Annual Sanctuary Lecture – 27th March 2024
The University of St Andrews is a University of Sanctuary, committed to making Higher Education accessible for those seeking sanctuary and to helping to foster a culture of welcome throughout the UK. Our Annual Sanctuary Lecture is an opportunity to hear from experts (by-experience and by-training) about themes and issues connected to sanctuary. After opening remarks from the Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, this year’s Sanctuary Lecture will be given by Dina Nayeri, and will unfold as a conversation with Dr Roxani Krystalli.
The discussion will shed light on how a sense of place shapes people’s journeys—geographic, professional, and emotional—and how the experience of seeking refuge has influenced Dina’s understanding of the meanings of sanctuary. The conversation will also be an opportunity to reflect on the politics of storytelling about violence, migration, and dignity.
The details of this year’s Sanctuary lecture are below:
Date: Wednesday 27th March
Lecture venue: UCO: School II
Lecture time: 5:15-6:15 pm
Reception venue: Seminar room 1- Younger hall
Reception time: 6:15-7:15 pm
Dina Nayeri is the author of two critically acclaimed nonfiction books Who Gets Believed (2023) and The Ungrateful Refugee (2019), and two previous novels. Who Gets Believed is currently a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. Her work is published in more than twenty countries and in The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Granta, Best American Short Stories, O Henry Prize Stories, and many other publications. She was the winner of Germany’s Geschwister Scholl Prize, a fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, winner of a National Endowment for the Arts literature grant and the UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize, among many other honours. Her essays and stories on displacement and home are taught in schools across Europe and the US. She is a Reader at the University of St Andrews.
Dr Roxani Krystalli’s interdisciplinary research and teaching focus on feminist peace and conflict studies, as well as on the politics of nature and place. Roxani is currently the co-Principal Investigator of a large-scale international research project on the politics of role of love and care in the wake of loss. This work is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the German Research Foundation. Roxani’s first book, Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question (Oxford University Press, 2024), is based on in-depth engagement in Colombia over the course of a decade. Alongside her academic work, Roxani has worked as a professional in the field of peacebuilding, advising international organisations on how to document and respond to gendered experiences of violence. For her research, teaching, and public service, she has been recognised with several prizes, including the British International Studies Association award for Early Career Excellence in Teaching International Studies and the Peter Ackerman prize for best PhD dissertation. Now a Lecturer at the University of St Andrews, Roxani holds a PhD and MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a BA from Harvard University.
Visit our Sanctuary page to learn more about our work around Sanctuary initiatives.