Shining in Times of Crisis: How Refugee Women Display Leadership and Transform Hardship

Abstract There are currently approximately 122.6 million people displaced globally (UNHCR, 2024). This figure includes 43.7 million refugees (UNHCR, 2024). Nearly half of them are women. This qualitative study examined the following questions: How do women manifest leadership and agency in refugee situations? Subquestion: How do women contribute to peace, transformation, and healing through that leadership and agency? Five different individuals who had worked with women refugees for at least two years were recruited for the study. Two data collection instruments were employed: a preliminary survey and a structured interview. The study focused on the lived experiences of refugee women within the context of the above questions. It was discovered that refugee women manifest leadership and agency, and in doing so contribute to peace, transformation, and healing in myriad ways, under a wide variety of circumstances, and with varying levels of support and limitations. They manifested leadership and agency by pursuing education and employment, participating in focus groups, speaking out publicly against abuse, assuming formal or informal leadership roles, carving out positions for themselves and places at the table that previously did not exist, and volunteering to help new arrival refugee women. Their contributions were abundant, fulfilled needs, and were impactful in large and small ways. Refugee organizations must continue to support women, particularly in the areas of cultural assistance, community, and healing from trauma. Additionally, these organizations must create space for refugee women to ascend to the top rungs of the leadership structures in order to fully embody and fulfill their mission. Keywords: refugee, refugees, women, leadership, agency, transformation, peace, healin

Holy Grounds and Coffee Grounds: Tourism, Authenticity, and the Adaptive Reuse of Sufi Shrines in Tunisia

This study explores the transformation of Sufi shrines in Tunisia into café spaces that cater to tourists while maintaining traces of religious significance. Through historical research, site visits, and interviews, I examine how these hybrid spaces navigate the tension between sacredness and commercialization. Using theories of authenticity and religious tourism, I analyze how Islamic aesthetics are repurposed to attract visitors, often without their awareness of the shrine’s spiritual role. An additional case study of a shrine now functioning as a ceramics studio offers an alternative model of adaptive reuse rooted in cultural sustainability. Rather than viewing commercialization as simple erasure, this study considers how shrine-cafés complicate our understanding of heritage, authenticity, and the ways sacred spaces are preserved, reimagined, and lived in today

The Social Dimensions of Aquaculture: Food Sovereignty and Indigenous Rights in Ketchikan, Alaska

This research project asks how the growing commercial aquaculture industry in Ketchikan, Alaska, functions to alleviate or exacerbate local food insecurity; reinforce or undermine food sovereignty among Indigenous communities, and enhance or restrict community participation in the control of marine resources. Global initiatives have responded to food insecurity through agricultural inputs and technology to create higher yields; however, conventional agricultural production has contributed to and is increasingly vulnerable to climate change. To address higher demands for food, government agencies and development experts have looked towards Blue Growth and aquaculture as a solution for food insecurity and environmental concerns. While aquaculture is often promoted as a tool for combatting food insecurity and enhancing climate resilience, its expansion in Alaska has been largely state-driven, raising concerns about who benefits and who is excluded. This study employs a qualitative approach, integrating literature reviews and seven semi-structured interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members. Data suggests that food insecurity in Ketchikan stems not from local resource scarcity, but rather from high costs of imported food, limited local infrastructure, and regulatory barriers to harvesting. Participants voiced both excitement for the industry and concerns about rapid growth, fearing that commercialization could burden local subsistence harvesters and alter access to traditional foods and spaces. This study contributes to broader debates about the social dimensions of blue growth and argues that aquaculture can support food justice only if it incorporates community-based management and is culturally and ecologically relevant

Setting the scene: Young Tunisian Women, Hip-Hop Liberation Theologies, and the Issue of Identities

This paper explores how hip hop culture functions as a liberating theological and political force for young Tunisian women navigating questions of identity, faith, and belonging. Situated at the intersection of post-revolutionary Tunisia, gender politics, and global hip hop culture, this study argues that hip hop offers a critical space where young women resist traditional religious structures and patriarchal norms while forging new modes of spiritual and political expression. Drawing on original interviews, survey data, and theological frameworks such as liberation theology, Marxist critique, and process thought, the paper presents hip hop as both an aesthetic and ethical practice that allows for the reinterpretation of doctrine and the reclamation of selfhood. The analysis begins by tracing hip hop’s global trajectory from its origins in the Bronx to its localization in Tunisia, highlighting its consistent function as a tool of rebellion and community-building. It then develops a theological reading of hip hop, framing it as a grassroots form of liberation theology that contests doctrinal authority while offering alternative forms of spiritual authorship. Attention is given to how gender mediates these dynamics: female youth face a unique hermeneutical injustice, constrained by the gendered application of religion, economic precarity, and cultural invisibility. This paper seeks to understand Tunisia’s religious and linguistic landscape shaped by its moderate Islamic tradition, colonial past, and multilingual reality, all of which add further complexity. The paper evaluates the symbolic weight of Arabic, French, English, and Tunsi in hip hop expression, showing how language becomes both a site of resistance and a battleground for identity construction. Ultimately, the paper argues that hip hop enables young Tunisian women to deconstruct inherited doctrines and participate in a living, dynamic theology that speaks from their social margins but aspires toward broader justice and inclusion

