Fundy Global Geopark in Canada. We have created a learning pack which uses this episode, alongside a short film, to help learners think more deeply about colonialism, kinship, migration, culture, place-making, language, and identity. It will be launched in the coming months, and will be available for free to all teachers and educators worldwide. To find out more, and to be notified of the launch date, please email unesco-rila@glasgow.ac.uk. The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq are currently fundraising to build a cultural centre. You can find out more about the project and donate at bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration. We’re massively grateful to everyone in Mi'kma'ki who welcomed us and shared their stories with us, and especially to Julie Pellisier-Lush, Iseabail Munro and her daughter Tausha, and Cathy Martin, whose voices you heard in this episode. Sites Unseen is a project from the team of the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, led by Professor Alison Phipps. For the transcript of this episode, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration.

Dans cet épisode, poète et bénéficiare d'une bourse de la fondation Artist Protection Fund Bertony Louis parle avec Prof Charles Forsdick (Université de Liverpool) et Rachel Douglas (Université de Glasgow) de sa poésie, la situation actuelle en Haïti et sa nouvelle vie à Glasgow. Pour plus de détails, consultez la page des notes https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this episode, recorded in May 2023 at the UNESCO RILA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, Prof Isabella Corvino from the University of Perugia analyses the musical integration strategy of the Orchestra dei Braccianti. The orchestra brings together musicians, farmers and workers from all over the world, united by their working situation in the Italian fields. For the full show notes, including links to the music, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

This week's episode is a soundscape created by UNESCO RILA Affiliated Artist Erdem Avşar from recordings he made in the bay of Camas Tuath on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. The UNESCO RILA team and GRAMNet travel to Camas every year on a researcher development trip and this soundscape has captured the space and some of the activities that happened during those trip in 2022 and 2023. In Erdem's words: "Camas is not a place that you go to. But one that you carry with and within you. In a world (the ‘academic’ world, the ‘artistic’ world, the ‘research’ world) where doing is tethered to speed, urgency, and deadlines, Camas in its generosity and magic gently suggests something else.  It is a landscape of work, solidarity, and presence that resists consumerism and that dizzying pace of living. It is a place of collective imagination, repair, restoration, and inspiration. Since my first time in Camas, I have been trying to come up with a different way of carrying Camas with me - and also of gifting its magic to others. I have found it in its sounds. I have been very lucky to listen to Ralph sighing deeply, Nerea’s seal songs of longing and reunion, the wind blowing, Alison’s dramaturgy of dishes, the footsteps, Tawona’s wonderfully poetic mbira, the contagious laughter filling the room thanks to Esa and Tawona, the bell ringing, dry robe swooshing, all the gorgeous mischief, magic, and music generously shared by the Camas team, and the fire crackling, and crackling, and crackling. For those who have been in Camas and soaked up its magic, all of this will be familiar. And that is the beauty of it: a familiar generosity that welcomes you and one that you pass on to others. Here is a mix of ‘Sounds of Camas’ – sounds I recorded in 2022 and 2023. It is not a fancy soundscape. It is simple, imperfect, and windy. But it helps me (and hopefully it will help others as well) to remember, to dream, and to imagine otherwise. Thanks to the Firepitters, the wonderful Camas team, and all the friends from the UNESCO RILA and GRAMNet who have contributed to the collection. " Please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration to download our special listening sheet.

In this episode, Dr Hyab Yohannes interviews Prof Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya about her latest edited volume "Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage" and in particular her chapter "Safeguarding Afro-Sri Lankan Intangible Cultural Heritage". A conversation about music, language and the Indian Ocean slave trade. For the full show notes, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration.

Today’s episode is a recording of a presentation from our Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, which took place in May 2023. We will be hearing from Kirstin Sonne about her research on Maltese integration practices through the "I Belong" programme. For the full show notes, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

ይና ፖድካስት (podcast) ገሪ ጋብድ ተላቅስቶ ተርሲቲ። እና ተለያኹ በኒል፡ ጋብ ብሊንድ ህያብ ዮሓንስ ባሰረንታ ሃብታት ዘረእዝጊዲ አሰኹ ቆል ወንቀረዲ አንትሮና ህንበቲ። እን ቆል ወንቀሪል፡ ባሰረንቲ UNESCO RILAትልድ ኣኻኹ ባሰረንታ ሃብታት ጋብዲ ጎልያዲ ኒሰናኽር ህረብርና ኣዋይንዲ ነበርዲት በርበሮ ደገመኩ። እን ቆል ወንቀራ እንግልዝድ ለወትሶ ሸፍሸፍሶ ህንበኩ። እና ዒን ሓብረሩኽ (website) ኒልኻ ኣረርሰኩ። https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration We are making our podcast more multilingual! In this episode, in Blin, you will hear UNESCO RILA Affiliate Artist Habtat Zerezghi's thoughts on language, music and the Refugee Condition, interviewed by Dr Hyab Yohannes. A summary of the conversation is available in English in the show notes. Please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration.

This collaborative podcast episode was created by people with migration experience as part of a 2-day intensive Media Lab, run by Migrant Voice and the University of Glasgow. For the full show notes, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this episode, we are talking to our colleagues from the School of Education Lisa Bradley and Mindy Ptolemey, about their project Quilting for manifesting anti-colonial futures. For the full shownotes, including the registration link to sign up for the project, please go to https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration.