The Present with no Future: The Rohingya in the Place of Migration

Tittle (Tentative)

The Present with no Future:

The Rohingya in the Place of Migration

Edited by

Nasir Uddin, Department of Anthropology, University of Chittagong

Concept Note

The book is about the Rohingya in the place of migration, but the place of origin is not apart from it since the past produces the present. The book thus takes on their critical past in Rakhine, struggling present in Bangladesh, and an uncertain future in nowhere as nobody knows yet, but it primarily concerns the dynamics of lives and livings of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. 

Much has been reported on and written about what happened to the Rohingya people, known as the world’s most persecuted minority by the United Nations, in Rakhine state following the massive campaign under clearance operation on the 25^th of August, 2017 perpetrated by Myanmar military forces and vigilantes. Upon arrival in Bangladesh, traumatised people shared their horrible experience of killing, raping, torturing, and burning which unfolded the intensity of brutality of what happened to the Rohingya people in Rakhine state. However, following the deadly operation in 2017 what triggered 750 thousand Rohingyas to leave their homeland, how they have been surviving in 34 temporary refugee camps in Bangladesh under what conditions and with what sort of necessity and scarcity have largely been left out in the academic literature mushroomed during the post-influx period. The book thus addresses such unaddressed aspects of Rohingya lives in the camps amid everyday struggle for food, sanitations, healthcare, housing, education, water-supply, cooking materials, childcare, maternity-support, networking, and daily essentials. It also houses issues ranging from the dynamics of camp managements, growing concerns of supposed ecological decline, the current state of state policy of dealing with Rohingya issue, the extent of repatriation process, to the future of Rohingya problems. Besides, the book covers the transforming public discourse about Rohingya presence in Bangladesh, changing relationship between the host community and the refugees, escalating tension in connection with inter-group & intra-group conflicts in the camps, declining law & order situations in and around the camp, growing cases of sexual abuse & child-women trafficking, mounting aid-crises due to decreasing international supports, the critical roles of NGOs in relations to repatriations, and the increasing mistrust between the Rohingya and the state in Bangladesh.

The book aims to accommodate very recent, fresh and good quality research on the Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh conducted by acclaimed academics, professional researchers, and committed activists from across the world.           

Deadlines:

1. Submission (an abstract: 300 words and bio-note: 150 words): by July 15, 2020.

2. Final paper is due by October 15, 2020 (3 months)

3. First round of editorial review by December 30, 2020 (2.5 months)

4. Submission to the publisher: February 28, 2021 (2 months)

Short Biography of the Editor

Nasir Uddin is a cultural anthropologist based in Bangladesh, and Professor of Anthropology at Chittagong University. Uddin studied and carried out research at the University of Oxford (UK), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at London University (UK), the London School of Economics (LSE) at London University (UK), Heidelberg University (Germany), VU University Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany), Delhi School of Economics at Delhi University (India), the University of Hull (UK), Kyoto University (Japan), and the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh). He has achieved a good number of prestigious awards and fellowships including the MEXT Scholarship, the British Academy Visiting Scholarship, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship, a Visiting Scholarship at LSE and a Visiting Fellowship at Oxford University. He has published scholarly pieces extensively with globally leading publishing houses including the Cambridge University Press, the Oxford University Press, the University of Pennsylvania Press, Routledge, SAGE, Springer, Palgrave McMillan, Berghahn, Bloomsbury, Orient BlackSwan and so on. His latest edited books include “Life in Peace and Conflict: Indigeneity and the State in the Chittagong Hill Tracts” (Orient BlackSwan, 2017), “Indigeneity on the Move: Varying Manifestation of a Contested Concept” (Berghahn, 2017 [co-edited with Eva Gerharz and Pradeep Chakkarath]) and “Deterritorialised Identity and Transborder Movement in South Asia” (Springer, 2019 [co-edited with Nasreen Chowdhory]). His forthcoming book is “The Rohingya: An Ethnography of ‘Subhuman’ Life” (The Oxford University Press, 2020)

Publisher (any one of the followings):

Springer, Palgrave McMillan, SAGE, Routledge  

Expected Publishing Time: October, 2021.

Send the abstract to: nasir.anthro@cu.ac.bd