Open lecture by professor Phil Brown
We are excited to announce that on November 9 we will be hosting a lecture by Phil Brown, a Professor of Housing and Communities at the University of Huddersfield, UK. The lecture “Homeward Bound: refugees, housing pathways and hope for the future” will take place in Aula Leopoldina, pl. Uniwersytecki 1, at 12.00.
Professor Phil Brown is interested in the housing system as a whole and its impact on communities, especially those living on the fringes of society. Poverty and wider factors such as employment, education and health inequalities amplify the significance housing plays in mitigating or exacerbating the challenges associated with housing, and chances of experiencing homelessness.
Professor Brown’s work highlights how challenges associated with difficult housing conditions are not experienced equally by all members of society. His focus is on those multiply disadvantaged, in particular on refugees.
He will talk about his recent research that sought to understand the housing pathways and experiences of refugees who had settled in the UK over a 30-year period from the conflicts in Bosnia to Ukraine. The research project involved an extensive scoping review of the literature and in-depth research with over 80 refugees and 60 policy actors and practitioners. Outputs from this research are available here.
Drawing on this evidence, Professor Brown will elaborate on the lives refugees have in the UK with respect to their housing situations. He will describe different routes refugees have available to them to enter the UK and how these relate to their housing circumstances and wider impacts their housing has in their lives. He will conclude with a discussion about the way those working with refugees can best support people in the future.
We are looking forward to Phil’s talk!
Professor Phil Brown is a Professor of Housing and Communities at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Phil has worked in the field of refugee housing since 1999, first as a practitioner within a local authority, and then as an academic. His research interests focus on the intersection of health and inclusion with housing and communities. He has worked across the European Union and with a range of organisations across the UK. He has published over 100 outputs which include: peer review papers, edited collections and articles. He also champions the use of creative methods to disseminate and engage new audiences with research through film, comics and theatre. He is a former Chair of the UK Housing Studies Society and a former Specialist Advisor to the Parliamentary Women & Equalities Committee. He has also supported the UK All Party Parliamentary Groups on Migration and Gypsy, Travellers and Roma in relation to monitoring the impacts of Brexit. His full academic profile is available here
