Charlie Rumsby | University of Sussex (original) (raw)
Peer Reviewed Articles by Charlie Rumsby
Cultural Anthropology, 2022
I love hearing and telling people’s stories. That is what has drawn me to research. I believe tha... more I love hearing and telling people’s stories. That is what has drawn me to research. I believe that for anthropology (or any discipline for that matter) to be effective in engaging diverse audiences in the research it produces, it needs both the data and the story to communicate in a way that moves people. For me this has meant seeing my ethnographic research beyond the "finished, refined products of fieldwork: book or ethnographic article" (Collins et al. 2017, 142), without forgoing the written text. Collaborating with digital illustrator Ben Thomas, I have embarked on a process I call "retrospective (re)presentation": using the visual to offer alternative modes of (re)presentation to the written ethnographic text (Rumsby 2020). Ben and I are illustrating ethnographic research which I have conducted into the modes of identity and belonging among children of Vietnamese descent who live in Cambodia as noncitizens. We are creating this "ethno-graphic" novel to illuminate the social realities underlying childhood statelessness and, importantly, to give the research back to participants in an accessible format. The focus of this article is to unveil the why and possibilities of using illustration.
An agenda for creative practice in the new mobilities paradigm, 2022
Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this articl... more Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this article as a collective of 25 scholars and practitioners to make a provocation: to further position creative mobilities research as a fundamental contribution and component in this field. The article explores how creative forms of research-whether in the form of artworks, exhibitions, performances, collaborations, and morehas been a foundational part of shaping the new mobilities paradigm, and continues to influence its methodological, epistemological, and ontological concerns. We tour through the interwoven history of art and mobilities research, outlining five central contributions that creativity brings. Through short vignettes of each author's creative practice, we discuss how creativity has been key to the evolution and emergence of how mobilities research has expanded to global audiences of scholars, practitioners, and communities. The article concludes by highlighting the potency of the arts for lively and transdisciplinary pathways for future mobilities research in the uncertainties that lay ahead.
Children's Experience and Practice of Belonging: The Realities of Integration among De Facto Stateless Vietnamese Children in Cambodia, 2022
In Southeast Asia, the prioritization of economics and security over rights (Nishikawa 2009: 226)... more In Southeast Asia, the prioritization of economics and security over rights (Nishikawa 2009: 226) by states manifests in the plight of stateless children, meaning "children without a state" (J. Bhabha 2011: 1). As a strand of research that explores how "contexts of reception" shape migrant experiences, most of the literature on the legal exclusion of migrants has focused on the experiences of adult immigrants in the United States (Akinwumi 2006; Kleifgen and Le 2007; Menjivar 2006; Rumbaut 1994, 2005), but some of it has begun to explore the legal displacements of children raised in "mixed-status" families (Dreby 2015) and the "collateral consequences" for the American children of deported parents (Golash-Boza 2019). I focus on statelessness as a salient context of reception defining the integration of children of Vietnamese descent in Cambodia. A focus on de facto statelessness diverges from the literature on children of migration in Southeast Asia,
Waters of Death and Life: The Evolution of an ʻEthno-Graphicʼ, 2022
Collaborating with illustrator Ben Thomas, we have embarked on a journey of taking the ethnograph... more Collaborating with illustrator Ben Thomas, we have embarked on a journey of taking the ethnographic written text and converting it into an ethno-graphic novel. This piece presents the evolution of working with single images, organising single images into a sequence amplified with interview transcripts, to the creation of comic panels. Each sequence explores the qualities illustration can bring to ethnography: empathetic empathy, ethnographic anonymity, alternative modes of storytelling, and representing the intangible elements of participant s everyday lives. Whilst this project is in-process, the potential of graphic anthropology, as an interdisciplinary activity, to aid the communication and analysis of ethnographic research beyond disciplinary boundaries offers new pathways for academic and empathetic exchange.
