Global Refugee Panel
Harper College
April 7, 2016
1. Panelists
Jeanine Ntihirageza holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Chicago. She has a MA in
Applied Linguistics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and received her BA in
English Language and Literature from the University of Burundi. She came to the United States
on a Fulbright Scholarship to do her graduate studies. Her current research interests are in
linguistics, African studies, and genocide studies. In 2013, she founded the Genocide Research
Group. Dr. Ntihirageza is an Associate Professor and Department chair of Anthropology,
English Language Program, Philosophy, and Teaching English as a to Speakers of Other
Languages at Northeastern Illinois University. She is also on the core faculty of the African and
African American Studies program. In recent years, she has presented at conferences on various
issues recently resettled refugees are faced with related to language, education, culture shock,
and much more. She closely works with various organizations that serve immigrants as a
consultant.
Linda Herrera is professor in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and director of the Global Studies in Education program. She
works on the politics of education, youth cultures and movements in the Middle and North
Africa and critical democracy in the internet age. Her two most recent books are: Revolution in
the Age of Social Media: The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet (Verso, 2014) and
Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East (Routledge, 2014). She is
currently curating a website for global democracy education inspired by the Arab Uprisings
called Democracy Dialogue at www.democracydialog.com
Mr. Kenneth Elisapana is the Founder and Executive Director of South Sudan Voices of Hope
http://southsudanhope.org. Mr. Elisapana has an MA in Public Administration & Policy
Analysis from Southern Illinois University, and his baccalaureate degrees are in Sociology from
Taylor University and Community Development from Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya. He
currently splits his time between his job as an executive with the Illinois Department on Aging
(IDOA) and creating awareness, mobilizing resources to provide humanitarian and sustainable
development projects in his native country through South Sudan Voices of Hope.
The mission of South Sudan Voices of Hope is to “empower marginalized Sudanese people to be
self-sufficient through sustainable development” by digging wells to providing clean drinking
water to communities, establishing effective health programs geared towards combating common
diseases through health education, improving food availability and security, and providing
educational and vocational training.
Professor Ledgerwood is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests include violence,
memory, the re-construction of meaning in post-war and diaspora communities. She had
conducted ethnographic research in Cambodia and with Cambodian refugees. Her current
research is focused on Cambodian Buddhism, violence and ideas of cultural identity. Professor
Ledgerwood's dissertation was on changing Khmer conceptions of gender in refugee
communities in the United States. She has taught as a visiting professor at Cornell University and
the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, and was a research fellow at the East-West
Center in Honolulu. She serves on the board of the National Cambodian Heritage Museum and
Killing Fields Memorial in Chicago.
II. Resource List
A. Web resources
Amnesty International:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/
BBC. (4 March 2016) “Migrant Crisis: Migration to Europe explained in seven charts.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911
United Nations High Commission on Refugees:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
UNHCR Maps “The World’s our Stage” http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c4ca.html
UNHCR Populations of Concern Map http://www.unhcr.org/4b04002b9.pdf
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
UNHCR: 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol:
http://www.unhcr.org/4ec262df9.html
IRIN: independent non-profit news and information service providing the inside story on
emergencies.
http://newirin.irinnews.org/global-refugee-crisis/
FRONTLINE (PBS) “On Our Watch (the story of Darfur)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darfur/
Video Series from Vice News, Europe or Die
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmqOlxNQABI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-XcyEBpNLI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VJIUVkpt8c
B. Selected Reading list
Amnesty International. “8 Ways to Solve the World Refugee Crisis”
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/10/eight-solutions-world-refugee-crisis/
Arthur, John A. (2000) Invisible Sojourners: African Immigrant Diaspora in the United States,
Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Benhabib, Seyla (2005) Borders, Boundaries and Citizenship. In Political Science and Politics,
Vol. 38, No. 4 (Oct. 2005), pp. 673-677.
Boehler, Patrick and Sergio Pecanha, “The Global Refugee Crisis, Region by Region.” The New
York Times (updated August 26, 2015),
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/09/world/migrants-global-refugee-crisismediterranean-ukraine-syria-rohingya-malaysia-iraq.html?_r=0
Cultural Orientation Resource (COR) Center. (2007). The 1972 Burundians. COR Center
Refugee Backgrounder No 2.
Djamba, Yanki K. (1991). “African Immigrants to the United States: A Socio-Demographic
Profile in Comparison to Native Blacks.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 34 (2).
Haddal, C. C. (2009). Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Inflow in the United States and Other OECD
Member States. Congressional Research Service.
Hagen-Zanker J. and Mallett, R. (Feb 2016) Journeys to Europe: The role of policy in migrant
decision-making. Policy brief. ODI Insights.
Jones, P.R. and Krzyz˙anowski, M. (2007). “Identity, belonging and migration:
beyond describing ‘others’”. In G. Delanty, R. Wodak and P. R. Jones (eds.) Migrant Voices:
Discourses of Belonging and Exclusion. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Malkki, Liisa. (1995). Purity and Exile. The University of Chicago Press
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). (2002). Group Resettlement of
“1972 Burundians” from Tanzania. The UN Refugee Agency.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). “Belonging and the politics of belonging.” Patterns of Prejudice, 40 (3):
197–215.
Zeleza, Paul T. (2002). “Contemporary African Migration in a Global Context” African Issues
30 (1).