Expert on Syrian refugee crisis speaks in Beloit

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The Syrian civil war has produced one of the largest refugee flows since World War II; over four million Syrians have fled the country, and nearly twice that number are internally displaced. Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq are hosting the vast majority of the Syrian refugees, but tens of thousands of Syrians are moving into Europe seeking asylum.
 
Perhaps no one is better prepared to help sift through the crisis than Rochelle Davis, an associate professor of cultural anthropology, director of Georgetown University’s master’s program in Arab studies, and this year’s Ivan and Janice Stone Lecturer at Beloit College. Davis has spent her academic career studying refugees. Her most recent work looks at currently displaced Syrians and the Iraqi refugees who fled to Jordan and Syria in 2005. Her lecture is titled, “The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Changing the Narrative.”
 
Elizabeth Brewer, director of Beloit’s Office of International Education, says that while many Stone lecturers tend to focus on security issues, Davis’ background as an anthropologist “will help us understand the lived experiences of refugees fleeing Syria.”
 
“With so much of the focus on Europe, many refugees’ stories are not being told,” Brewer says. “Having spent significant time living and conducting research among displaced persons in the Middle East, Professor Davis is well-positioned to bring new insights into our understanding of the crisis, especially given her emphasis that the refugees be seen as resources for arriving at solutions.”
 
Rochelle Davis’s Stone Lecture will be held in Morse-Ingersoll Hall’s Richardson Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The event is free and open to the public.
 
The Stone Lecture is one part of the college’s larger celebration of the 16th annual International Education Week. Other events include:
 
Wednesday, Nov. 18
International Symposium Day features students from all walks of life making presentations on a variety of global topics, ranging from the crisis in Ukraine, the impact of archaeology and myth on modern-day Ireland and the United Kingdom, and immigrants and refugees in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.
 
International Symposium presentations begin at 9 a.m. and continue until 4 p.m. in a variety of locations on campus. For more details visit the Office of International Education’s web page:http://www.beloit.edu/oie/international_education/symposium/.