Shows
Surviving Society ProductionsGaza, Identity & Solidarity with Ala Sirriyeh & Aaron Winter
In this episode of Surviving Society, in collaboration with the Identities Podcast, Ala Sirriyeh and Aaron Winter discuss their thoughts and experiences in the 10 months since 7 October and what has occurred in Gaza and globally, including on UK university campuses, as colleagues and friends in an ongoing dialogue, scholars and educators working on racism and refugees, co-founders of Sociologists in Solidarity with Palestinians (SISP), and in relation to their identities as a Palestinian and Jew.
Ala is a British Palestinian sociologist of migration with a primary focus on child and youth migration and activism. Her first monograph...
2024-08-271h 20
Who do we think we are?BtH1 S7 Beyond the headlines … with Hannah LewisIn July 2022 the news broke that Sir Mo Farah, four times Olympian for Team GB, had been trafficked to the UK as a child. The headlines enhanced public understandings of trafficking. They brought into the frame the children forced into domestic servitude and the circumstances which mean that their situations may not come to light. Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Dr Hannah Lewis, University of Sheffield to discuss what trafficking is and its relationship to modern slavery and forced labour; public responses to victims of trafficking; and how the Hostile Environment further limits the possibilities...
2022-11-2530 minWho do we think we are?BtH1 S7 Beyond the headlines … with Hannah LewisIn July 2022 the news broke that Sir Mo Farah, four times Olympian for Team GB, had been trafficked to the UK as a child. The headlines enhanced public understandings of trafficking. They brought into the frame the children forced into domestic servitude and the circumstances which mean that their situations may not come to light. Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Dr Hannah Lewis, University of Sheffield to discuss what trafficking is and its relationship to modern slavery and forced labour; public responses to victims of trafficking; and how the Hostile Environment further limits the possibilities...
2022-11-2530 min
Uncommon SenseEmotion, with Billy HolzbergEmojis! Feminism! Rage! Sociologist Billy Holzberg joins us to talk about emotion. Why is it dismissed as an obstacle to progress and clear thinking – and to whose benefit? How can we let anger into politics without sanctioning far-right violence? And why are some of us freer than others to play with emotional abjection? Billy reflects on all this and more with Alexis and Rosie, celebrating thinkers from Sara Ahmed to Karl Marx, W.E.B. Du Bois to Yasmin Gunaratnam.Billy also reflects on queerness, childhood and shame; the emotional precarity of TV’s Fleabag; the playfulness of e...
2022-11-1846 min
Who do we think we are?BtH1 E6 Beyond the headlines … with Cecilia MenjívarFor many people, migration is about escaping persecution and state violence. But in the context increasingly criminalisation of migration, state violence may characterise the lives of immigrants. Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Professor Cecilia Menjívar to discuss her work with Central American migrants in the US. She highlights how those taking part in her empirical research from Arizona to Kansas revealed to her the ways in which the infrastructures of immigration enforcement and control in the US shape migrant lives and the parallels they draw in state violence before and after migration. And she s...
2022-10-2832 minWho do we think we are?BtH1 E6 Beyond the headlines … with Cecilia MenjívarFor many people, migration is about escaping persecution and state violence. But in the context increasingly criminalisation of migration, state violence may characterise the lives of immigrants. Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Professor Cecilia Menjívar to discuss her work with Central American migrants in the US. She highlights how those taking part in her empirical research from Arizona to Kansas revealed to her the ways in which the infrastructures of immigration enforcement and control in the US shape migrant lives and the parallels they draw in state violence before and after migration. And she s...
2022-10-2832 min
Who do we think we are?BtH1 S5 Beyond the headlines … with Colin YeoWith a new UK cabinet comes a new Home Secretary, Suella Braverman MP former Attorney General. While there has been a lot of focus on her politics, what does this mean for the Home Office and in particular its approach to immigration? Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Colin Yeo, Barrister at Garden Court Chambers and editor of the Free Movement blog, to talk about all this and consider how it sits in the decade-long context of the Hostile Environment. While our headline focusses on her pledge to bring the numbers of people crossing the Channel...
2022-09-3024 minWho do we think we are?BtH1 S5 Beyond the headlines … with Colin YeoWith a new UK cabinet comes a new Home Secretary, Suella Braverman MP former Attorney General. While there has been a lot of focus on her politics, what does this mean for the Home Office and in particular its approach to immigration? Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Colin Yeo, Barrister at Garden Court Chambers and editor of the Free Movement blog, to talk about all this and consider how it sits in the decade-long context of the Hostile Environment. While our headline focusses on her pledge to bring the numbers of people crossing the Channel...
