Prof. Rana Khoury (University of Illinois) “Nonviolent Agency in Civil War Borderlands”

We posit a rationale for recognizing refugees as agents positioned to engage meaningfully and nonviolently in conflict processes such as advocacy, relief, and non-state governance and, therefore, as contributors to the locus of nonviolent agency in war, especially in borderlands. We advance this agenda through study of Syrian refugees’ action in the civil war that began in 2011. Analyzing an original dataset of millions of posts on public Facebook pages representing Syrian organizations located inside Syria, in border states, and further afield, we find that refugees engaged as much or more than their co-nationals to thematic and action-based discourse throughout the war. Qualitative case studies explain how the locus of nonviolent agency shifted toward Syrian organizations in border states. Our analysis demonstrates that refugees in the global South and civilians in the conflict state enjoy agency and can engage jointly in civil war processes, even amid violence. [co-author: Alexandra Siegel]

Co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science and HRI’s Human Rights Research and Data Hub

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This is an Honors Event. Categories: Academic & Interdisciplinary Engagement OR Multiculturalism & Global Citizenship.

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