The joy of being together in difference

Abstract

This talk draws on a Leverhulme funded research project, where I looked at women’s experiences of travelling under conditions of forced displacement. The research was conducted in Lesvos and Athens, Greece during 2018-19, but this talk focuses on my experience of listening to displaced women’s stories in Lesvos. How we communicate in difference is the question I explore through Iris Marion Young’s notion of ‘asymmetrical reciprocity’ and her take of ‘communicative ethics’, on a plane that suggests a more inclusive model of communication, one that embraces, rather than erases differences. What I argue is that it is the power of relational narratives that connects us in the web of human relations. In doing so I look back at a story-telling event in the Kara-Tepe refugee camp, remembering the way we talked and listened to each other, laughed and recognised our differences as a resource rather than a barrier. I thus consider this event as an opportunity for mutual understanding and transformative learning, a strand in feminist pedagogies beyond borders.