Arc of Sanctuary: Events and Opportunities
The Eastern Arc Sanctuary Network (ESN) exists to provide an avenue through which our staff and students can create a stable, open and creative environment for our sanctuary scholars, researchers at risk and all those affected by issues of sanctuary to learn from and support each other.
Central to this is sharing opportunities for us to work together through our events and meetings. On this ‘noticeboard’ we will provide details of all upcoming events and opportunities, and links to information on previous ones.
A limited number of travel busaries are available for colleagues to travel between the EARC universities to take part in these events. If you want to do so, contact us at info@easternarc.ac.uk.
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This year our conference will focus on ‘Sanctuary Solidarities’, and the call for proposals is now open.
The Eastern Arc region has been shaped by migration and movement, and for centuries has offered refuge for those seeking sanctuary.
Never has this been more important — but also more challenging — than now. With the rise in far-right populism, violent conflict and the bolstering of borders, our conference this year will look at the part university staff and students can and should play in forging solidarities with those seeking sanctuary, but also at how they should participate in contested and increasingly polarised debates about migration.
As the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) celebrates its 75th anniversary, and the Cities of Sanctuary movement celebrates its 20th, this conference is a timely opportunity to hear from a broad range of stakeholders from within our region and beyond, to learn from their experiences, and to encourage positive and creative conversations between speakers and groups with differing viewpoints.
Conference themes
The conference will look at different types of solidarity within this space, and a series of breakout discussions will focus on:
- Academic solidarity
- Community solidarity
- Cultural solidarity
- Political solidarity
- Legal and human rights solidarity
- Health and wellbeing solidarity
Call for proposals
If you would like to either lead or take part in one of our breakout sessions, you can submit a proposal here. The closing date for submissions is Wednesday 11 June 2025.
We want to encourage a wide range of voices and perspectives, including (but not restricted to):
- Academics and researchers working on issues of migration and sanctuary; conflict within, across, at and about borders; and the causes and consequences of political polarisation;
- Students and sanctuary scholars;
- Community groups;
- Politicians and policymakers;
- Cultural organisations;
- Health workers;
- Activists;
- Legal practitioners and human rights advocates.
We also encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative proposals that bridge academic research with practical implementation and community experience.
You can apply either to lead a session in your own right, or express an interest in taking part in any of the sessions, indicating the expertise and knowledge that you would bring to the subject.
Registration
The programme will be finalised once the proposals have been evaluated. Following this, registration will open in early July with a deadline of 11 August.
The conference will be free and open to all, but places are strictly limited and provided on a first come, first served basis. Transport will be available from the other three EARC universities (UEA, Essex, Kent) to Sussex on the day.
Further information
For further information, contact info@easternarc.ac.uk
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Essex Human Rights Centre, Centre for Migration Studies and Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Literary Studies
Friday, 20 June 2025, 11am – 12noon
Outside, Square 4 (next to the Cat Statute)We will be reading excerpts from poetry and fiction on themes related to refugees and migrants to show our solidarity with refugees and migrants and to coincide with Refugee Week 2025.
Come join us! Everyone is welcome! You can bring your own reading or you can read from the ones we have already collected. This is a great opportunity to show solidarity with refugees and migrants in our community, in the UK and around the world.
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The Value of Life Laid Bare during and after Conflict
This event has been organised by the Centres for Equitable Global Health Research (CEGHR), International Education, and Migration research (SCMR) to promote cross-disciplinary conversation around the aftermath of conflict, and will be chaired by Prof Gail Davey OBE (CEGHR).
In the first section of approximately 90 mins, a panel discussion will be facilitated by Prof Shahaduz Zaman from CEGHR. This will focus on consequences of conflict and displacement on education, neglected diseases, neighbourliness, solidarity and mutual aid. This panel discussion part of our session will be hybrid, so that people can attend online. Four brief papers will be presented:
- After conflict-induced displacement: The moral economies of displacement-affected communities
- Precarity and bare life in refugee camps in East Africa through perspectives on a neglected skin condition
- From Education For All to Scholasticide: The Rise and Fall of the Global Liberal Education Order
- Social and gendered norms towards disability, pregnancy and motherhood within schools and the legacy both of colonialism and of past and ongoing conflict in Rwanda
Discussants will identify common themes and facilitate a conversation with the audience. This will enable participants to reflect on how lives may be assigned different values following the devastation of conflict.
