Tune into WESU 88.1FM Middletown every other Wednesday starting Feb. 20, 6pm for Roots and Routes: Conversations on Displacement and Belonging

Roots and Routes: Conversations on Displacement and Belonging is a radio show bringing stories of exile, homeland, and belonging from all over the world, from Jordan to Connecticut, from the UK to Uganda. The show is researched and produced by students of the service-learning (SL) course “RELI213 Refugees & Exiles: Religion in the Diaspora.”

Recent years have seen the on-going tragic refugee crisis, with millions of people being displaced because of war and ecological disasters. “Refugees and Exiles” deals with the meaning of exile, displacement, and diaspora through three perspectives: philosophical, historical, and literary perspectives, using a range of case studies from the contemporary Syrian refugee crisis to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Professor Yaniv Feller taught this class as an SL course for the first time in Fall 2018, after realizing that students wanted to be more engaged in the subject matter beyond just writing papers. The course is project-based: students choose their own topics, find people to interview, and create 15-minute radio segments.

There are 18 segments that will be aired as 9 shows every other Wednesday at 6:00 pm starting February 20th. These segments represent a diversity of stories and themes. One student interviewed people doing on-the-ground education work for refugees in Jordan, and another spoke to custodial staff here on Wesleyan’s campus about healthcare issues.
Some large recurring themes are the arts, healthcare rights, activism, and education.

After each show airs, they will be archived for later listening.

Learn more about Service-Learning here.