2022-09-3024 min
Who do we think we are?What do family migration rules reveal about British citizenship today?You start a relationship with someone living abroad. As the relationship gets serious, you decide to take the next steps and live together. But there's a border in the way. We’re joined by Ala Sirriyeh, senior lecturer in sociology at Lancaster University to talk about how borders disrupt and remake families, why as a British citizen your non-British family members are not exempt from immigration controls and what this tells us about British citizenship today. George Kalivis goes back into the archive to look at the secret deportation of Chinese merchant seamen from Liverpool after WW2 an...
2022-09-1642 minWho do we think we are?What do family migration rules reveal about British citizenship today?You start a relationship with someone living abroad. As the relationship gets serious, you decide to take the next steps and live together. But there's a border in the way. We’re joined by Ala Sirriyeh, senior lecturer in sociology at Lancaster University to talk about how borders disrupt and remake families, why as a British citizen your non-British family members are not exempt from immigration controls and what this tells us about British citizenship today. George Kalivis goes back into the archive to look at the secret deportation of Chinese merchant seamen from Liverpool after WW2 an...
2022-09-1642 min
Who do we think we are?Beyond the Headlines...with Zrinka BraloIn May 2012 Home Secretary Theresa May vowed to create ‘a really hostile environment for illegal migrants’, heralding in a set of policies which require landlords, employers, healthcare workers and others to check people’s immigration documents, which creates a barrier to accessing work, housing, healthcare, banking and other services. Most of these measures were introduced through the Immigration Act 2014 and expanded in the Immigration Act 2016. But what has been the impact of the decade-long political project to make the UK ‘tough on immigration’? In this episode Michaela Benson and Ala Sirriyeh are joined by Zrinka Bralo, CEO Migrants Or...
2022-07-0836 minWho do we think we are?Beyond the Headlines...with Zrinka BraloIn May 2012 Home Secretary Theresa May vowed to create ‘a really hostile environment for illegal migrants’, heralding in a set of policies which require landlords, employers, healthcare workers and others to check people’s immigration documents, which creates a barrier to accessing work, housing, healthcare, banking and other services. Most of these measures were introduced through the Immigration Act 2014 and expanded in the Immigration Act 2016. But what has been the impact of the decade-long political project to make the UK ‘tough on immigration’? In this episode Michaela Benson and Ala Sirriyeh are joined by Zrinka Bralo, CEO Migrants Or...
2022-07-0836 min
Who do we think we are?Beyond the headlines … with Aaron WinterMass shooting in the US have been headlines news over the past month. The pattern? White gunmen opening fire in supermarkets, schools and public spaces, killing and injuring black, brown and hispanic people going about their daily business. Journalists, commentators and politicians have rallied to try and explain these horrific incidents, identifying the role of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory in motivating the actions of lone shooters. But what do these explanations overlook and shield from view? In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, Michaela Benson and Ala Sirriyeh are joined by Aaron Winter, who researches racism, hate crime...
2022-06-1033 minWho do we think we are?Beyond the headlines … with Aaron WinterMass shooting in the US have been headlines news over the past month. The pattern? White gunmen opening fire in supermarkets, schools and public spaces, killing and injuring black, brown and hispanic people going about their daily business. Journalists, commentators and politicians have rallied to try and explain these horrific incidents, identifying the role of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory in motivating the actions of lone shooters. But what do these explanations overlook and shield from view? In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, Michaela Benson and Ala Sirriyeh are joined by Aaron Winter, who researches racism, hate crime...
2022-06-1033 min
Who do we think we are?Beyond the Headlines ... with Dr Yvonne SuCountries around the world have been quick to crow about the provisions they are putting in place to welcome those displaced by the war in Ukraine. Yet, all might not be what it seems. In this first episode of Beyond the Headlines, hosts Dr Ala Sirriyeh and Professor Michaela Benson are in conversation with Dr Yvonne Su, York University to examine what the headlines announcing a warm welcome to Ukrainian refugees in Poland and the UK shield from view. We explore how even among those displaced by the war, not everyone has equal access to leaving Ukraine...
2022-05-1336 minWho do we think we are?Beyond the Headlines ... with Dr Yvonne SuCountries around the world have been quick to crow about the provisions they are putting in place to welcome those displaced by the war in Ukraine. Yet, all might not be what it seems. In this first episode of Beyond the Headlines, hosts Dr Ala Sirriyeh and Professor Michaela Benson are in conversation with Dr Yvonne Su, York University to examine what the headlines announcing a warm welcome to Ukrainian refugees in Poland and the UK shield from view. We explore how even among those displaced by the war, not everyone has equal access to leaving Ukraine...
2022-05-1336 min