Amanda Poole, Anthropology program, joined colleagues around the world for a virtual panel discussion on October 16 focused on her cowritten ethnography, Hosting States and Unsettled Guests: Eritrean Refugees in a Time of Migration Deterrence (2024, Indiana University Press).
Her book, cowritten with Jennifer Riggan, professor and chair of the Department of Historical and Political Studies at Arcadia University, explores the lived experiences of global migration policies designed to guard the borders of the global north by encouraging refugees to stay in their region of origin. Using ethnographic interviews and participant observation with government officials, NGOs, and Eritrean refugees in three camps in northern Ethiopia and Addis Ababa, Riggan and Poole explore how Eritrean refugees envision their future in light of the risks of irregular migration and the risks of remaining in Ethiopia.
"Emerging Scholars and Scholarship on Eritrea" is an ongoing virtual series that features conversations with scholars of the region and of the Eritrean diaspora. Sousan Ibrahim served as a discussant for the session. A PhD candidate in the Department of History at University College London, Ibrahim’s research investigates the migration patterns of Eritrean migrants in Saudi Arabia during the late twentieth century. She explores how these labor migrants navigate complex political, economic, and social landscapes influenced by changing Saudi labor policies and the effects of Eritrea's independence.
Multiple events have been organized to launch the book and generate discussion, including a book launch at the University of Antwerp in March 2024, a Philadelphia launch party in October 2024, and an “Author meets critic” panel discussion planned for the African Studies Annual Conference in Chicago on December 12, 2024.