The Coordinating Circle (The Founders)
Rather than appointing a traditional, singular Director, the cluster will be guided by a horizontal Coordinating Circle consisting of the founding members. This model directly mirrors the principles of Participatory Action Research (PAR) by treating all leaders as active, equal co-creators.
The circle leverages the diverse, interdisciplinary expertise of its founders:
- Socio-Legal & Visual Arts Liaison: Ester Nergis Canefe. Bridges international human rights jurisprudence with visual art, mural painting, and institutional archiving.
- Creative Writing & Nonfiction Liaison: Jesse O’Reilly-Conlin. Connects international law, history, and memory through literary and creative art forms.
- Feminist Anthropology & Film Liaison: Dr. Katarzyna Grabska. Guides the ethical application of collaborative artsbased research methods (drawing, filmmaking, soundscapes).
- Participatory Action & Community Liaison: Dr. Staci B. Martin. Cultivates transformative community dialogues, ensuring the cluster co-researches directly alongside BIPOC and Global South communities.
- Critical Policy & Public Awareness Liaison: Dr. Kiril Sharapov. Intersects critical migration studies and policy with performative arts to shape public narratives.
To manage the cluster’s specific upcoming objectives, the work is distributed into three collective, action-oriented working groups. Members can fluidly move between these groups based on capacity and interest.
A. Digital Curation & Web Integration Group
- Mandate: Responsible for coordinating the upload and management of the cluster’s extensive digital portfolio onto the IASFM website.
- Scope: Overseeing the digital presence of projects like the Atlas of Uncertainty, Falastin: A Digital Monument, and the Kakuma Art Project virtual galleries.
B. Ethics, Methodology & Decolonial Frameworks Group
- Mandate: Grounded in an “ethics of witnessing”, this group ensures all cluster projects actively resist “traumatic extraction” and prioritize the safety and agency of displaced contributors.
- Scope: Reviewing methodologies (such as body mapping, photovoice, and ethnodrama) to ensure they dismantle Eurocentric academic structures.
C. Solidarity & Community Exhibition Networks
- Mandate: Managing external partnerships, physical installations, and direct community collaborations.
- Scope: Supporting immediate initiatives like Monika Verma’s Landscapes of Refuge exhibition at Palacký University and ensuring direct communication channels with on-the-ground refugee teams like the Rohingyatographer Collective and Gaza’s Bureij camp artists.
D. Consensus-Based Decision Making
Major decisions—such as adopting new projects, releasing publications, or admitting new cluster members—will be made through a consensus-based model within the Coordinating Circle, ensuring every founding member’s voice carries equal weight.