BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:The Anthropology Department welcomes China Sajadian to give her lecture titled\, “Debts of Displacement: The Paradoxes of Patronage in a Syrian Refugee Farmworker Camp.”The tiny state of Lebanon hosts the highes t number of refugees per capita in the world. Yet\, contrary to the domina nt image of refugees living in unfamiliar territory\, many Syrians in Leba non have integrational ties to Lebanon as seasonal labor migrants that lon g predate their refugee status. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwo rk at the Lebanese-Syrian border\, this talk examines the forms of debt th at Syrian farmworker families incurred as they became immobilized in Leban on throughout the uprising-turned-war in Syria (2011-present). Specificall y\, it traces the conflicting moral\, economic and emotional attachments t hat bound Syrians to shawish\, patron-like figures who lend cash\, broker jobs and run camps for refugees.For many perceived farmworkers facing the challenges of long-term displacement\, these camps provided a vital source of livelihood\, offering not only affordable housing and services\, but a lso a sense of moral community and baseline security. Paradoxically exploi tative and life-sustaining\, these patronage relations existed on a tense continuum between coercion and interdependency. The talk follows how farmw orkers negotiated these tensions in everyday life\, leading some to work o ff their debts and return to Syria\, while keeping others bound to Lebanon .China Sajadian is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropolog y at Vassar College. Bridging migration studies\, critical agrarian studie s\, economic anthropology and feminist political economy\, her research ex amines links between histories of displacement and contemporary conflicts over land and labor in the Middle East. DTEND:20250409T163000Z DTSTAMP:20260410T194052Z DTSTART:20250409T150000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Debts of Displacement: The Paradoxes of Patronage in a Syrian Refug ee Farmworker Camp UID:RFCALITEM639114324524167003 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Anthropology Department welcomes China Sajadian to give her lecture titled\, “Debts of Displacement: The Paradoxe s of Patronage in a Syrian Refugee Farmworker Camp.”

The tiny state of Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. Y et\, contrary to the dominant image of refugees living in unfamiliar terri tory\, many Syrians in Lebanon have integrational ties to Lebanon as seaso nal labor migrants that long predate their refugee status.

Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork at the Lebanese-Syrian border\, this talk examines the forms of debt that Syrian farmworker families incurred a s they became immobilized in Lebanon throughout the uprising-turned-war in Syria (2011-present). Specifically\, it traces the conflicting moral\, ec onomic and emotional attachments that bound Syrians to shawish\, patron-like figures who lend cash\, broker jobs and run camps for refugees .

For many perceived farmworkers facing the challenges of long-term displacement\, these camps provided a vital source of livelihood\, offerin g not only affordable housing and services\, but also a sense of moral com munity and baseline security. Paradoxically exploitative and life-sustaini ng\, these patronage relations existed on a tense continuum between coerci on and interdependency. The talk follows how farmworkers negotiated these tensions in everyday life\, leading some to work off their debts and retur n to Syria\, while keeping others bound to Lebanon.

China Sajadian i s an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Vassar Colle ge. Bridging migration studies\, critical agrarian studies\, economic anth ropology and feminist political economy\, her research examines links betw een histories of displacement and contemporary conflicts over land and lab or in the Middle East.

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