Fiona Murphy | Dublin City University (original) (raw)

Books by Fiona Murphy

This report focuses on the everyday life experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern I... more This report focuses on the everyday life experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland. It was commissioned by the Racial Equality Unit at The Executive Office in order to inform the development of a refugee integration strategy for Northern Ireland.

Papers by Fiona Murphy

NAPA notes , 2023

I hope each of you in our NAPA community are savoring the final days of summer! With the change o... more I hope each of you in our NAPA community are savoring the final days of summer! With the change of seasons comes new opportunities and new challenges, and at NAPA, we believe we are stronger together as we bring our work as applied anthropologists to diverse fields and real-world issues. As you'll see in this issue of NAPA Notes, we have a lot going on in NAPA! As we continue to celebrate NAPA's 40 th birthday, stay tuned for exciting events coming up this Fall. NAPA will sponsor applied sessions and workshops, organize the Careers Expo, and celebrate our anniversary at the AAA meetings in Toronto. Ahead of the meetings, we will also celebrate with a virtual panel on applied and practicing anthropology careers, featuring perspectives across the careerspan.

Social Sciences , 2023

Abstract This paper examines the role that framing and visual communications played in the mobili... more Abstract
This paper examines the role that framing and visual communications played in the mobilising of contentious politics, with particular reference to the Repeal the 8th referendum in Ireland in 2018. We analyse how framing an unpopular argument through both text and visual imagery galvanized the abortion debate on the Yes side (in particular) and created alliances and solidarity through public displays of sentiment towards the issue. Using frame analysis, we examine the visual imagery and messaging employed by both sides of the ‘Repeal the 8th’ debate and conclude that the careful framing of unpopular arguments or positions can open up the space for dialogue and personal stories that were previously shrouded in shame and mystery. This new willingness to discuss the topic of abortion ultimately led to an outpouring of compassion and empathy that had previously not existed due to the religious and misogynistic influence on women’s reproductive health in Ireland up to that point. The ultimate ‘Yes’ vote resulted in one of the biggest social and health reforms for Irish women in the 21st century, one that, five years later however, we still wait to see the full implementation of.
Keywords: Repeal the 8th; abortion; frame analysis; social movement; reproductive politics

Society for the Anthropology of Work, 2020

Civilisations, 2015

Revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines 64 | 2015 Enquêter en terrains diffi... more Revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines 64 | 2015 Enquêter en terrains difficiles "In dreams begin responsibilities"

The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2018

This article examines the telling of ghost stories of Indigenous Australians who were removed fro... more This article examines the telling of ghost stories of Indigenous Australians who were removed from their families during Australia's assimilation era. Known as the Stolen Generations, this group of people, were subjected to institutionalisation, adoption, and forced removals from their families, communities and Aboriginal country. In many of my ethnographic encounters with Stolen Generations, I was steadily drawn into their world of ghosts and hauntings. This article reflects on the challenge for the ethnographer in thinking with and through such encounters with the uncanny. It asks how we should approach the ghost as a real entity as well as a metaphorical, interpretative lens through which to understand the transgenerational trauma and suffering inflicted by settler colonial violences.

Otherwise Mag

The 1918 Spanish flu altered the course of my grandfather’s life dramatically. My grandfather’s f... more The 1918 Spanish flu altered the course of my grandfather’s life dramatically. My grandfather’s father and his baby sister died from the flu just before Christmas 1918, leaving his mother, my great-grandmother, alone to bring up a large family on a rural farm in the Southwest of Ireland. Loss wrought by that pandemic would beget many more losses and absences in his life. Even 100 years later, in the midst of a different pandemic, the constellations of loss brought about by the 1918 Spanish flu, still linger, shaping my familial memory. My attempt to retrace and re-inherit some of my grandfather’s past through paper and file is an effort to gather up the splinters, to scaffold the lineaments of half-lit memory and story.

