Doctoral Dissertation Research: Forced Migration, Displacement, and Community in Contested Borderlands

这个项目调查了流离失所的人在政治上有争议的边境地区建立生活的条件。最近欧洲的难民危机表明，不同的国家，不仅是不稳定的国家，都与人们的流动息息相关，并促使人们对现有的法律类别和权利、它们的矛盾心理以及这些类别对需要紧急帮助的人做了什么进行更深入的反思。在流离失所问题得到更广泛关注的时候，这个项目培训一名人类学研究生进行有经验的科学田野调查的方法，旨在了解流离失所的人如何在政治不安全的背景下找到新的方法来维持他们的社会关系和做法。通过对如何维持这种关系进行纵向评估，该项目将为流离失所产生重大社会和地缘政治影响的其他情况提供有用的数据。这项研究的结果将有助于对强迫移徙有更细微的认识，并有助于冲突管理和建设可持续和平的政策和实践。乔治华盛顿大学的学生Gorkem Aydemir Kundakci(在Sarah Wagner博士的指导下)将研究流离失所的社区如何在政治不稳定和不确定的背景下建立持久的社会关系。研究将在格鲁吉亚-阿布哈兹边境地区的一个流离失所的社区进行，那里为纵向勘探提供了丰富的场地。在1992年至1993年的格鲁吉亚-阿布哈兹战争期间，苏联解体后，阿布哈兹的格鲁吉亚居民被迫逃往格鲁吉亚本土；各方之间建立的停火线很快变成了一个有争议的边境地区，阿布哈兹、格鲁吉亚和俄罗斯三个政体以不确定的方式实施其主权计划。直到今天，边境地区流离失所的社区成员仍保持着与边境两侧的联系，并以意想不到的形式驾驭着这个矛盾的地区。为了了解流离失所者如何体验这一地区，并挑战“流离失所者”、“在国内”和“回返者”等分类上的区别，研究人员将进行人种学研究，通过(1)追踪构成流离失所者边界和跨境流动的政治和法律背景，(2)探索边境过境的法律、社会和物质方面，以及(3)了解多年来人们与边境的关系和过境方式的变化。通过这样做，该项目将有助于研究移民问题、家园观念以及边界地区的法律和政治建设。它还将增加公众对当代流离失所动态的了解和关于南高加索地区的新信息，这是一个人类学研究不足的地区。这项研究将依靠一种创新的方法设计，包括通过讲故事讲述人物传记和人的运动地图，并利用传统的人种学数据收集方法，包括参与者观察和半结构化访谈。

This project investigates the conditions under which displaced people construct their lives in a politically disputed borderland. The recent refugee crisis in Europe has revealed that various states, not only unstable states, have stakes in people's movements, and has urged deeper reflection on existing legal categories and rights, their ambivalence, and what these categories do to people in need of urgent help. At a time when issues of displacement gain broader visibility, this project, which trains a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of conducting empirically grounded scientific fieldwork, aims to understand how displaced people find new ways to maintain their social ties and practices in contexts of political insecurity. By providing a longitudinal assessment of how such relationships are maintained, this project will provide data useful to other contexts where displacement is having a significant social and geopolitical impact. Findings of this research will contribute to a more nuanced perception of forced migration, and to policy and practice in conflict management and building sustainable peace. George Washington University student Gorkem Aydemir Kundakci (under the direction of Dr. Sarah Wagner) will examine how displaced communities forge durable social relationships in contexts of political instability and uncertainty. The research will take place in a displaced community in the de facto Georgia-Abkhazia borderland, which provides a rich site for longitudinal exploration. During the Georgian-Abkhaz war in 1992-1993, after the collapse of Soviet Union, Georgian residents of Abkhazia were forced to flee into Georgia proper; and the ceasefire line created between parties soon turned into a contested borderland where three polities - Abkhazia, Georgia, and Russia - perform their sovereignty projects in uncertain ways. To this day, members of the displaced community in the borderland maintain their ties with both sides of the border, and navigate this ambivalent region in unexpected forms. To understand how the displaced experience this zone and challenge the categorical distinctions like "displaced," "at home," and "returnee," the researcher will conduct ethnographic research, by (1) tracing the political and legal context that constitutes the borderline and trans-border movements of the displaced, (2) exploring legal, social, and material aspects of border crossings, and (3) understanding the transformations in people's relations to the border and in modes of crossings over years. In doing so, the project will contribute to research on the issues of migration, ideas of homeland, and legal and political construction of borderlands in liminal zones. It will also increase public knowledge of contemporary dynamics of displacement and new information on the South Caucasus, a region anthropologically understudied. The research will rely on an innovative methodological design that will involve object biographies and maps of people's movements narrated through storytelling, and also make use of conventional methods of ethnographic data collection, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews.