The Arriving project was born out of a passionate, interdisciplinary conversation between researchers with expertise in migration studies, storytelling, visual and new media, intergenerational studies and community arts engagement. How could we reclaim the conversation around migration? How could we enhance the dialogue, understanding and empathy across generations and enrich communities?
‘Arriving at a new place’ is a core aspect of migration. However, stories of arrival are not limited to the migration experience and we all have stories of arrival (e.g. school, workplace, new home) to tell, reflecting commonalities of human perceptions, reflections and emotions. In Arriving, younger and older people who define themselves as migrants, non-migrants or global citizens discover the secrets behind a special object that the other one holds. The objects unlock stories of arriving and create bonds between people of different ages, biographies and migration backgrounds.
The first stage of this project is a collaboration between Anglia Ruskin University Academics: Dr Claudia Schneider, Dr Jeanette Baxter, Dr Mirna Guha, Marques J. Hardin, Julia Johnson, Dr Shreepali Patel and Dr Claire Preston with the kind support of the EAL department and students of Chesterton Community College and members of the local community in Cambridge. The stories and photographs were all captured in a day with the support of Film and Television Production students and ARU graduates: Gabi Kaziukonyte, Andrea Bortolaso, Jack Rutherford, Lawrence Pesquera and Josh Long.
All photographs: copyright Julia Johnson www.lensculture.com/julia-johnson
A special thank you to Marques Hardin who compiled the E-book.
Please do not use the audio and visual data for further research and publications without the permission of the project lead, Claudia Schneider (claudia.schneider@anglia.ac.uk).