Ethnos, 2015

Of course, revivalist, charismatic and evangelical forms of Christianity have a long history, and... more Of course, revivalist, charismatic and evangelical forms of Christianity have a long history, and many Pentecostal practices, from glossolalia to energetic testimonies, are old, enduring and remarkably portable. 1 That said, contemporary Pentecostalism is also marked by late-modern features, and there is important anthropological work situating Pentecostalism amid the dislocations of the current historical moment (see Comaroff 2012a). 2 This article is based on several years (2008-2013) of ethnographic research among African refugees and asylum seekers in the Republic of Ireland. Estimates suggest that there are over 40,000 Africa-born persons in the Republic, mainly persons born in Nigeria, DR Congo and other west or sub-Saharan countries. National statistics tend to underestimate the numbers of Pentecostals and provide little help in estimating the numbers of African Pentecostals. Several reports conclude that there are approximately 30,000 African 'immigrants' (variously defined) in 'Black Majority churches' (see Irish Council of Churches (ICC) 2003; McGarry 2004; Ugba 2009). The presence of this population is relatively new and coincides with periods of extraordinary economic and social insecurity in Irish history (see Ó Riain 2014). Over the course of five years of ethnographic research, we worked with many dozens of research participants. Our work was carried out among (predominantly) African Pentecostal congregations in churches such as Christ Co-Workers in Mission and Gospel Faith Mission that were established in Ireland by African migrants without international support. We also carried out research in Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry and the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), which were established deliberately as chapters of broader international movements. We also attended to the lesser presence of 'indigenous' or so-called 'white garment' churches, such as Cherubim and Seraphim and the Celestial Church of Christ, which are often viewed with suspicion by larger congregations. Our initial focus was on Pentecostalism and integration, therefore we studied religious discourses and practices across these churches while acknowledging their sincere theological differences and variations in their religious practices. As is typical in anthropology projects, we interviewed many research participants formally, and some remained as informal contacts while others became interlocutors and friends. Participants included those baptised into Pentecostalism in Africa together with those who converted during or after the migration et h nos, 2015 (pp.

European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2013

The Irish taxi industry was deregulated in 2000 during an era of neoliberal reform and record eco... more The Irish taxi industry was deregulated in 2000 during an era of neoliberal reform and record economic growth. Driving a taxi became a popular occupation for new immigrants, and the industry came to be associated with racial tensions. Today, the taxi industry is undergoing a process of re-regulation that includes a variety of security and identification measures. This article explores contested trends in governance, contemporary interventions that make use of new technologies and processes of subjectification such as racialization. We draw on several years of ethnographic research on the integration of African migrants in Ireland, which includes an exploration of labour integration, and extend this work here. We retrace the political rationalities behind deregulation and re-regulation and show the specific ways in which security interventions manifest themselves. We also look to the ways in which racialization processes operate within the industry and are nested in the modes of gove...

ACM SIGGRAPH 99 Electronic art and animation catalog on - SIGGRAPH '99, 1999

No cultural project from, by or about Palestine escapes questions of its nationhood and self-dete... more No cultural project from, by or about Palestine escapes questions of its nationhood and self-determination. The formulation of a Palestinian cinema is no exception. Whilst the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Oscar nomination, for Paradise Now (Hany ...

Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine

Objectives: In recent years, Northern Ireland has seen an increase in the numbers of asylum seeke... more Objectives: In recent years, Northern Ireland has seen an increase in the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees. Given its status as a post-conflict region, this is a relatively new phenomenon for the area. Northern Ireland is also the only part of the United Kingdom (UK) without a refugee integration strategy. In 2016, we conducted an extensive study for the racial equality unit of the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister in Stormont on the everyday life experience of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland with view to understanding how service delivery and notions of integration/inclusion impact. Methods: This was a mixed methods study using quantitative survey methods and in-depth semi-structured interviews with service providers, asylum seekers, refugees and new UK citizens. We examined a range of service provision such as education, labour, legal provision, housing and health. Results: This article examines the issue of mental health with respect to asylum se...

