From Integration to Inclusion
SolidariTee's first Scottish conference
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Thursday 11th May, 12-5pm
Beacon Bar, St Andrews' Students' Association
SolidariTee are delighted to invite you to our first ever conference held in Scotland, with thanks to the University of St Andrews School of International Relations for providing funding for this event.
We will consider the ideas of integration and inclusion: how we can learn with and from those with lived experience of displacement, to move past harmful misconceptions and uphold the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland, and beyond.
We'll be hearing from a range of experts - both academics and those involved in the NGO sector - so we hope this conference will provide a great opportunity to speak to those currently working in the refugee support sector, as well as to meet like-minded attendees!
With a complimentary lunch and time for networking at 11:30am, our first panel will begin at 1pm. Attendance is free, although donations are welcome, and all proceeds raised will go straight to funding essential legal aid and mental health services for refugees and asylum seekers in Greece.
Our Speakers
We will be updating our list of panellists, so check back here to see everyone who will be speaking!
Jane Critchley Salmonson
Jane Critchley Salmonson has held a number of leadership positions in international relief and development, currently as Director of Firefly International. Previously she was CEO of Scotland’s International Development Alliance, the membership body representing and supporting the sector in Scotland. She is now Vice-Chair and was the first Chair of the Humanitarian Emergencies Fund.
Prior to joining the Alliance she worked for CBM, an international federation specialising in disability inclusive development, and for L’Arche, an international federation for people with disabilities. She led Mercy Corps Scotland as Executive Director from 2000 to 2006, with oversight of European-funded emergency and development programming including in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Darfur, Eritrea, Kosovo and Zimbabwe. She has Masters Degrees in International & European Politics and in African Studies. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at undergraduate level at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is a trustee of 500 miles and of the Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (Scotland) and serves on CBM’s Country Strategy Panel for Scotland. She is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts.
Dr Stavroula Pipyrou
Stavroula Pipyrou is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews and Founding Director of the interdisciplinary Centre for Minorities Research. Her first monograph “The Grecanici of Southern Italy: Governance, Violence, and Minority Politics” was published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2016 and focused on minority governance, civil society, and power relations. She has published widely on minority politics, governance, violence and displacement in Italy and Greece in such outlets as American Ethnologist, Anthropological Quarterly, Social Anthropology and Anthropological Forum. She has edited several Special Issues (HAU, Anthropological Forum, JMIS) and volumes. She is the series editor of Routledge Advances in Minority Studies. She has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust, ESRC, GCRF, Carnegie Trust, British School of Athens, and French School of Athens. Stavroula is Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland Fellow 2022-27.
Hera Jay Brown
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Hera Jay Brown is the Founder and Executive Director of Sanctuarium. Her academic and professional works center on the intersections of human rights and justice with domestic and international legal regimes governing asylum, development, displacement, and labor in Jordan, the EU, and the US. Prior to this role, Hera Jay completed her Master's training at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
At Oxford, Hera Jay conducted research on the implementation and reception of the Jordan Compact's labor permit program within the Hashemite Kingdom. Prior to Oxford, Hera Jay held several positions in research, the non-profit sector, and the policy world including time with Munich's joyn-coop as a Junior Consultant on labor policies, the Refugee Youth Program, the American University in Cairo's Presidential Associates Program, and the Biden Foundation in Washington DC.
She has received multiple awards and recognitions for her work including the Fulbright-Schuman Graduate Research Fellowship, the Rhodes Scholarship, the Rhodes Service Year, the University of Tennessee's Chancellor's Medallion, and the Gilman International Scholarship to Jordan. She has also written about and presented her work with numerous universities, non-profits, and academic conferences in the US and Europe.
A desire to advance the rights of and protections for marginalized communities around the globe remains the core driver throughout all of her work.
Alexa Netty
Alexa is the CEO of SolidariTee, and has been involved in the running of the organisation since its very grassroots days before it was registered as a charity. She holds degrees in veterinary medicine, and in psychology, neuroscience and behaviour, and currently works in finance at the Disasters Emergency Committee. Alexa is especially interested in monitoring, evaluation and learning in relation to humanitarian response and charity work.
Dr Debora Kayembe FRSA
Dr. Debora Kayembe FRSA was called to the RDC Bar in September 2000. As principal of Debora Kayembe Lawyer- Linguist, she focuses on matters involving activism, legal, Political, linguistics issues as well as Human Rights and International Law. Her linguist profession led her to create her own linguistic company in 2009, serving international organisations in the USA, UK and mainland Europe by helping refugees and asylum seekers to settle within various resettlement programs as well as supporting victims of war crimes.
Ms Debora Kayembe joined the Assistant Counsel list of the International Criminal Court / Victim support section; she is included at that BAR of the Barreau de Matadi / RDC; then join the International Criminal Court Bar Association in March 2016 and joined the language services of the office of the prosecutor at the international Criminal in 2015; She was a board director of the Scottish Refugee Council which she served for 3 years.
In August 2016 Debora joined the Royal Society of Edinburgh / Young Academy of Scotland representing refugee minorities. Debora is the founder of Full Options since October 2017 which has 63 members worldwide; the charity runs between Scotland and Turkey. On the 13 of August 2019 , history was made at the Royal Society of Edinburgh from it 263 years of existence , Debora Kayembe become the first African citizen to have her portrait erected at the wall of the society which content portrait of white male fellows from the society by honouring her achievements and contributions to the Scottish Society. In the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the birth of the Black lives Matter Movement ; Debora survive an attempt of murder by white supremacist who ambush her car tyres with nails ; as the result Debora begins a campaign again racism by launching the Freedom Walk Campaign a civil rights promoting racial justice , lobby in favour of social reforms and community harmony . On the 3rd of February 2021 , Debora Kayembe become the first person of Colour to be elected as Rector of the University of Edinburgh in 437 years and the 3rd Women to hold the position. She became a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Commerce and Manufacture in May 2022.