About this Event
Friday 3rd December 2021
13:00 - 14:00 (Geneva time), via Zoom
Organized by the Media Communications & Photography Department
Description
In honour of the upcoming International Migrant Day in December, this Spotlight Seminar will explore the importance and challenges of representing refugees in photography and in the media.
Kristian Skeie will share his field notes from working as a humanitarian photographer on the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia navigating access, translation and meeting people amidst a humanitarian crisis in the making.
Drawing on her personal experience as a refugee and her expertise as an international expert on migration and climate change at the IOM, Dina Ionesco will discuss the emergence of the category of “climate refugees”. Should we avoid this new category or advocate for its creation?
SPEAKERS
Dina Ionesco, Former Head of Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division at the I.O.M. (UN-Migration) and Co-Director of the new M.A. in Migration, Climate Change and the Environment (2022), Webster University Geneva
Dina led the efforts towards the establishment of this first ever migration and climate change specialized structure in the United Nations (UN) and directed the Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) Division at the UN Migration Agency (IOM) from 2015 to 2021. Her work contributed to the groundbreaking recognition of migrants’ rights in the Paris Agreement in 2015, and to the significant acknowledgement of climate change issues in the Global Compact on Migration, in 2018. She developed and directed numerous programs, projects, and publications, impacting policy makers, communities, and migrants.
She has 25 years of international work experience, with a focus on international policies and is passionate about the human rights of migrants, the protection of nature and education. She was awarded the ‘Inspirational woman working to protect the environment’ distinction, as part of the 2016 International Women’s Day, at the initiative of UN Environment, the Geneva Environment Network, and the Swiss Confederation. She regularly contributes to artistic projects and draws cartoons and children’s illustrations.
Kristian Skeie, Photographer and Adjunct Professor, Media Communications and Photography Department, Webster University Geneva
Kristian is a Norwegian, Swiss-based photojournalist working with a number of organizations (including Aga Khan, Enfants du Monde, WTO, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust) and publications (including International Herald Tribune, the Daily Telegraph, Le Temps, 24 Heures, Banker Magazine, Neue Zürcher Zeitung). My main work at the moment deals with the aftermath of war, specifically life today in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Rwanda.
Moderator
Sarah Grosso, Adjunct Professor and Researcher, Media Communications & Photography Department
Sarah teaches various courses in the Media Communications Department at undergraduate and graduate level, as well as a course on Women’s and Gender Studies within Webster University Geneva’s General Citizenship Programme. In addition, she works as an independent consultant on gender and communications for clients including the ICRC, the START Network, UNICEF and UNESCO.
