My Experience at AAA’s Annual Conference- Transitions

Recently, I was fortunate to present my work involving the educational experiences of Congolese refugees with distinguished faculty at the American Anthropology Association's (AAA) annual meeting- Transitions. During the summer of 2023, I spent most of my time volunteering and coordinating activities at my non profit, Tusome Pamoja. As I spent my time volunteering and overseeing the nonprofit, I noticed an opportunity to interview the refugee children at my non-profit about the educational experiences they face in a new country and the difficulties they encounter in the learning process. I interviewed a total of 15 refugees and transcribed their responses into a document where I analyzed certain trends and commonalities in the responses. While analyzing these responses, I noticed that many of these children encountered cultural stigma and language barriers which impeded their educational success.

I decided to enhance the quality of my work by conducting an ethnographic analysis on the refugee populations in my local community and using design-thinking methodology to create tools that could aid refugee children in their pursuit of educational success. To saturate my findings, or in other words empirically verify my observations about refugee children, I reached out to ReEstablish Richmond to take part in their Annual Cultural Festival, where I advertised Tusome Pamoja to a wide range of audiences and collected surveys from over 35 refugees attending the festival. When I analyzed the data collected from both refugees at Tusome and the festival, they both exhibited similar trends which related to cultural and linguistic barriers.

Synthesizing these findings, I compiled my observations into a presentable slideshow that I presented at AAA's annual Transitions meeting, where I discussed the relevance of my project in the context of global transnational migration movements, the results of my study, and the role of anthropology in advancing awareness and solutions to combating the inadequacies face in refugee education. Overall, the meeting was a great opportunity to network with professors in anthropology and like-minded students who share the same passion for anthropology as I do. From projects that discussed the oppression of indigenous peoples to the effect of American citizens' nutritional decisions on the American political landscape, I gained insight into anthropology's extensive reach and applications in different fields.

Overall, this conference was so worth it, and I can't wait to attend again!