The UNHCR (2006) has expressed concern about "the securitization of migration," especially the fo... more The UNHCR (2006) has expressed concern about "the securitization of migration," especially the fortification of borders, long periods of detention in camps, and the "off-shore" processing of refugees. Anthropologists are attending to how nation-states control migrants and, indeed, categorize them as refugees and asylum seekers. Research has also explored detention centres as assemblages of humanitarian care and state security, often drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben to disclose the operations of power and an "anthropology of suffering." But asylum seekers have too often been represented as voiceless victims, capable only of accommodating power or occasionally resisting it. Alternative research frames are possible, and alternative visions are available within and beyond "the camp" as the political space of modernity. Ireland offers interesting insights in this regard.

The Everyday Lives of African Migrants, 2012

This report focuses on the everyday life experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern I... more This report focuses on the everyday life experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland. It was commissioned by the Racial Equality Unit at The Executive Office in order to inform the development of a refugee integration strategy for Northern Ireland.

NAPA notes , 2023

I hope each of you in our NAPA community are savoring the final days of summer! With the change o... more I hope each of you in our NAPA community are savoring the final days of summer! With the change of seasons comes new opportunities and new challenges, and at NAPA, we believe we are stronger together as we bring our work as applied anthropologists to diverse fields and real-world issues. As you'll see in this issue of NAPA Notes, we have a lot going on in NAPA! As we continue to celebrate NAPA's 40 th birthday, stay tuned for exciting events coming up this Fall. NAPA will sponsor applied sessions and workshops, organize the Careers Expo, and celebrate our anniversary at the AAA meetings in Toronto. Ahead of the meetings, we will also celebrate with a virtual panel on applied and practicing anthropology careers, featuring perspectives across the careerspan.

Social Sciences , 2023

Abstract This paper examines the role that framing and visual communications played in the mobili... more Abstract
This paper examines the role that framing and visual communications played in the mobilising of contentious politics, with particular reference to the Repeal the 8th referendum in Ireland in 2018. We analyse how framing an unpopular argument through both text and visual imagery galvanized the abortion debate on the Yes side (in particular) and created alliances and solidarity through public displays of sentiment towards the issue. Using frame analysis, we examine the visual imagery and messaging employed by both sides of the ‘Repeal the 8th’ debate and conclude that the careful framing of unpopular arguments or positions can open up the space for dialogue and personal stories that were previously shrouded in shame and mystery. This new willingness to discuss the topic of abortion ultimately led to an outpouring of compassion and empathy that had previously not existed due to the religious and misogynistic influence on women’s reproductive health in Ireland up to that point. The ultimate ‘Yes’ vote resulted in one of the biggest social and health reforms for Irish women in the 21st century, one that, five years later however, we still wait to see the full implementation of.
Keywords: Repeal the 8th; abortion; frame analysis; social movement; reproductive politics

Society for the Anthropology of Work, 2020

Civilisations, 2015

Revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines 64 | 2015 Enquêter en terrains diffi... more Revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines 64 | 2015 Enquêter en terrains difficiles "In dreams begin responsibilities"

The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2018

This article examines the telling of ghost stories of Indigenous Australians who were removed fro... more This article examines the telling of ghost stories of Indigenous Australians who were removed from their families during Australia's assimilation era. Known as the Stolen Generations, this group of people, were subjected to institutionalisation, adoption, and forced removals from their families, communities and Aboriginal country. In many of my ethnographic encounters with Stolen Generations, I was steadily drawn into their world of ghosts and hauntings. This article reflects on the challenge for the ethnographer in thinking with and through such encounters with the uncanny. It asks how we should approach the ghost as a real entity as well as a metaphorical, interpretative lens through which to understand the transgenerational trauma and suffering inflicted by settler colonial violences.

