OU students gathered Monday to recreate the refugee experience.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Monday the U.S. shouldn’t accept any more Syrian refugees, and has asked President Barack Obama to stop settling them in Ohio.
For some Ohio University students and professors, that isn't acceptable.
“I think it’s ridiculous that we punish exactly those who are fleeing from terrorism. They’re the victims,” Deborah Meyer, an assistant professor in global health, said.
Students walking through Baker University Center may have seen three women with signs sitting near the escalators on the top floor, posing as refugees. The display was part of an exhibit for International Education Week. The exhibit, called “Untold Stories of those Who Cross Our Borders,” was held in the Baker Ballroom.
The event was meant to be an interactive experience to show people what they might go through as refugees. Visitors were given specific scenarios based on stories of refugees living in Ohio to guide them through the exhibit.
Paige Klunk, a second-year graduate student studying international development studies, said the event, which was mainly put together by graduate students, took almost two months to plan.
Saba Zewdu, a second-year graduate student studying international development studies who played a large part in organizing the event, said the event especially aimed to help domestic students understand the migrant crisis.
“All we see on TV, usually, are sound bites,” Meyer said.
The ballroom contained different stations for immigrants, refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and survivors of human trafficking, as well as a station for obtaining a visa.
Organizers fashioned a “barricade” in the middle of the room, meant to reflect the barricades refugees sometimes face at a country’s borders.
“We think that the personal stories have a greater impact on the people that come,” Klunk said.
The exhibit included an video interview with a refugee who now lives in Columbus.
In keeping with the storytelling theme, they hosted a talk called “Storytelling Matters: Giving Voice to the Marginalized.” The main speakers were Gary Harwood and David Haswell, authors of Growing Season – The Life of a Migrant Community.
The book explores a community of migrants — predominantly Mexican — working on a family farm in Hartville, Ohio.
“We were working on giving a human face and a human voice to a population that is so often left faceless and voiceless,” Haswell said.
Harwood started the multi-year project, photographing workers and their families on the farm.
“The first year, the farm owner hated me,” Harwood said.
Harwood said after a while, the farmer came to trust him and let him move about the farm unsupervised.
Hassler joined Harwood about two years into the project as a writer. He narrated the stories of the various people in Harwood’s photographs.
“In the end, you find that they’re not much different from you — that’s the revelation,” Harwood said.
Lynn Harter, an associate professor of communication studies, also spoke on storytelling and health activism.
OU students have stood with refugees previously and will again as the OU Student Union is planning a rally at 5 p.m. Tuesday to protest the Ohio governor and support refugees.
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