Forced To Flee, The Refugee Abyss

Hyab Yohannes joins us to discuss his as yet unpublished work, The Refugee Abyss, an unflinching exploration of the “un-grievable” and the “unsayable.” In his work, Yohannes doesn’t just memorialise lost lives and forgotten histories; he gives voice to those who have been silenced by systems of power and challenges us to rethink the structures that deem certain lives disposable.

The Refugee Abyss confronts the harsh realities of forced displacement, raising vital questions: Whose stories are we willing to listen to? Which voices do we ignore? Yohannes invites us to reflect on the traces left by those seeking refuge—wounds, scars, and silent histories that shape the global landscape of migration.

Yohannes will discuss his evolving ideas on states of vulnerability and disposability toward healing and connection, inviting us to approach these themes with care, curiosity, and critical reflection.

About the speaker:

Hyab Yohannes is a researcher with the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow. His work focuses on researching and analysing findings to address theoretical, methodological, and policy-related questions. Recently, he co-edited a special issue on Intercultural Knowledge Production for the Journal of Language and Intercultural Communication and signed a book contract with Routledge for his upcoming publication, The Refugee Abyss. Yohannes' research interests include decoloniality, cultures of peace, political theories, and various forms of (b)ordering, such as physical, epistemic, spatial, temporal, and legal dimensions.

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