Following a 15-minute break for tea and cakes, an 45-minute informally guided ‘Futures’ session will be held. This will enable participants to network in smaller groups and identify areas of shared interest and future collaboration. Please note, the ‘Futures’ networking session is for in-person attendees only.
Please go ahead and register for your free in-person ticket here.
This event is part of the Summer of Research 2025, a two-week festival of researcher-led talks, workshops and exhibitions celebrating our fantastic research here at the University of Sussex. Find out about and sign up for other exciting events here!
Please contact the event organisers with any queries:
Gail Davey (g.davey@bsms.ac.uk)
Maya Semrau (m.semrau@bsms.ac.uk)
Yasmine Khreisheh (y.khreisheh@bsms.ac.uk)
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The University of Essex is celebrating the 27th anniversary of Refugee Week in collaboration with its partners at the Tavistock Centre and other refugee charities. Some staff and students will be gathering in person at the Tavistock Centre (120 Belsize Lane, London, NW3 5BA) in the Lecture room upstairs next to the café) from 2pm; others will connect virtually from 2.10pm.
Please note this event is by invitation only; contact us to find out more.
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We would love to attend you to Voices of Resilience: Bridging Research, Teaching and Lived Experiences in Higher Education for Sanctuary. This event is taking place at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, on the 16th of June from 9.30-14.30. There is also an opportunity to attend the live keynote presentation by Dr Ahmad Akkad online between 9.30-10.50. To register to attend either in person, or online, please fill out the following form. Please do also share this event amongst your networks.This forum blends academic research and lived experiences in the field of refugee studies. It presents the importance of amplifying the voices of refugees themselves, while admiring the contributions of researchers who are working to address the challenges and opportunities faced by forced displaced communities. The theme underscores the resilience of refugees and the role of research in fostering understanding, advocacy and policy change.
Please do contact S.North1@uea.ac.uk or university.of.sanctuary@uea.ac.uk if you have questions or would like to discuss support to attend.
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The University of Sanctuary Scholarship at Essex is available to new Postgraduate Taught (PGT) Masters students taking up a place to study in 2024-2025, who have UK Asylum status or Discretionary/Limited Leave to Remain as a result of an asylum application, and those with Humanitarian Protection, as result of an asylum application or through a dependant’s claim.
To find out more, click here.
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The Global and Lifelong Learning team were delighted to welcome staff and students from Kherson State University (KSU) recently for an academic mobility visit, bespoke short-course, and tour of the University and City. This visit is a remarkable testament to the twinning collaboration between our institutions, forged in June 2022 as part of the five-year Twinning Initiative backed by the UK government, Universities UK, and Cormack Consultancy Group.To find out more about the initiative and the event, click here.
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The University of Kent, in partnership with the Article 26 Project offers each year up to five Sanctuary Scholarships for undergraduate entry. These awards are aimed at helping those seeking asylum in the UK to progress to higher education. The benefits of the Sanctuary Scholarship award are:
- Each recipient’s tuition fees will be waived for the duration of their programme of study or until they are able to access Student Finance England funding at the University of Kent (undergraduate programmes only).
- The recipients will be eligible to receive financial support from the University of Kent to cover the cost of travel (to the University or for group support), books, equipment, etc. This is a bursary payment of £2000 at the start of the academic year.
- The Students will be allocated an Adviser from Student Services to support them during their studies and to help access any support services and this will be a chance to check in and get extra support when or if it is needed.
To find out more click here.
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The University of Sussex has been awarded the title of University of Sanctuary, in recognition of its efforts to welcome and support forced migrants. This Sanctuary Scholarship is one way that the University supports students that are unable to receive student loans; to enable them to take up a place on their chosen degree at Sussex.
What you get
- Full ‘Overseas’ tuition fee waiver
- £14,400 per year of undergraduate study (up to 4 years)
- Sussexsport membership
- Continuation of housing
- Type of award
- Full tuition fee waiver and living costs
Eligibility
This scholarship is offered to forced migrants or applicants granted a temporary form of leave only, to provide financial assistance in order to enable them to take up a place on a degree at the University of Sussex. Therefore applicants will be required to provide evidence of this in order to apply.
To find out more, click here.
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Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, resilience and creativity of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
Whilst the national refugee week is held in June, this year UEA is joining universities across the UK to collaboratively organise events from the 1st-8th of March to coincide with when campuses are busiest.
The theme for national refugee week 2024 is “Our Home”; from the places we gather to our collective home, planet earth.Refugee week offers us the opportunity to reflect and consider what actions we can individually and collectively take to create a kinder, more compassionate world.
To find out more about the week’s events, click here.