IRENE TUZI

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXII



Thesis title: Renegotiating Gender Roles and Relationships in Displacement: Syrian Families in Lebanon and Germany

This thesis investigates the impact of displacement on gender roles and relationships among Syrian refugee families in Lebanon and Germany. It is based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2017 and 2019. The research questions that have guided this study are: What kind of gender role and relationship transformations do Syrian families experience in Lebanon and Germany? How do Syrian men and women renegotiate relationships in displacement? Can different displacement situations generate similar experiences? I argue that due to the specific legal and bureaucratic conditions put in place by Lebanon and Germany, Syrian families experienced a protracted-temporary displacement. I conceptualize this space as liminality, a non-structural context that allows for alternative dimensions of agency to take place. For each case study, I identify four typologies of transformations in gender roles and relationships and how Syrian men and women renegotiated them in refugeehood. In its final discussion, this thesis compares the two displacement situations and suggests that three dimensions of agency can be uncovered in this liminal space – an iterative dimension, where agency is positioned towards the past; a projective dimension, which orientates agency towards the future; and a practical evaluative dimension, in which situational judgments are contextualized within concrete circumstances. This thesis offers three main contributions to knowledge: a theoretical one, by using agency as a lens to analyze gender relations in forced migration; a methodological one with its relational perspective that explores interconnected sets of relationships; and an empirical one, based on the comparison of two displacement situations – one in the Global North and one in the Global South. In this sense, this work aims to understand forced migration experiences as interconnected phenomena, and relationships as dynamically evolving in the space of displacement.

Research products

11573/1668172 - 2022 - L’architettura come pratica inclusiva: un progetto di connettività transculturale a Berlino
Fiorelli, Angela; Tuzi, Irene - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: DIVE-IN (Bologna: Alma mater studiorum Università di Bologna ALMADL) pp. - - issn: 2785-3233 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1596557 - 2021 - Book Review. Refuge in a Moving World: Tracing Refugee and Migrant Journeys across Disciplines
Tuzi, Irene - 01d Recensione
paper: REFUGE (Toronto Ontario: Centre for Refugee Studies York University, [1981]-) pp. 164-166 - issn: 1920-7336 - wos: WOS:000755171700001 (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1502560 - 2020 - Estella Carpi (2018). Specchi scomodi. Etnografia delle migrazioni forzate nel Libano contemporaneo
Tuzi, Irene - 01d Recensione
paper: MONDI MIGRANTI (Milano : Franco Angeli) pp. 193-199 - issn: 1972-4896 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1502596 - 2020 - Agency, structure, and reflexivity in displacement: The experience of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Germany
Tuzi, Irene - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: The Migration Conference 2020 (Tetovo, Macedonia del Nord)
book: The Migration Conference 2020 Proceedings: Migration and Integration - (9781912997886)

11573/1502637 - 2020 - Forced Migration and Gender Relations: Structure, Agency and Reflexivity among Syrian Refugees in Lebanon and Germany
Tuzi, Irene - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
conference: The Migration Conference 2020 (Tetovo, Macedonia del Nord)
book: The Migration Conference 2020 Book of Abstracts and Programme - (9781912997381)

11573/1361597 - 2019 - Architecture and Integration: Promoting Transcultural Connectivity through a Widespread Project for Refugees in Berlin.
Fiorelli, Angela; Tuzi, Irene - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
conference: 2ND URBANISM AT BORDERS GLOBAL CONFERENCE: BORDERS WITHIN BORDER FRAGMENTATION, DISPOSITION AND CONNECTIONS (Malaga)
book: Borders within Border: Fragmentation, Disposition, and Connection - (9788409155040)

11573/1352707 - 2019 - From Insecurity to Secondary Migration: “Bounded Mobilities” of Syrian and Eritrean Refugees in Europe
Tuzi, Irene - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: MIGRATION LETTERS (Sheffield : Migration Letters) pp. 551-561 - issn: 1741-8992 - wos: WOS:000489101000009 (9) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85074337406 (9)

11573/1134658 - 2018 - Syrian Families through Forced Migration and Transformation of Gender Relations
Tuzi, Irene - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
conference: XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (Toronto, Canada)
book: Book of Abstract XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology. Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities - ()

11573/1134662 - 2018 - Relocation of Syrian refugees entailing informal secondary mobility in Europe
Tuzi, Irene - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: IMISCOE Annual Conference (Barcellona, Spagna)
book: 15th IMISCOE Annual Conference. Europe, Migrations and the Mediterranean: Human Mobilities and Intercultural Challenges - ()

11573/1134664 - 2018 - Resettlement of Syrian Refugees to Italy: Durable Solution or Protracted Temporary Situation?
Tuzi, Irene - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
conference: IASFM17 (Salonicco, Grecia)
book: IASFM 17: Whither Refugees? Restrictionism, Crises and Precarity Writ Large - ()

11573/1025343 - 2017 - Cross-national and Transnational Lives of Refugees: "Bounded Mobilities" of Syrians and Eritreans in Europe
Tuzi, Irene - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
conference: The Migration Conference 2017 (Harokopio University, Athens)
book: The Migration Conference 2017 - Programme and Book of Abstracts - (978-1-910781-68-5)

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