Book Launch | Deadly Voyages: Migrant Journeys across the Globe

Join us on Monday, June 7 for a discussion with contributing authors of Deadly Voyages: Migrant Journeys across the Globe and members of the WUSC Student Refugee Program network. Together, we will discuss the role of refugee narratives in transforming public attitudes, policies, and practices toward more compassionate solutions to forced migration.

Date: Monday, June 7, 2021
Time: 11:00am ET
Location: Online (Zoom). Register here.

This event will be in English. Simultaneous interpretation in French and closed captioning will be provided.

In 2019, there were 79.5 million forcibly displaced persons around the world. An estimated 40% of those displaced are under the age of 18.

Unable to return home, with few solutions available to them, many displaced individuals and families have little choice but to embark on dangerous and deadly journeys in pursuit of safety, education, and economic opportunities.

Forced migration is a global issue, yet responses vary country-to-country. For example, 85% of the world’s refugees are hosted in developing countries that already face significant challenges to meeting the needs of their populations.

Story-telling and awareness-raising is an important tool to mobilizing a more global response. WUSC’s network of more than 1,000 post-secondary students across Canada are among those involved in dispelling myths about forced migration and presenting positive perspectives on the contributions of newcomers in our country.

Yet story-telling has also been used as a tool to reinforce harmful stereotypes about displaced persons and newcomers. These stories have the potential to negatively impact policies and practices around the world.

Join us on Monday, June 7 for a discussion with contributing authors of Deadly Voyages: Migrant Journeys across the Globe and members of the WUSC Student Refugee Program network. Together, we will discuss the role of refugee narratives in transforming public attitudes, policies, and practices toward more compassionate solutions to forced migration. Register here.

Meet our Speakers

Dr. Veronica Fynn Bruey
Assistant Professor, Department of Legal Studies, Athabasca University

Veronica Fynn Bruey is a multi-award winner, an author, a passionate academic-advocate, and an innovator with an extensive interdisciplinary background, holding six academic degrees from world-class institutions across four continents. A world citizen, Fynn Bruey has taught, researched, consulted, and is a highly sought after international conference speaker in at least 25 countries. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Legal Studies at Athabasca University. She is a valued member of the WUSC network and alum of our Student Refugee Program. Fynn Bruey arrived in Canada through the program, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of British Columbia. She has since completed four more degrees, and has authored four books, several book chapters, and peer review articles in reputable academic journals. Fynn Bruey is a born and bred Liberian war survivor who loves running, biking, hiking, and dancing.

Professor Steven Bender
Associate Dean for Planning and Strategic Initiatives and Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law

Professor Bender is a national academic leader on immigration law and policy, as well as an expert in real estate law. He taught at the University of Oregon for 20 years and served as the James and Ilene Hershner Professor of Law, founding Director of Portland Programs, Director of the Green Business Initiative, and Co-Director of the Law and Entrepreneurship Center. He joined Seattle University in 2011, serving as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development from 2014-2017 and, since 2017, as the Associate Dean for Planning and Strategic Initiatives. His research interests coincide with his classroom teaching, which encompasses subjects as diverse as The Lawyer’s Role in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Property, Real Estate Transactions, UCC Secured Transactions, Contracts, Social Impact Advocacy, and Latina/os and the Law. Professor Bender is a prolific author and an elected member of the American Law Institute, the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, and the American College of Mortgage Attorneys. During 2009-2011, Bender served as co-president of the national Society of American Law Teachers (SALT). In 2014, he received the C. Clyde Ferguson, Jr. Award by the Minority Groups Section of the Association of American Law Schools, among other honours.

Dr. Kate Ogg
Associate Professor, School of Law, Australian National University

Associate Professor Kate Ogg undertakes interdisciplinary research in the areas of refugee law, human rights, litigation, access to justice and feminist legal theory. Kate is the co-editor of The Future of Feminist Engagement with International Law (Edward Elgar, 2019) and has published a number of influential book chapters and journal articles in leading international and Australian edited collections and journals. Kate has been twice invited to present her research at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Headquarters in Geneva. She has been called to give evidence on international refugee law to the Australian Federal Parliament and regularly provides commentary on developments in refugee law and policy in domestic and international media outlets. Kate is the Higher Degree Research Director for the ANU College of Law.

Muhamed Shiwan Amin
Part-time Professor, Department of History, University of Ottawa

Muhamed Amin is a PhD candidate and Part-Time Professor in the Department of History at the University of Ottawa. He has taught courses on migration and integration in postwar Europe as well as on the history of the African Diaspora. He is currently in the final stages of completing his doctoral dissertation on the history of asylum-seekers in Europe by examining personal narratives and lived experiences within the conceptual boundaries of the European Public Sphere.

Dr. Sasha Baglay
Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ontario Tech University

Dr. Sasha Baglay received her Master of Law degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Doctor of Jurisprudence from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, Ontario. She joined Ontario Tech University in 2006. She specializes in immigration and refugee law and policy. In 2009-2010 she was the President of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies.

Rachael Nyandeng Ayei
Student, University of Toronto

Nyandeng is currently in her last year of pursuing an Honours Bachelor of Arts (HBA) doing a double-major in Political Science and Criminology, Law and Society at the University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus (UTM). She came to Canada in 2017 through the WUSC Student Refugee Program scholarship program. In the 2020-2021 academic year, Nyandeng landed a work-study position with the International Education Centre (at UTM) as an International Students’ Group Advising Assistant. Her work entailed helping International and first-year students to adapt to Canadian education as well as transition to university life in general. Having witnessed the situation in which girls and women live in a refugee Camp, Nyandeng developed a passion for girls’ education and women empowerment, which she is very vocal about, as ways of transforming society. Last but not the least, she is an aspiring lawyer!