PhD candidate Amany Selim to defend her thesis

The topic of Selim's thesis is activism among Syrians in exile. She explores how activist processes take shape in time and space. A particular focus is directed at Syrians who became involved in the 2011 uprising and their activist experiences while in exile. The theme is examined in a comparative perspective, where Oslo and Berlin, two distinct contexts of exile, address the interactions between place and different activist processes.

The dissertation consists of three articles that show how a contextualized approach to activist history provides insight into how activists remain engaged and how engagement can change or ebb. Firstly, the study shows how exile contexts contribute to different processes by offering different environments for the activists' past lives. For example, many of the Syrians in Berlin continued their activism on behalf of Syria, while many of the Syrians in Oslo moved away from this form of activism. Secondly, the study shows how the activist experiences from Syria play a key role in how the participants' experiences develop in exile and contribute to various forms of engagement. The thesis contributes to knowledge about activism in contexts where there is a very high degree of oppression, and argues that these contexts have an impact on the activists' political socialisation. The analyzes also indicate that experience with activism can contribute to the integration process for activists in exile.

Personnel

Amany Selim holds a master's degree in Euro-Mediterranean relations specializing in migration studies from Università Ca' Foscari and L'université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier. Her doctoral project has been carried out at the Department of Sociology at the University of Bergen as part of the research project IMEX, led by Susanne Bygnes. Supervisors are professor Susanne Bygnes (UiB) and Mette Andersson (UiO).