The Familiar Stranger An Ethnographic Account of Khamlia Berhane, Lidya

This ISP is an autoethnographic exploration of Khamlia, a small rural village settled in southeastern Morocco at the edge of the Sahara Desert. Conducted over two weeks, this study engages with themes of indigeneity and identity, Gnawa music and culture, and the complex dynamics of tourism, particularly heritage tourism, and its effects on a town like Khamlia. Particular attention is given to how Gnawa music is performed and utilized as a tool of cultural heritage. The autoethnography also delves into gender roles, family dynamics, and the environmental consequences of tourism on both Khamlia and the surrounding Sahara. Additionally, it reflects on the transformative impact of migration as well as the profound impact of climate change on Khamlia’s physical environment and socioeconomic conditions since its founding in the 1950s

TEXTILE WORK AND ITS INTERFACE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE FOR QUECHUA COMMUNITIES IN PERU

English – Indigenous communities have argued that their knowledge, lived experiences, and representation are crucial to address the climate transition because their communities have adapted to past climatic changes. Although climate change and culture can be interconnected in ways that are unique to each community, little research is done on how cultural practices can be catalysts for climate action. In fact, communities around the world have sparked socio-political movements from within their cultural context to solve both local and global issues. Therefore, this research asks how the practice of traditional textile making and weaving assist Quechua communities with adapting to climate change. To answer this question, this research took a decolonial, theoretical, and methodological approach through Indigenous Research framework and Genther Theory. Qualitative data was gathered for one month and half from mid-May to early July 2025 in four Quechua communities of the Potato Park in Cusco, Peru. Auto-ethnographic reflections, four observation sessions, two participant observation sessions, and 12 semi-structured interviews were used. This research found that the practice of textile making and weaving can assist Quechua communities with adapting to climate change in three different ways: a) identification of how changes in the climate are affecting the animals and plants in the territory, b) documentation of climate changes in their textiles using colors and iconography, and c) identification and projection of present and future problems, as well as to how to address them, within the context of interacting systems such as climate change, agriculture, and economy. In terms of gender, hierarchies are present and pose a risk to negatively impacting the gender division of labor for weavers in the case of worsening climate conditions. A communication-based climate change framework was found through the practice of weaving and proposed for further development to aid climate adaptation of indigenous communities. By learning how weavers mobilize to address climate issues from their cultural, economic, and ecological context, this research is significant because it demonstrates how a textile work, which is a labor often relegated as inferior, domestic, and private, can be actively and publicly utilized to document experiences, understand the positionality of a community, and to adapt to new circumstances in a changing world. Español – Comunidades indígenas han argumentado que sus conocimientos, experiencias vividas y representación son fundamentales para abordar las transiciones del cambio climático, ya que sus comunidades se han adaptado a los cambios climáticos del pasado. Aunque el cambio climático y la cultura pueden estar interconectados de maneras únicas para cada comunidad, se han realizado pocas investigaciones sobre cómo las prácticas culturales pueden ser catalizadores de la acción climática. Por esta razón, esta investigación se preguntó cómo la práctica del tejido y la creación de textiles tradicionales ayuda a las comunidades quechuas a adaptarse al cambio climático. Para responder a esta pregunta, esta investigación adoptó un enfoque decolonial, teórico y metodológico a través del marco de Investigación Indígena y la Teoría de Género. Los datos se recopilaron durante un mes y medio, desde mediados de mayo hasta principios de julio de 2025, en cuatro comunidades quechuas del Parque de la Papa en Cusco, Perú. Se utilizaron reflexiones auto etnográficas, cuatro sesiones de observación, dos sesiones de observación participativa y 12 entrevistas semiestructuradas. Se encontró que la práctica del tejido y la creación de textiles ayuda a las comunidades quechuas a adaptarse al cambio climático de tres maneras diferentes: a) identificación de cómo los cambios en el clima están afectando a los animales y las plantas del territorio, b) documentación de los cambios climáticos en sus textiles mediante colores e iconografía, y c) identificación y proyección de los problemas actuales y 2 futuros, así como la forma de abordarlos, en el contexto de sistemas interrelacionados como el cambio climático, la agricultura y la economía. En términos de género y en caso de que las condiciones climáticas empeoren, existen jerarquías que suponen un riesgo para las tejedoras. Se encontró un marco de referencia de comunicación para atender el cambio climático y se proponen varias formar de cómo este marco de puede desarrollar para apoyar los esfuerzos de adaptación para comunidades indígenas. Al aprender cómo las tejedoras se movilizan para abordar los problemas climáticos desde su contexto cultural, económico y ecológico, esta investigación es significativa porque demuestra cómo un trabajo textil, que a menudo se considera inferior, doméstico y privado, puede utilizarse de forma activa y pública para documentar experiencias, comprender la posición de una comunidad y adaptarse a las nuevas circunstancias de un mundo cambiante. Keywords: Textile Making; Weaving; Backstrap loom, Climate Adaptation; Gender; Quechua; Potato Park; Parque de la Papa; Peru

