Materialising Exile

Sandra Dudley has worked with and on Karenni refugees since 1996, completing her doctorate in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford in 2001. She is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, having previously taught at Oxford and UEA and worked at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

“Dudley’s deep ethnography of clothing and religious ceremonies adds a variety of evidence to her overall, convincing argument.”  ·  Journal of Southeast Asian Studies“Sandra Dudley has written a well-crafted narrative about the experience of displacement in a little-understood part of the world…The points Dudley raises…are important and convincing.”  ·  SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia“In her remarkable book, Sandra Dudley challenges dominant ideas about forced displacement, aesthetics and the lived experience of refugees from Burma…[Her] book is one that offers rare insight into the daily lives of Karenni refugees and also productively bridges the fields of forced  displacement studies and cultural studies…The empirical and theoretical strengths of [this book]are matched by methodological insights that will be of value to scholars and practitioners in and beyond the field of forced displacement studies.”  ·  South East Asia Research“Dudley is an anthropologist and, as such, her documentation is detailed and provides much insight into the camp refugee mindset, specifically that of the Karenni located in camps in Thailand…The material is rich with information that, when examined, could help deepen empathy for refugees in camp situations, for resettled refugees, and the agencies and individuals who service and respond to them. It is a ‘must read’.”  ·  Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies“Sandra Dudley brings unique and valuable insights into the field of forced migration both through her study of the Karenni refugees in Thailand, an overlooked group of refugees who have fled dire circumstances of counter/insurgency and destruction, and a material culture disciplinary lens. This is an eloquently composed text with high scholarly merits.”  ·  Hazel Lang, Australian National University

• FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsChapter 1. Materialising Exile and Karenni Refugees: An IntroductionThe Sensoriality and Materiality of ExileContinuity with Past Times and PlacesBeing at Home, Being in PlaceThe KarenniMaterialising Exile: Refugee Studies, Material Culture Studies and BeyondChapter 2. In-Between: Being a Karenni RefugeeBurmese Refugees in ThailandThe Karenni CampsBeing a Refugee: Self-PerceptionsMaterial Forms, Bodies and SenseExperience in Being a RefugeeCoping With Life in the Camps: Habit and Consuming Time LiminalityChapter 3. Inside/Outside: Refugee JourneysJourneys to and from the CampsCross-Border Movement and KnowledgeForms of Knowledge and Emotional ResponseMemory and Feeling in Journey NarrativesJourneying as Normal Landscape, Senses, Bodies and ThingsChapter 4. Remembering, Forgetting and Imagining the Pre-exile PastDress and Connections with the PastDïy-küw and Thoughts of HomeMoving Beyond RuptureChapter 5. Coping and (Re)constructing ‘Home’ in DisplacementWider Contexts and Influences … and T-shirtsObjects, Landscapes, Bodies: Metaphors and Foils for ExperienceMaking Things, Making Place, Making SelfBecoming ‘At Home’ in ExileChapter 6. Materialising Home and ExileConceptions of HomeContinuity and ChangeExilic Objects and BodiesFeeling Right With and In the WorldBibliographyIndex