The project aims to compare and contrast Finland, the UK and Bangladesh over a four-year period to establish why some human beings are treated differently than others in practice and on paper by examining different categories of protection seekers received by those currently residing in these countries.
Led by Dr Azmeary Ferdoush from 91²Ö¿â’s Department of Geography and Environment, the project is funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award, and will begin in September this year.
The project will see researchers collaborating across the globe to establish why and how some human lives are regarded as expendable while others are treated with exemplary care.
Dr Azmeary Ferdoush, who will form and lead a team of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in delivering this project, explained the importance behind the research.
He said: “We, unfortunately, live in a time where the value of human lives is ranked so arbitrarily that often legitimises mass killing of some at one extreme while concurrently, enables exemplary treatments of a select few on the other.
“While existing scholarship offers an answer, it fails to differentiate between the expendable and the exemplary lives; instead, it dilutes both within the same framework of the exception. Geographies of Example aims to intervene in this juncture to answer why and how the modern state-system is able to create and justify expendable and exemplary lives through its use of space, time, and categories. And, of course, who does it serve?
“I am extremely honored and privileged to have received the Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award. This will give me the time and team to conduct the research which would not have been possible by myself alone.”
This study builds on previous research from Dr Ferdoush, where he compared the numerous protection seekers and their experiences in Finland and Bangladesh specifically through the lenses of time and “atonement”.
This research is particularly relevant at a time when countries often seek international support for civilians in response to natural disasters and conflict.
The project is valued at up to £1 million for the four-year duration.