Art and Craft: The Interconnectedness of Artisans and Fine Arts in Post-Colonial Morocco

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship and overlap between fine arts and traditional crafts in Morocco. The central questions of this study are: how do museums represent, or fail to represent, Moroccan art? What role have traditional crafts, in particular textiles, played in the creation of a modern Moroccan artistic identity, and where do craftspeople see themselves in the canon of Moroccan art? How has colonialism shaped craft, art, and the relationship between them? How do tradition and modernity interact and coexist in art spaces? The study was conducted in Marrakech, Tangiers, and Fes. It consists of a thorough literature review, with special focus on the work of Hamid Irbough; an analysis of art museums visited by the author; a description of several sites that serve as case studies in the creation and sale of Moroccan crafts; and interviews with both fine artists and textile artisans about the research questions. The study concludes that traditional crafts and contemporary arts in Morocco interact and sustain one another, and often overlap in their definitions. It demonstrates the importance of recognizing innovation in traditional crafts, and traditional influences in fine arts. It restates the effects of colonialism and industrialization on Morocco’s artisans, and recognizes the adaptation and evolution their crafts have undergone to survive

Effective Strategies for Addressing the Root Causes of Conflict and Instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo

As part of a bottom-up qualitative study, I sought to understand how non-elite Congolese people make sense of and cope with recurrent violence and displacement in the eastern DRC. Conducting semi-structured open-ended interviews with 12 adults (P1–P12), I collected 106 coded segments and applied Braun & Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis on Taguette. I identified six superordinate themes: (1) State Fragility & Governance Failures (28 segments), (2) Neo-Colonial Economic Exploitation (21 segments), (3) Pathways to Sustainable Peace (20 segments), (4) Foreign-Backed Armed Groups (18 segments), (5) Ethnic Divisions & Historical Grievances (12 segments), (6) International Responses & Their Effectiveness (7 segments). Participants described how kinship ties and mutual-aid cooperatives buffer everyday insecurities, how customary law compensates for the failures of state courts, and how elders, women’s groups, and youth councils mobilize collective action through ritual exchanges, joint ceremonies, and shared agricultural projects. By focusing on local knowledge and the psychosocial aspects of peacemaking, my study challenges top-down interventions and shows the need to better coordinate national and international policies with grassroots practices. In conclusion, I offer policy recommendations to recognize and resource local peace councils, integrate customary justice into official transitional justice mechanisms, support community-led economic cooperatives, and reform peacekeeping mandates to emphasize cultural humility and local ownership. My study adds a people-centered perspective to the peacebuilding literature and provides practical insights for policymakers, practitioners, and donors working in the DRC

Rooted in Resilience: Exploring Indigenous Economic Models and Sustainability on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation.

This study examines how traditional practices and cultural values of the Chippewa Cree shape the economic identity and sustainability of the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation. Using a mixed-methods approach that combined demographic surveys with culturally grounded interviews, the research reveals that economic development in the community is inseparable from traditional knowledge systems, collective well-being, and ecological stewardship. Rather than centering on financial accumulations, wealth is defined by family, community, and cultural continuity, placing traditional knowledge on par with land and monetary resources. Three central themes emerged from the data: (1) the enduring role of traditional values and cultural knowledge in guiding economic aspirations; (2) generational divides in knowledge transmission and perceptions of development; and (3) the evolving role of gender in shaping community participation. Importantly, participants did not view the traditional values as barriers to development, but as essential assets that should inform economic strategy. Yet, a gap remains in articulating how cultural assets such as traditional knowledge, art, and ceremony can be integrated into sustainable economic models without reducing them to commodified goods. These findings highlight a pressing need for further research into the limitations and ethical implications of cultural commodification, and how Indigenous communities can design economic systems that preserve cultural integrity while engaging broader markets. The study offers a model for how Indigenous economic systems rooted in rational and ecological values provide critical insights into sustainable and equitable development in a post-colonial world. Keywords: Indigenous economics, Chippewa Cree, cultural sustainability, traditional knowledge, economic development, decolonial theory, cultural commodification, Rocky Boy Reservation, intergenerational knowledge, relational wealt

Navigating Early Intervention: The Experiences and Impact of a Parent Coaching Model on Immigrant and Refugee Families in Rural Massachusetts

Early Intervention (EI) programs play a critical role in supporting the developmental needs of children from birth to age three. This study explores the experiences of immigrant and refugee families engaging with EI services in rural Massachusetts, focusing particularly on the implementation and effectiveness of parent coaching models. Utilizing a mixed methods design that incorporates both narrative and phenomenological approaches, the research examines how families from culturally diverse backgrounds perceive and engage with EI services. This study discusses what barriers or facilitators they encounter throughout their journeys with Early Intervention. Preliminary findings suggest challenges related to language, cultural differences in child rearing, and training in culturally competent and trauma informed care. This study highlights the need for more inclusive and responsive EI practices to better support vulnerable populations in rural settings. Keywords: Early Intervention, parent coaching, immigrant families, refugee families, cultural competence, rural home-based service