“Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa: The Politics and Lived Experiences of Displacement” with Professor Nadia El-Shaarawi (Camden Conference Community Event)

The Camden Public Library, as a part of the Camden Conference Community Events Series, welcomes Professor Nadia El-Shaarawi for a presentation on Thursday, February 12, at 6:30 PM in the Picker Room.

There are more than 123 million people displaced in the world today, many of whom hail from, or live in, the Middle East and North Africa. Why has this region experienced so much forced migration and what is the significance of these many layered movements?

In this presentation, Nadia El-Shaarawi will discuss the contours of displacement in and from the region, with a focus on the politics of displacement and its effects on the people who live through it. We will explore histories of forced migration as well as the context and implications of displacement today.

While we will ground our conversation in the Middle East and North Africa, we will also consider the relationships between migration and displacement in that region and US and global politics.

Nadia El-Shaarawi is author of the book Collateral Damages: Tracing the Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War, published this year by University of California Press. This book, based on long term ethnographic fieldwork with Iraqi refugees in Cairo, Egypt, seeks to tell a different story of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the mass displacement it caused, one that centers the stories and experiences of Iraqis.

The book critically examines the war as well as the humanitarian process of third-country refugee resettlement, which international organizations and states hold up as one solution to displacement. She is also the co-editor, with Stéphanie Larchanché, of Migration and Health: Challenging the Borders of Care, Belonging, and Policy (Berghahn Books).

Nadia teaches classes on displacement, migration, borders, humanitarianism, and health in Global Studies and Anthropology at Colby College.

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This event is presented in anticipation of the 39th Annual Camden Conference, “Today’s Middle East: Power, Politics, & Players” taking place live from the Camden Opera House from February 20 – 22, 2026.