Creating Futures through Magical Devices and Library Caravans: Participatory Design with Syrian Youth at Za’atari Refugee Camp
Karen E. Fisher, professor,
Information School, UW
October 10, 2016
3–4:30 p.m.
(Q&A session at 4 p.m.)
Collins Memorial Library,
Room 020
This presentation will showcase how technology and libraries can
help refugee youth and families reimagine their lives in the Middle
East and world at large.
In 2016 the world is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII: over 65M people are forcibly displaced, and half of them are youth. Fisher will report on recent fieldwork from Za’atari Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan, highlighting youth creativity, desire to help others via ICT wayfaring and crisis response, and universal design archetypes. She will share sample design specs for glasses that detect disease and other magical devices, storytelling sessions, a YouTube community memory project, and interviews with refugee volunteers at caravan libraries.
Karen E. Fisher, Professor, information school, University of Washington. An advocate of humanitarian research, her passion is how libraries and information technology can create futures. Fisher is working with Arab refugees in the Middle East and Europe, understanding their information behavior, and building capacity through education, livelihoods, and social engagement.
Websites: Syria.ischool.uw.edu, ischool.uw.edu/people/faculty/fisher.