Otherwise Mag

The 1918 Spanish flu altered the course of my grandfather’s life dramatically. My grandfather’s f... more The 1918 Spanish flu altered the course of my grandfather’s life dramatically. My grandfather’s father and his baby sister died from the flu just before Christmas 1918, leaving his mother, my great-grandmother, alone to bring up a large family on a rural farm in the Southwest of Ireland. Loss wrought by that pandemic would beget many more losses and absences in his life. Even 100 years later, in the midst of a different pandemic, the constellations of loss brought about by the 1918 Spanish flu, still linger, shaping my familial memory. My attempt to retrace and re-inherit some of my grandfather’s past through paper and file is an effort to gather up the splinters, to scaffold the lineaments of half-lit memory and story.

Ethnos, 2015

Of course, revivalist, charismatic and evangelical forms of Christianity have a long history, and... more Of course, revivalist, charismatic and evangelical forms of Christianity have a long history, and many Pentecostal practices, from glossolalia to energetic testimonies, are old, enduring and remarkably portable. 1 That said, contemporary Pentecostalism is also marked by late-modern features, and there is important anthropological work situating Pentecostalism amid the dislocations of the current historical moment (see Comaroff 2012a). 2 This article is based on several years (2008-2013) of ethnographic research among African refugees and asylum seekers in the Republic of Ireland. Estimates suggest that there are over 40,000 Africa-born persons in the Republic, mainly persons born in Nigeria, DR Congo and other west or sub-Saharan countries. National statistics tend to underestimate the numbers of Pentecostals and provide little help in estimating the numbers of African Pentecostals. Several reports conclude that there are approximately 30,000 African 'immigrants' (variously defined) in 'Black Majority churches' (see Irish Council of Churches (ICC) 2003; McGarry 2004; Ugba 2009). The presence of this population is relatively new and coincides with periods of extraordinary economic and social insecurity in Irish history (see Ó Riain 2014). Over the course of five years of ethnographic research, we worked with many dozens of research participants. Our work was carried out among (predominantly) African Pentecostal congregations in churches such as Christ Co-Workers in Mission and Gospel Faith Mission that were established in Ireland by African migrants without international support. We also carried out research in Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry and the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), which were established deliberately as chapters of broader international movements. We also attended to the lesser presence of 'indigenous' or so-called 'white garment' churches, such as Cherubim and Seraphim and the Celestial Church of Christ, which are often viewed with suspicion by larger congregations. Our initial focus was on Pentecostalism and integration, therefore we studied religious discourses and practices across these churches while acknowledging their sincere theological differences and variations in their religious practices. As is typical in anthropology projects, we interviewed many research participants formally, and some remained as informal contacts while others became interlocutors and friends. Participants included those baptised into Pentecostalism in Africa together with those who converted during or after the migration et h nos, 2015 (pp.

European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2013

The Irish taxi industry was deregulated in 2000 during an era of neoliberal reform and record eco... more The Irish taxi industry was deregulated in 2000 during an era of neoliberal reform and record economic growth. Driving a taxi became a popular occupation for new immigrants, and the industry came to be associated with racial tensions. Today, the taxi industry is undergoing a process of re-regulation that includes a variety of security and identification measures. This article explores contested trends in governance, contemporary interventions that make use of new technologies and processes of subjectification such as racialization. We draw on several years of ethnographic research on the integration of African migrants in Ireland, which includes an exploration of labour integration, and extend this work here. We retrace the political rationalities behind deregulation and re-regulation and show the specific ways in which security interventions manifest themselves. We also look to the ways in which racialization processes operate within the industry and are nested in the modes of gove...

ACM SIGGRAPH 99 Electronic art and animation catalog on - SIGGRAPH '99, 1999

No cultural project from, by or about Palestine escapes questions of its nationhood and self-dete... more No cultural project from, by or about Palestine escapes questions of its nationhood and self-determination. The formulation of a Palestinian cinema is no exception. Whilst the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Oscar nomination, for Paradise Now (Hany ...

Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine

Objectives: In recent years, Northern Ireland has seen an increase in the numbers of asylum seeke... more Objectives: In recent years, Northern Ireland has seen an increase in the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees. Given its status as a post-conflict region, this is a relatively new phenomenon for the area. Northern Ireland is also the only part of the United Kingdom (UK) without a refugee integration strategy. In 2016, we conducted an extensive study for the racial equality unit of the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister in Stormont on the everyday life experience of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland with view to understanding how service delivery and notions of integration/inclusion impact. Methods: This was a mixed methods study using quantitative survey methods and in-depth semi-structured interviews with service providers, asylum seekers, refugees and new UK citizens. We examined a range of service provision such as education, labour, legal provision, housing and health. Results: This article examines the issue of mental health with respect to asylum se...

The UNHCR (2006) has expressed concern about "the securitization of migration," especially the fo... more The UNHCR (2006) has expressed concern about "the securitization of migration," especially the fortification of borders, long periods of detention in camps, and the "off-shore" processing of refugees. Anthropologists are attending to how nation-states control migrants and, indeed, categorize them as refugees and asylum seekers. Research has also explored detention centres as assemblages of humanitarian care and state security, often drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben to disclose the operations of power and an "anthropology of suffering." But asylum seekers have too often been represented as voiceless victims, capable only of accommodating power or occasionally resisting it. Alternative research frames are possible, and alternative visions are available within and beyond "the camp" as the political space of modernity. Ireland offers interesting insights in this regard.

The Everyday Lives of African Migrants, 2012

Journal of Business Anthropology

In this article, I discuss whether austerity measures have an impact on individual consumers’ ori... more In this article, I discuss whether austerity measures have an impact on individual consumers’ orientations towards sustainability. Through an ethnographic examination of second-hand markets, in particular flea markets and second-hand baby goods markets, I examine whether economic crisis has changed people’s consumption habits in Irish society. While the study of sustainability has a long, interdisciplinary history, little is known about the relationship between austerity and sustainable consumption patterns, particularly in an Irish context. Thus, this study questions whether reduced spending and consumption patterns may serve the interests of sustainability politics.

Anthropology news, 2021

Anthropology News is the member magazine for the American Anthropological Association (AAA), and ... more Anthropology News is the member magazine for the American Anthropological Association (AAA), and features a combination of anthropology stories and essays on topical themes and association news. Anthropology News is published continually online at www.anthropology-news.org and bimonthly in print. Anthropology News welcomes suggestions and proposals for feature essays, visual essays, and media. Check the submission guidelines at www.anthropology-news.org and then send your pitch to AN@americananthro.org. Please contact the Anthropology News editor with a pitch before submitting a full article. Letters to the editor should be 500 words or less and publish only on www. anthropology-news.org. Anthropology News reserves the right to edit, reschedule, or reject any submission. The views and opinions expressed in Anthropology News articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the AAA.

Commoning Ethnography, 2021

What dreams may come is a piece of ethnofiction that tells the story of a young girl and her gran... more What dreams may come is a piece of ethnofiction that tells the story of a young girl and her grandmother, displaced by the climate crisis and conflict. The story centres on the strong, abiding relationship between the girl and her grandmother. Their relationship is the anchor point for their survival in the new unhappy world that they find themselves in. As an anthropologist of displacement, this short story is an attempt to tell the story of climate crisis, displacement and conflict through a fictional lens, a place where fable and reality coincide and collide.

The Social Sciences, 2021

This article considers the impact of COVID-19 on international protection applicants in the Irish... more This article considers the impact of COVID-19 on international protection applicants in the Irish asylum system. It presents a critical reflection on the failings of direct provision and how the experience of COVID-19 has further heightened the issues at stake for asylum seekers and refugees living in Ireland. In Ireland, international protection applicants are detained in a system of institutionalized living called direct provision where they must remain until they receive status. Direct provision centres offer substandard accommodation and are often overcrowded. During the pandemic, many asylum seekers could not effectively socially isolate, so many centres experienced COVID-19 outbreaks. This article examines these experiences and joins a community of scholars calling for the urgent end to the system of direct provision.

American Anthropologist, 2015

LSE Review of Books Thurs Jan 29th