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Refugees, Rights, and Belonging – a brown bag discussion with Manya Kagan and Gaisu Yari
Refreshments will be served!
Join us for a discussion with Gaisu Yari and Manya Oriel Kagan, who bring perspectives from their work on human rights, gender justice, and the educational rights of refugee and migrant children. Gaisu Yari shares insights from her experiences as an Afghan refugee and her role in the Afghan Voices of Hope Project, focusing on the lives and aspirations of Afghan women. Manya Kagan discusses her research on the education of refugee and migrant children in urban settings, examining how migration, development policy, and social justice intersect in Uganda.
Manya Oriel Kagan, Ph.D., is a sociologist of education, currently a postdoctoral
research fellow at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, under the
“Global Shifts: Migration, Urbanization, and Climate Change” initiative. She
focuses on refugee and migrant children’s rights to and in education in urban
settings, primarily in East Africa and the Middle East. Her work focuses on
development policy, social justice, and migration and how these affect
education and child rights.
She is the current co-editor of the American Anthropological Association’s
Anthropology of Childhood (NEOS). Her PhD is from the School of Education at
Ben Gurion University, Israel, and focused on refugee children in Kampala,
Uganda. She also teaches at Ben Gurion University, in a Masters program
focusing on African Sustainable Communities, a course on Youth in Africa, and
acts as a supervisor at RSUC, Oslo for Masters students in education.
Gaisu Yari is an experienced Afghan gender expert and human rights defender
from Afghanistan. She has navigated life both inside Afghanistan and as a
refugee, enriching her perspective and expertise. Gaisu’s educational
achievements include a master’s degree in human rights from Columbia
University and a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern studies and gender studies
from the University of Virginia.
Currently, Gaisu is actively involved in leading the Afghan Voices of Hope Project,
which involves extensive global travel to engage with Afghan exiles. Her focus on
gender justice is evident through her advocacy work and public speaking
engagements on the topic. She brings a wealth of knowledge and practical
experience to her activism, having spoken at conferences, collaborated with
various organizations, and worked with the media to address critical women’s
rights issues in Afghanistan