European Journal of Development Research, 2020
Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who ... more Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who are seen to have little 'navigational capacity'. Children are often regarded simply as those caught up in the complicated lives of their parents or guardians. Very rarely are the voices of stateless children heard, still less are their aspirations documented. This paper foregrounds children's experiences and argues that despite appearing to be 'stuck' in a position of liminality, de facto stateless children have much to teach us about the differing roads to aspiration. An analysis of the everyday lived realities of Cambodia's stateless children reveals how religious identity, specifically through Christian conversion, becomes central to how their aspirations are socially produced, and how these aspirations come to assist them in navigating ethnic and institutional exclusion. Résumé À ce jour, la recherche sur l'apatridie s'est essentiellement concentrée sur les analyses juridiques et sur la situation difficile des adultes qui sont considérés comme ayant une faible « capacité à aspirer ». Les enfants sont souvent simplement consi-dérés comme ceux qui sont pris dans la vie compliquée de leurs parents ou tuteurs. Les voix des enfants apatrides sont très rarement entendues, et leurs aspirations sont encore moins documentées. Cet article met en avant les expériences des enfants et soutient que, même s'ils semblent être « coincés » dans une position de liminarité, les enfants apatrides ont de facto beaucoup à nous apprendre sur les différents chemins * Charlie Rumsby Charlie.rumsby@coventry.ac.uk
entanglements, 3(2):7-27, 2020
The aim of this essay is to unpack the process of ‘retrospective (re)presentation’. I want to enc... more The aim of this essay is to unpack the process of ‘retrospective (re)presentation’. I want to encourage researchers who, like myself, have little experience but a desire to work with visual modes of representation, to experiment with non-academic collaborations. Experimentation is made easier with an example of ‘how to’. To this end I invite you into my incomplete journey of co-creating an ethno-graphic novel. In particular, if you have not set out initially to contribute to graphic anthropology, or are not using drawings as observant tools for recording scenes in fieldwork, I hope to demonstrate how this endeavour can be undertaken retrospectively, drawing attention to the details of collaboration between author and illustrator.
Book Reviews by Charlie Rumsby
Working Papers by Charlie Rumsby
This paper gives a fresh perspective on the international response to statelessness, characterise... more This paper gives a fresh perspective on the international response to statelessness, characterised by attempts to provide the stateless with legal protection and an ability to have access to the same rights as citizens. Without citizenship, and membership of a (nation) state, the stateless are thought to lack meaningful political voice, but this paper argues that ‘acts of citizenship’ are not always dependent on citizenship as membership. The case study of Preah Thnov village in Cambodia demonstrates how a Christian school became a site where children with undetermined nationality were able to enact themselves as citizens.
Book Chapters by Charlie Rumsby
7th July London Bombings: A Decade of Reflection., Jul 7, 2015
Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short e... more Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short essays reflecting on both the harrowing events and the decade that followed.
Worldwide Report on Stateless Children
Papers by Charlie Rumsby
positions: asia critique
Vietnamese populations currently residing in Cambodia can be broadly divided into two categories:... more Vietnamese populations currently residing in Cambodia can be broadly divided into two categories: long-term settlers who have lived in Cambodia for generations and more recent economic migrants. This article focuses on the former group, as it is their children and their children's children who are at high risk of statelessness, unlike the latter who are mostly citizens of Vietnam. Without birth certificates, these children live precarious lives in Cambodia, often in the shadows of ethnic discrimination, poverty, and violence. By using various qualitative research methods, and by emphasizing children's perspectives, the author puts forth the argument that theorizations of integration and assimilation developed in the migration literature are useful for understanding the context in which de facto stateless children in Cambodia negotiate “place belonging.”
Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short e... more Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short essays reflecting on both the harrowing events and the decade that followed.
Gender, Place & Culture, 2021
Based on over 300 interviews conducted over 15 years, Home SOS: Gender, Violence, and Survival in... more Based on over 300 interviews conducted over 15 years, Home SOS: Gender, Violence, and Survival in Crisis Ordinary Cambodia weaves together the accounts of women who have experienced domestic violen...
The Sociological Review Online, 2021
The European Journal of Development Research, 2020
Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who ... more Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who are seen to have little ‘navigational capacity’. Children are often regarded simply as those caught up in the complicated lives of their parents or guardians. Very rarely are the voices of stateless children heard, still less are their aspirations documented. This paper foregrounds children’s experiences and argues that despite appearing to be ‘stuck’ in a position of liminality, de facto stateless children have much to teach us about the differing roads to aspiration. An analysis of the everyday lived realities of Cambodia’s stateless children reveals how religious identity, specifically through Christian conversion, becomes central to how their aspirations are socially produced, and how these aspirations come to assist them in navigating ethnic and institutional exclusion. À ce jour, la recherche sur l’apatridie s’est essentiellement concentrée sur les analyses juridiques et sur la situation difficile des adultes qui sont considérés comme ayant une faible « capacité à aspirer » . Les enfants sont souvent simplement considérés comme ceux qui sont pris dans la vie compliquée de leurs parents ou tuteurs. Les voix des enfants apatrides sont très rarement entendues, et leurs aspirations sont encore moins documentées. Cet article met en avant les expériences des enfants et soutient que, même s’ils semblent être « coincés » dans une position de liminarité, les enfants apatrides ont de facto beaucoup à nous apprendre sur les différents chemins menant à l’aspiration. Une analyse des réalités quotidiennes des enfants apatrides du Cambodge révèle comment l’identité religieuse, en particulier à travers la conversion chrétienne, devient centrale dans la façon dont leurs aspirations sont produites socialement, et comment ces aspirations finissent par les aider à garder le cap dans un contexte d’exclusion ethnique et institutionnelle.
