SNAC workshop in Cairo

On 4-5 December, the SNAC team brought together Sudanese scholars for a workshop on Sudanese migration in the region. The workshop was co-organized and hosted by the Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo.

The ongoing war in Sudan has forced many of the Sudanese SNAC members to flee and made collaboration within the country difficult. Yet, the SNAC project continues the close cooperation between academics in Sudan and Norway. Several of the Sudanese SNAC team members alongside a large number of Sudanese academics and activists who have been displaced by the war are currently based in Cairo. The SNAC management reached out to the American University in Cairo (AUC) to investigate about the possibilities of a co-organized workshop on Sudanese migration in Egypt and the wider region, and in early December Sudanese and Norwegian academics met up with researchers from the Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies at the AUC to discuss the war in Sudan and in particular the situation of Sudanese refugees in the region.

The SNAC workshop brought together already well-established Sudan scholars with young Sudanese academics and students for two days focused on topics ranging from youth and women’s role in the revolution and the impact of war, legal approaches to forced displacement, and entrepreneurship in a context of displacement.

Several of the papers that were presented during the panel discussions will materialize in joint research projects, academic papers and blog posts to be published on the SNAC project’s Sudan blog.

Even though many Sudanese academics are now located in Cairo, there are few arenas for them to meet. At this event, many met for the first time after the war broke out, and the participants found it to be an opportunity to expand their academic networks and find support in the development of joint research projects as well as publications.