Folklore professor traveled around the world in 90 days for research project

George Mason University professor Lisa Gilman lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from the time she was born until she was 9 years old. 

“I had a fantastic time there. I loved playing with my friends, eating the food, and listening to the music, but there was also war and conflict going on at the same time. I asked myself, how can those environments coexist?” she said. 

It was this question that encouraged Gilman to pursue her research of migrants and displaced people who have been affected by war and trauma with her project, “My Culture, My Survival: Arts Initiatives by Refugees for Refugees.”  

Gilman, who has been working on this project for three years, was funded by a State Department Council of American Overseas Research Centers Multi-Country Research Fellowship to do 90 days of research in the 2024-2025 academic year.   

“I'm really interested in using art as a way to talk about and explore politics, economics, and gender issues, specifically how people on the ground use art to actively interact with and respond to what's going on around them,” said Gilman, an English professor and director of the Folklore Program in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

For Gilman, this can include professionally trained artists or people sitting around and singing out of tune together. “Even people cooking food from their culture and passing those skills down to their children is a creative cultural dimension of life,” she said.  

The refugee camp in Malawi, one setting Gilman is researching, includes people from the DRC who fled conflict, which Gilman said “brought me back full circle to all of those childhood experiences.”  

“My grandfather was basically a refugee and [the more] I'm working on this research, I realize how profound that is for me,” said Gilman.   

Gilman is also conducting research with Uyghurs in France, Syrians in Türkiye, several groups in the United States, and Rohingya in Bangladesh    

A product of this research is The Dzaleka Art Project, a community-based collaboration. Gilman coordinated with artists in the camp and George Mason students to produce a website and book manuscript project by and about artists living as refugees in the Dzaleka camp in Malawi. This summer, Gilman was able to travel across the globe completing the research she needs to write the book.   

Designed to share the positive stories of the people in the camp, the website includes artists’ bios, images of their art work, and information about life in the camp and the status of refugees in Malawi. 

The website was produced by Gilman’s student research assistant, junior information technology major Solomon Tejan Kanu. “I learned a great deal about the backgrounds and hardships of the migrants,” said Tejan Kanu, who as a child, immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone as a refugee.  

“I heard so many tragic stories during my interviews, but also learned a lot about their artistic talents,” he said.    

Tejan Kanu worked closely with other undergraduate and graduate students, including senior government and international politics student Brendan West, on the project.  

“We conducted a lot of background research with Professor Gilman, finding communities such as Syrian migrants and Uyghurs in Europe,” said West, who joined Gilman as a research assistant in February of 2022.

“She mentored me in an incredible way that positively influenced the direction of my professional career. Before this project, I didn't really understand the experience of migrants and permanently displaced people,” said West. “I'm definitely more interested in working in government on refugee policy in the future because of the impact this project had on my worldview.” 

Gilman is currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where she is completing the book “My Culture, My Survival,” scholarly articles, and public-facing work that highlights the creativity, agency, and entrepreneurship of forcibly displaced artists from each of the five countries.  

“This project is all about people; what they're doing with art and how they're talking about what art does for them and for others,” said Gilman. “We want to help tell their stories.”