The Library
The role of displaced academics in reconstruction in conflict-affected countries : a longitudinal study of displaced Syrian academics
Tools
Akkad, Ahmad (2023) The role of displaced academics in reconstruction in conflict-affected countries : a longitudinal study of displaced Syrian academics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
PDF
WRAP_Theses_Akkad_2023.pdf - Unspecified Version Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only until 7 November 2025. Contact author directly, specifying your specific needs. - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (2022Kb) |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3973232~S15
Abstract
The thesis explores displaced academics’ perceptions of their potential role in conflict-affected countries. To understand their potential role, the study aims to understand: i) the perceived impact of academics’ displacement and mobilities on their academic identity and sense of belonging, ii) how reconstruction is conceptualised from the perspectives of displaced academics, and iii) how contextual factors in their host and home countries and higher education institutions could shape their perceptions of their potential role and contribution to reconstruction efforts individually and collectively. The thesis focuses specifically on displaced Syrian academics. The study developed a theoretical framework combining translocational positionality and the capability approach to examine how displaced academics’ positionalities shape their potential capabilities to contribute to reconstruction. The study employed a qualitative longitudinal research methodology with an interview-diary-interview design with a diary study duration of six months with 20 displaced Syrian academics in different countries. Data analysis involved theoretically informed thematic analysis using discourse analysis and a narrative approach. This thesis shows that displaced academics’ potential contribution to reconstruction and recovery in conflict settings is dynamic and is shaped by what this thesis proposes as ‘positionality-capability’ relationships. Displaced academics are placed within varying and overlapping positionalities of privilege and disadvantage, as displaced people, academics, and potential diasporic community members with positionalities that operate concurrently across different power structures in their host countries. The thesis also demonstrates three major areas for displaced academics’ capability to contribute to reconstruction: for education, in education, and through education. The potential contribution of displaced academics to reconstruction efforts is impacted by specific capabilities pertaining to their recognition, inclusion and leadership potential, and other broader factors that are personal, social, or environmental. The study argues that the potential role of displaced academics in reconstruction should be further recognised within research on and for reconstruction and recovery in conflict-affected contexts.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DS Asia L Education > LB Theory and practice of education |
||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Syrians -- Foreign countries -- Intellectual life, Intellectuals -- Syria, Education, Higher -- Syria, Academic freedom -- Syria, Refugees -- Syria, Forced migration -- Syria, Syria -- History -- Civil War, 2011- -- Refugees, Syria -- Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects, Education and globalization -- Syria | ||||
Official Date: | April 2023 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Education Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Henderson, Emily ; Stevens, Dallal | ||||
Sponsors: | University of Warwick | ||||
Extent: | xii, 240 leaves : charts | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |