Melisa Maida
Melisa's PhD project title is 'Negotiating Belonging: The transnational/local experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking families in Tyneside'. Read more about Melisa's research.
About Melisa
My research interests are migration (refugee), belonging, arts and participatory methods. My work is community-based, collaborative and creative. It builds on previous experience in NGOs in the refugee, homelessness and international development sectors. I am currently in my final year of my PhD.
Project description
My PhD project examines the resettlement experiences of asylum and refugee families in England’s Tyneside region. I explore how refugee families negotiate belonging and relatedness to people and place. Whether through existing and/or new connections and attachments. The study documents the strategies of refugees, including their aspirations and hopes, as they attempt to make lives for themselves in the UK.
This all within a time of growing ethno-nationalism and intensifying opposition to migrants.
This research involves in-depth narrative interviews and community based ethnographic observations. It focuses on:
- collecting biographical histories
- critical reflections and insights on refugee’s migration experiences
- homemaking practices
- the negotiation of belonging both locally and transnationally.
My research also used participatory photography methods in which participants used images to illustrate the issues shaping their lives. With these images they created their own accordion books of belonging to voice their narratives of belonging. The books were displayed in two exhibitions in the North East.
Presentations
RGS-IBG 2022 Singing-Stories of Seeking and Sanctuary: Creative spaces to negotiate belonging, recover and flourish (Bex Mather and Melisa Maida)
RGS-IBG 2022 Negotiating belonging: Resilience, strategies and dreams of refugee families in Tyneside.
Teaching
- GEO1010 Interconnected World
- GEO1018 Geographical Analysis
- GEO1096 Geographical Skills
- GEO2043 Key Methods for Human Geographers
- SOC2070 Researching Social Life
- GEO3159 Displacement and Migration
Academic qualifications
- MA Human Geography Research, Newcastle University, 2020-2021
- BA Honours Geography, Newcastle University, 2017-2020
- MA Community Arts, University of Cumbria
- BA (Hons) European Studies and Modern Languages, Northumbria University
Co-founder and co-organiser of CARN (Creative Arts Research Network) - an interdisciplinary network bringing together researchers from arts, humanities, and social sciences who are interested in the use of creative arts. @CreativeArtsRN (Twitter)
Contact and further information
Email: m.maida2@ncl.ac.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelisaMaida
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melisa-maida-613a0b34
Research Profile: https://www.ninedtp.ac.uk/melisa-maida-negotiating-belonging-intergenerational-experiences-young-ref