CFD Conversations

Maryam Khalil, a CFD research fellow and Fulbright recipient, joins Kate and Sabrina in the studio. She shares how her firsthand experience of the Libyan Revolution informed her research on migration in Southern Europe. From personal anecdotes to academic debates, Khalil offers her fresh takes on motivations in academia, autonomy in death, and finding goodness in one's life.

Joining Kate and Sabrina in the studio, Kinh Vu and Aaron Hwang discuss the behind-the-scenes of their 2023 documentary Song of Earthroot . The film follows Vu as he rediscovers himself in Vietnam, the place he was born but evacuated from during the American War. Vu, a BU music education professor, and Hwang, co-founder of Fourth District Productions, trace their creative decisions and personal ch...

Kate and Sabrina sit down with Maria Antonia Blandon, a graduate student fellow at the CFD, to discuss her father’s kidnapping. With his diary in hand, Maria shares her father’s accounts of the grueling guerrilla warfare tactics and her research into this often-avoided, multifaceted history of Colombia. Studying this period to frame her upcoming translation, Maria explores how history, both indivi...

In this episode, Kate and Sabrina sit down with editors Muhammad Zaman, Carrie Preston, and Marina Lažetić to discuss their newest volume, Mexico-US, Serbia-EU: Border Lives and Works . They reflect on the interdisciplinary exploration of how migrants, artists, activists, and researchers navigate, reshape, and define life in global borderlands. Could these parallel challenges possess parallel solu...

Join Kate and Sabrina as they step in the studio for the first time with Dorsa Ghazanfari, a CFD Undergraduate Fellow. Dorsa opens up about her mom’s experience as Baháʼí Post-Iranian Revolution and how it led to an unsuccessful border crossing, which impacts their thought processes today. They dive into state-based religious oppression, finding a welcoming religious community, and channeling gene...

In this episode, Shandra sits down with Marina Lazetic, Director of Programs at CFD, and Alexandra 'Xan' Weber, Chief Advancement Officer and Senior Vice President of the International Institute of New England. They discuss the timely importance of academic and practitioner collaborations in the field of forced displacement, highlighting new initiatives and research both organizations are...

In this episode, Shandra chats with CFD Graduate Fellow Ibrahim Fawzy about the ins and outs of translating Arabic literary texts into English. They dive into how this process intersects with Ibrahim's own experience of moving to the United States, tackling the world of translations on many levels. For more information on research and CFD events, check out our website:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.bu.edu/cf...

In this episode, Shandra sits down with author and scholar Dr. Wendy Pearlman, to chat about her latest book "The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora." This powerful book, based on hundreds of interviews conducted over a decade, explores the profound question of what home means for those who have been forced to leave everything behind. For more information on research and CF...

In this episode, we hear the story of Ahmed, a 24-year-old Afghan man whose life was at risk during the Taliban's 2021 takeover. Dr. Neelam Raina and Sobia Kapadia share their firsthand experiences as their UK-funded research project, focused on gender, justice and security, took a dangerous turn when colleagues were targeted for their work. Dr. Raina recounts one researcher's escape and how their...

In this episode of  CFD Conversations , Aidan Kaminer, a former BU Center on Forced Displacement fellow and now Senior Economic Mobility Coordinator at La Colaborativa, shares how his passion for helping migrants shaped his career. From navigating an unclear college path to finding his place in social services, Aidan’s journey offers insight into how staying true to passions can lead to a fulfilli...

In this episode, we are joined by Jamon Van Den Hoek, an Associate Professor of Geography at Oregon State University, to explore how satellite remote sensing and geospatial data are used to track and understand the complex causes and effects of forced displacement. He also shares how his lab at OSU is preparing the next generation of researchers as this rapidly growing field continues to evolve. F...

In this interview, associate director Carrie Preston, research associate Rana Hussein and student research fellow Janki Bhatt are joined by Naween Mangi, founder of the Ali Hasan Memorial Trust, to discuss the impacts of the 2022 Pakistan floods on communities in rural Sindh. For more information on Naween Mangi's work, check out her website here .

In this episode we sit down with Selma Hedlund, a CFD postdoc, to discuss her journey into the field of forced displacement, both as a researcher and community organizer, and what it means to have an impact in the field. For more information on research and CFD events, check out our website:  ⁠https://www.bu.edu/cfd/ 

In this episode CFD Events and Communications Specialist Baiden Wright sits down with students from the Interdisciplinary Summer School on Forced Displacement held in Belgrade, Serbia to reflect on the experience. To learn about the upcoming 2024 program click here . For more information on research and CFD events, check out our website:  ⁠https://www.bu.edu/cfd/

Today Shandra is joined with Rachel Nolan, an assistant professor of international relations at Boston University, to discuss her experience working with language barriers while doing research in Guatemala.

In this episode, Shandra is joined with fellow participants of the Border Studies Program. The BSP is a collaboration with the CFD, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and many local non-profit organizations. The students reflect on the preparation course, the spring break trip to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and projects/opportunities that were born from the experience. Click here for mor...

In this episode, Shandra is joined with Kaitlin Roberson, CEO of Cacti Therapeutics. Together they sit down to discuss secondary trauma as well as how to recognize and approach it. Check out Kaitlins talk from our March Sawyer Seminar hosted with The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1x1Ml7aG96Tchs6XK2dRBJ

In the first episode of the CFD Conversations podcast, director of the Boston University Center on Forced Displacement, Professor Muhammed Zaman and assistant director Professor Carrie Preston sit down with host Shandra Back to chat about the CFD's creation and why bringing together brains from a variety of disciplinary and sectoral perspectives is essential to tackling the rising global crisi...