Staging Presence for Spatial Dignity

Exploring Representations of Refugee Girlhood

in Girlhood Studies
Author:
Margaret Ravenscroft PhD candidate, Nottingham Trent University, UK margaret.ravenscroft2018@my.ntu.ac.uk

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https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0453-843X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2024.170104
Keywords:
Little Amal; feminist refugee epistemology; immigration; M.I.A; puppet; sanctuary; United Kingdom
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Abstract

In exploring the figuration and physical presence of Little Amal, a 12-foot Syrian girl puppet and main character in a moving piece of epic public theater titled The Walk, I consider the dueling realities of welcomeness and unwantedness, hypervisibility and invisibility, spatial dignity and spatial denial faced by refugee girls, real and represented. Accessing a feminist refugee epistemology, I position Amal in contrast to yet another symbol of refugee girlhood—popstar M.I.A.—to move away from the typical simultaneously superfluous and stunted representations of sanctuary-seeking girls and toward a provocation that accepts their creative and complex lifeworlds.

Contributor Notes

Margaret Ravenscroft (ORCID: 0009-0007-0453-843X) is a PhD candidate and Vice Chancellor's Scholar at Nottingham Trent University. She holds an MA in Aesthetics of Kinship and Community from Birkbeck, University of London, and her professional background is in architectural communications. Her work on representations of race and gender in the built environment has been published in industry press. Email: margaret.ravenscroft2018@my.ntu.ac.uk

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Girlhood Studies

An Interdisciplinary Journal

Cover Girlhood Studies
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
18
Keywords:
Little Amal; feminist refugee epistemology; immigration; M.I.A; puppet; sanctuary; United Kingdom
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2024
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2024
Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024

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