PhD: Documenting, understanding and communicating refugee histories of Scotland, 1974-present

University of Glasgow, 2019-2027 (part time). Funded by the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership.

I am an oral historian of migration and refugee history with a particular interest in exploring and documenting everyday life. My recent work uses oral history, collaborative creative writing and other methods to address some of the ethical and methodological challenges of working with refugees and others who have experienced political violence or trauma. I am interested in ways of documenting, understanding and communicating refugee histories of Scotland. This work involves ongoing critical engagement with histories of race, migration and the lived experiences of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Scotland. 

Research

SGSAH residency at Galgael, ‘Mapping the Pollok Free State archives’ (Apr-Oct 2024). This project made a start on assessing, organising and celebrating the archives of the Pollok Free State, held at Galgael in Govan. Learning from existing archives which work with the social history of protest movements, l worked with the Pollok Free State materials to ensure their safe storage and accessibility to the community. I created an archive exhibition kit including replica materials, banners and a zine which has been used to share histories of the Pollok Free State at community and academic events.

Research Assistant, ‘SuperCamp: Genealogies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East’, University of Glasgow (2021-22). Primary research using online archival materials relating to European refugees in camps in the Middle East and North Africa in the 1940s.

Research Assistant, ‘Fugitive spaces: writing the history of the refugee camp’, University of Glasgow (2021). I compiled a bibliography of Spanish-language sources for a case study on Guatemalan refugees in Mexico, and produced a critical summary of findings.

Research Assistant, ‘Humans and animals in refugee camps’, University of Glasgow (2017-19). Co-designed and facilitated group oral history sessions with a refugee reference group, and supported the development of a cross-disciplinary academic/practitioner research network

Teaching

University of Glasgow. Graduate Teaching Assistant (2022, 2023).

• Social and Cultural History of Europe 1500-2000
• Connected Worlds? Introduction to Global History.
• Empire in the City: the British empire and the making of urban space in Glasgow, 1707-2014 (Honours)

University of the West of Scotland. Guest lecturer (2023).

• Migration State & Society, BA Social Sciences

Public history

Власними словами | In Our Own Words: Multilingual Translation Workshops for Ukrainian Refugees’. Funded by AHRC Impact Accelerator Account, University of Glasgow (2023-24). Me and Dr Jamie Rann speak about the project on this podcast recorded for UNESCO RILA ‘Sounds of Integration’ here. Read the publication here.

Community Liaison, Glasgow Refugee Asylum & Migration Network (2023)

I have organized large public events at the annual Refugee Festival Scotland including concerts, walking tours, film screenings and a creative writing showcase. In 2021 I presented a public online talk based on my PhD research into refugee histories in Scotland.

I am a co-founder of Radical Glasgow Tours – with Henry Bell and David Lees, I research, design and deliver interactive walking tours of Glasgow, exploring histories of activism, protest, political and social change. 

Publications – peer reviewed

Collective Refugee Poetry in SAGE Encyclopaedia of Refugee Studies. (Forthcoming 2025)

The ambiguity of poetry can be liberating in A Handbook of integration with refugees: International learnings from Scotland. Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications. This is an open access book and you can read it here (Aug 2025)

‘What Becomes a Refugee Camp? Making Camps for European Refugees in North Africa and the Middle East, 1943–46’ with Benjamin Thomas White, Journal of Refugee Studies. This is an open access article and you can read it here (2023)

Publications

‘Pollok Free State 30 years on: looking back on Glasgow’s anti-motorway protest camp’ in Scottish Forestry Journal, Volume 78 Edition 3 (Autumn/Winter 2024)

Review of In One Woman’s Life: Celebrating Mary Brooksbank, Scottish Labour History Society Journal, Volume 58 (2023)

Review of Refugees in Twentieth-Century Britain, Refugee History (2022)

Collective poetry and refugee history, Refugee History (2022)

Refugee Week at the National Library — Sound and Voice, National Library of Scotland blog for Refugee Week (2022)

The Poetry of Everyday Life, Scottish Graduate School for the Arts & Humanities blog (2022)

Refugee Histories, Scottish Refugee Council (2021)

Childcare and qualitative social research in a pandemic, International Journal of Social Research Methodology blog (2020)

Torn from Libyan Waves: A Response to ‘Liquid Traces’ in Three Voices, with Esa Aldegheri and Christopher M. J. Boyd. Do Not Make The hybrid essay collection, MAP Magazine/Essay Catalyst Conversations (2018)

History of Immigration Detention, Refugee History (2017)

Lectures

Oral histories of refugee lives in Scotland, April Lecture, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2024) 

In the footsteps of John Maclean, Keynote, Scottish Labour History Society ‘John Maclean Centenary Conference’ (2023)

Conference presentations

‘Whose voices: oral history and refugees in Scotland’ (2025), Oral History Society conference, Glasgow

‘Experiments in collective narratives: refugee histories in Glasgow’ (2025), COLLAB symposium – Polyphony and Silence: Counter-hegemonic Writing Practices, Migration, and Multilingualism, Leuven.

‘A methodological reflection on documenting protest and everyday life in Glasgow.’ With Joanna Knight (2024), International Creative Research Methods Conference, Manchester.

‘”I want you to know / that I can’t go back.” Journeys and travel in refugee lives in Scotland’ (2023), New Perspectives on Travel Writing Conference, UNESCO Refugee Integration through Language and the Arts, Glasgow (online).

‘The poetry of waiting: creative writing with refugees in Scotland,’ (2022), IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network) conference, Bergen (online).

‘History is grandmother’s unspeakable stories: collaborative poetry as oral history methodology’ (2021), Moving the Centre Cross-Disciplinary Postgraduate Research Conference on Post/Decolonial and Global Studies, Glasgow (online).

‘Oral history and the history of the refugee camp: learning from refugees’. With Benjamin Thomas White (2018), Oral History Society Conference, Belfast.

‘Befriending for refugee integration and advocacy’ (2017), Migrant’Scène Festival as part of Arts for Advocacy: Creative Engagement with Forced Displacement in Morocco, Rabat.

‘Across cultural borders: Street spaces of event and discussion’. With Lizzie Smith (2017), Spaces of Exile – Performing Borders in Europe research symposium, Glasgow.

Workshops & seminars delivered

Walking through refugee histories – a reflection on movement and methodology, Glasgow Refugee Asylum & Migration Network seminar, University of Glasgow (November 2024)

Fostering creativity and connection through translation, with Dr James Rann, UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts Spring School (2024)

Walking tours for communicating academic research, Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities (2024)

Introduction to Oral History, with Dr Erin Jessee and Casey Moore, Researcher Development, University of Glasgow (2023,2024)

The skeleton architecture of our lives: collective poetry as research method, Online seminar for Refugee History & Institute for Historical Research ‘Methods in refugee history’ seminar series (2022)