Making Migration Methodologies Series: Introduction to Arts-based Methods and Photovoice Tutorial
The Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and the Oxford Department for International Development have partnered to present a unique hybrid workshop series for the Trinity term: Making Migration Methodologies - A Hands-On Exploration of Mobility through Creative Tools.
Migration is about more than movement—it’s about memory, loss, resilience, and belonging. This workshop series equips researchers, students, and advocates with creative, participatory tools to study and represent migration in more ethical and transformative ways. Across six sessions, participants will learn hands-on methods including photovoice, participatory video, body mapping, poetry, music, digital ethnography, and social cartography. Each workshop combines practical tutorials with critical discussion on how these methods can challenge dominant narratives, surface hidden geographies, and amplify migrant voices. Led by an international lineup of leading scholars, artists, and practitioners, the series explores real-world case studies—from bodymapping fisherfolk displaced by seawalls in the Philippines to Kurdish women documenting musical traditions in Germany. Whether you are a migration scholar, an artist, an activist, or a student, this series will give you new tools to make your research more visual, collaborative, and impactful.
Organizers: The workshop series was organized by Dr. Yvonne Su, Abril Ríos-Rivera, Carolina Rota and Tegan Hadisi.
Dates: Every Tuesday May 6th to June 17th (with the exception of June 3rd)
Time: 3:30pm BST / 10:30am EST
Location: ODID Seminar Room 1, 3 Mansfield Road, University of Oxford
Hybrid: Hosted by the Centre for Refugee Studies, please register: https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/dsT5Yr64QuSSM-4hMbOaVA
Registration: Registration is required for online participation and preferred for in-person.
May 6th, 2025 - Introduction to Arts-based Methods and Photovoice Tutorial
Speakers: Dr. Yvonne Su, Abril Ríos-Rivera, and Tyler Valiquette
Moderator: Tegan Hadisi
May 13th, 2025 - Filmmaking, Participatory Video and Videovoice
Speakers: Dr. Amanda Alencar, Dr. Zhixi Zhuang and Dr. Yvonne Su
Moderator: Tyler Valiquette
May 20th, 2025 - Music and Poetry as Arts-Based Methods for Migration Research
Speakers: Dr. Helidah Ogude-Chambert, Dr. Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey, Rose Campion
Moderator: Abril Ríos-Rivera and Dr. Yvonne Su
May 27th, 2025 - Embodying Migration: How to do Body Mapping
Speakers: Dr. Maaret Jokela-Pansini and Dr. Yvonne Su
Moderator: Tegan Hadisi
June 10th, 2025 - Migrant Lives Online: Practicing Digital Research Methods
Speakers: TBD
Moderator: TBD
June 17th, 2025 - Drawing the City: Social Cartographies of Lives on the Move
Speakers: Dr. Valentina Montoya Robledo, Dr. Melissa Moralli, Carolina Rota
Moderator: Vasiliki Poula
Introduction to Arts-based Methods and Photovoice Tutorial
Date: Tuesday, May 6th, 2025
Time: 3:30pm BST / 10:30am EST
Location: ODID Seminar Room 1, 3 Mansfield Road, University of Oxford
Hybrid: Zoom link hosted by the Centre for Refugee Studies: https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/dsT5Yr64QuSSM-4hMbOaVA
Registration: Registration is required for online participation and preferred for in-person.
This interactive seminar introduces arts-based methods with a focus on photovoice—a participatory technique where photography becomes a tool for storytelling, research, and advocacy. Participants will learn how arts-based approaches can surface hidden experiences of migration, displacement, and belonging, while also challenging dominant narratives. Through real-world examples and a hands-on tutorial, we will walk you through how to design, run, and analyze a photovoice project ethically and creatively. Whether you are new to arts-based research or looking to deepen your participatory practice, this session offers critical insights and practical tools to bring migrant voices and lived realities to the center of your work.
Abril Ríos-Rivera, DPhil candidate in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford and Consultant on Forced Displacement in East Africa, World Bank
Abril is a DPhil candidate in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford, researching migrant agency, gender, and sexuality within forced migration contexts in Latin America. Her doctoral work integrates participatory arts-based approaches within a mixed-methods framework. She is also a consultant on forced displacement and refugee wellbeing in Kenya and has a background in psychology, specializing in social and cultural psychology, gender studies, and sexuality. Her experience includes working with civil society and intergovernmental organizations on migration, asylum, wellbeing, and entrepreneurship in Mexico and East Africa
Yvonne Su, Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies
Dr. Yvonne Su is the Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Equity Studies at York University. Yvonne is an expert on participatory, arts-based and digital methods - ranging from photovoice, videovoice to bodymaping and participant-aided sociograms. Her research is on forced migration, climate change-induced displacement and queer migration. She has worked with vulnerable communities in Southeast Asia and Latin America, including refugees, indigenous peoples and LGBTQ+ communities. She has over 30 publications and an extensive portfolio of external research funding, including grants for co-creating photovoice, videovoice, and podcast projects in the Global South.
Tyler Valiquette, PhD Candidate in Human Geography at UCL
Tyler Valiquette is a Ph.D. candidate in Human Geography at the University College London. His research examines queer migration from Venezuela to Brazil and Colombia, with a focus on state-led, humanitarian, and community responses to displacement. Tyler specializes in participatory research methodologies, including participatory sociograms, photovoice, and videovoice and has co-designed workshops in São Paulo, exploring the experiences of queer migrants through their lens. He previously studied queer social movements and countermovements in Latin America, lecturing at the University of Brasília and collaborating with Casa Miga, one of Latin America's few LGBTQI+ shelters for Venezuelan migrants.
Moderator: Tegan Hadisi, MPhil candidate, Oxford Department of International Development
