The Camden Public Library will host Professor Nadia El-Shaarawi, of Colby College, for a presentation on Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa: The Politics and Lived Experiences of Displacement on Thursday, February 12, at 6:30 p.m., in the Picker Room. The event is free and open to the public.

With more than 123 million people displaced worldwide, many from or living in the Middle East and North Africa, El-Shaarawi will explore why this region has experienced such extensive forced migration and the significance of these complex movements. Her presentation will examine the politics of displacement and its effects on those who experience it, including histories of forced migration and the context and implications of displacement today.

Nadia El-Shaarawi is author of the book Collateral Damages: Tracing the Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War, published this year by University of California Press. This book, based on long term ethnographic fieldwork with Iraqi refugees in Cairo, Egypt, seeks to tell a different story of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the mass displacement it caused, one that centers the stories and experiences of Iraqis. Nadia teaches classes on displacement, migration, borders, humanitarianism, and health in Global Studies and Anthropology at Colby College.

This presentation is hosted by the Camden Public Library as a free community event in anticipation of the 39th Annual Camden Conference, Today's Middle East: Power, Politics and Players, February 20-22, live at the Camden Opera House and livestreamed to the Strand Theatre in Rockland and Lunt Auditorium in Falmouth, and to homes and classrooms worldwide. For more information about the Camden Conference and upcoming events, visit www.camdenconference.org.