Cultural Anthropology, 2022
I love hearing and telling people’s stories. That is what has drawn me to research. I believe tha... more I love hearing and telling people’s stories. That is what has drawn me to research. I believe that for anthropology (or any discipline for that matter) to be effective in engaging diverse audiences in the research it produces, it needs both the data and the story to communicate in a way that moves people. For me this has meant seeing my ethnographic research beyond the "finished, refined products of fieldwork: book or ethnographic article" (Collins et al. 2017, 142), without forgoing the written text. Collaborating with digital illustrator Ben Thomas, I have embarked on a process I call "retrospective (re)presentation": using the visual to offer alternative modes of (re)presentation to the written ethnographic text (Rumsby 2020). Ben and I are illustrating ethnographic research which I have conducted into the modes of identity and belonging among children of Vietnamese descent who live in Cambodia as noncitizens. We are creating this "ethno-graphic" novel to illuminate the social realities underlying childhood statelessness and, importantly, to give the research back to participants in an accessible format. The focus of this article is to unveil the why and possibilities of using illustration.
An agenda for creative practice in the new mobilities paradigm, 2022
Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this articl... more Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this article as a collective of 25 scholars and practitioners to make a provocation: to further position creative mobilities research as a fundamental contribution and component in this field. The article explores how creative forms of research-whether in the form of artworks, exhibitions, performances, collaborations, and morehas been a foundational part of shaping the new mobilities paradigm, and continues to influence its methodological, epistemological, and ontological concerns. We tour through the interwoven history of art and mobilities research, outlining five central contributions that creativity brings. Through short vignettes of each author's creative practice, we discuss how creativity has been key to the evolution and emergence of how mobilities research has expanded to global audiences of scholars, practitioners, and communities. The article concludes by highlighting the potency of the arts for lively and transdisciplinary pathways for future mobilities research in the uncertainties that lay ahead.
Children's Experience and Practice of Belonging: The Realities of Integration among De Facto Stateless Vietnamese Children in Cambodia, 2022
In Southeast Asia, the prioritization of economics and security over rights (Nishikawa 2009: 226)... more In Southeast Asia, the prioritization of economics and security over rights (Nishikawa 2009: 226) by states manifests in the plight of stateless children, meaning "children without a state" (J. Bhabha 2011: 1). As a strand of research that explores how "contexts of reception" shape migrant experiences, most of the literature on the legal exclusion of migrants has focused on the experiences of adult immigrants in the United States (Akinwumi 2006; Kleifgen and Le 2007; Menjivar 2006; Rumbaut 1994, 2005), but some of it has begun to explore the legal displacements of children raised in "mixed-status" families (Dreby 2015) and the "collateral consequences" for the American children of deported parents (Golash-Boza 2019). I focus on statelessness as a salient context of reception defining the integration of children of Vietnamese descent in Cambodia. A focus on de facto statelessness diverges from the literature on children of migration in Southeast Asia,
Waters of Death and Life: The Evolution of an ʻEthno-Graphicʼ, 2022
Collaborating with illustrator Ben Thomas, we have embarked on a journey of taking the ethnograph... more Collaborating with illustrator Ben Thomas, we have embarked on a journey of taking the ethnographic written text and converting it into an ethno-graphic novel. This piece presents the evolution of working with single images, organising single images into a sequence amplified with interview transcripts, to the creation of comic panels. Each sequence explores the qualities illustration can bring to ethnography: empathetic empathy, ethnographic anonymity, alternative modes of storytelling, and representing the intangible elements of participant s everyday lives. Whilst this project is in-process, the potential of graphic anthropology, as an interdisciplinary activity, to aid the communication and analysis of ethnographic research beyond disciplinary boundaries offers new pathways for academic and empathetic exchange.
