Iva Grubiša, M.A.

Dissertation Project

"Transformation and Construction of Homes among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Zagreb" (Working Title)

The aim of this research is to analyze and rethink the concepts, imaginaries, and experiences of home and home-making processes among refugees and asylum seekers in Zagreb. My research, therefore, stands on the junction of two field nodes: migration and refugee studies on the one hand, and spatial studies on the other, given that I will be looking into the constructions of home(s) through the concepts of both (restrained) mobility and (new) rooting and emplacement. The key research questions can be put in three (necessarily intertwined) analytical frameworks: (1) what do(es) home(s) mean and represent in the context of refugeehood; (2) how are home(s) being imagined, constructed, and experienced through spatial practices; and (3) what is happening with the neighborhoods in which refugees and asylum seekers temporarily or permanently reside. Regarding methodology, besides classical tools in ethnology and cultural anthropology – semi and unstructured interviews, and participant observations – I plan to do photo-elicitation interviews with a group of participants to gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of home(s) and to combine their narratives with visuals of home(s) and home-making processes. Furthermore, following the idea that "people not only move between places, but also form them by movement itself " (Lee and Ingold 2006:78), and that places are made "by the interweaving of routes over time or concurrently" (ibid) I will be using the fundamental concepts of walking ethnography.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nevena Škrbić Alempijević