European Journal of Development Research, 2020
Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who ... more Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who are seen to have little 'navigational capacity'. Children are often regarded simply as those caught up in the complicated lives of their parents or guardians. Very rarely are the voices of stateless children heard, still less are their aspirations documented. This paper foregrounds children's experiences and argues that despite appearing to be 'stuck' in a position of liminality, de facto stateless children have much to teach us about the differing roads to aspiration. An analysis of the everyday lived realities of Cambodia's stateless children reveals how religious identity, specifically through Christian conversion, becomes central to how their aspirations are socially produced, and how these aspirations come to assist them in navigating ethnic and institutional exclusion. Résumé À ce jour, la recherche sur l'apatridie s'est essentiellement concentrée sur les analyses juridiques et sur la situation difficile des adultes qui sont considérés comme ayant une faible « capacité à aspirer ». Les enfants sont souvent simplement consi-dérés comme ceux qui sont pris dans la vie compliquée de leurs parents ou tuteurs. Les voix des enfants apatrides sont très rarement entendues, et leurs aspirations sont encore moins documentées. Cet article met en avant les expériences des enfants et soutient que, même s'ils semblent être « coincés » dans une position de liminarité, les enfants apatrides ont de facto beaucoup à nous apprendre sur les différents chemins * Charlie Rumsby Charlie.rumsby@coventry.ac.uk
entanglements, 3(2):7-27, 2020
The aim of this essay is to unpack the process of ‘retrospective (re)presentation’. I want to enc... more The aim of this essay is to unpack the process of ‘retrospective (re)presentation’. I want to encourage researchers who, like myself, have little experience but a desire to work with visual modes of representation, to experiment with non-academic collaborations. Experimentation is made easier with an example of ‘how to’. To this end I invite you into my incomplete journey of co-creating an ethno-graphic novel. In particular, if you have not set out initially to contribute to graphic anthropology, or are not using drawings as observant tools for recording scenes in fieldwork, I hope to demonstrate how this endeavour can be undertaken retrospectively, drawing attention to the details of collaboration between author and illustrator.
This paper gives a fresh perspective on the international response to statelessness, characterise... more This paper gives a fresh perspective on the international response to statelessness, characterised by attempts to provide the stateless with legal protection and an ability to have access to the same rights as citizens. Without citizenship, and membership of a (nation) state, the stateless are thought to lack meaningful political voice, but this paper argues that ‘acts of citizenship’ are not always dependent on citizenship as membership. The case study of Preah Thnov village in Cambodia demonstrates how a Christian school became a site where children with undetermined nationality were able to enact themselves as citizens.
7th July London Bombings: A Decade of Reflection., Jul 7, 2015
Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short e... more Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short essays reflecting on both the harrowing events and the decade that followed.
Worldwide Report on Stateless Children
positions: asia critique
Vietnamese populations currently residing in Cambodia can be broadly divided into two categories:... more Vietnamese populations currently residing in Cambodia can be broadly divided into two categories: long-term settlers who have lived in Cambodia for generations and more recent economic migrants. This article focuses on the former group, as it is their children and their children's children who are at high risk of statelessness, unlike the latter who are mostly citizens of Vietnam. Without birth certificates, these children live precarious lives in Cambodia, often in the shadows of ethnic discrimination, poverty, and violence. By using various qualitative research methods, and by emphasizing children's perspectives, the author puts forth the argument that theorizations of integration and assimilation developed in the migration literature are useful for understanding the context in which de facto stateless children in Cambodia negotiate “place belonging.”
Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short e... more Marking 10 years since the 7/7 bombings, this publication brings together a collection of short essays reflecting on both the harrowing events and the decade that followed.
Gender, Place & Culture, 2021
Based on over 300 interviews conducted over 15 years, Home SOS: Gender, Violence, and Survival in... more Based on over 300 interviews conducted over 15 years, Home SOS: Gender, Violence, and Survival in Crisis Ordinary Cambodia weaves together the accounts of women who have experienced domestic violen...
The Sociological Review Online, 2021
The European Journal of Development Research, 2020
Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who ... more Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who are seen to have little ‘navigational capacity’. Children are often regarded simply as those caught up in the complicated lives of their parents or guardians. Very rarely are the voices of stateless children heard, still less are their aspirations documented. This paper foregrounds children’s experiences and argues that despite appearing to be ‘stuck’ in a position of liminality, de facto stateless children have much to teach us about the differing roads to aspiration. An analysis of the everyday lived realities of Cambodia’s stateless children reveals how religious identity, specifically through Christian conversion, becomes central to how their aspirations are socially produced, and how these aspirations come to assist them in navigating ethnic and institutional exclusion. À ce jour, la recherche sur l’apatridie s’est essentiellement concentrée sur les analyses juridiques et sur la situation difficile des adultes qui sont considérés comme ayant une faible « capacité à aspirer » . Les enfants sont souvent simplement considérés comme ceux qui sont pris dans la vie compliquée de leurs parents ou tuteurs. Les voix des enfants apatrides sont très rarement entendues, et leurs aspirations sont encore moins documentées. Cet article met en avant les expériences des enfants et soutient que, même s’ils semblent être « coincés » dans une position de liminarité, les enfants apatrides ont de facto beaucoup à nous apprendre sur les différents chemins menant à l’aspiration. Une analyse des réalités quotidiennes des enfants apatrides du Cambodge révèle comment l’identité religieuse, en particulier à travers la conversion chrétienne, devient centrale dans la façon dont leurs aspirations sont produites socialement, et comment ces aspirations finissent par les aider à garder le cap dans un contexte d’exclusion ethnique et institutionnelle.