areUsafe? (Are Universities Safe Spaces?) explores the experiences of dis/placed students: people whose educational journeys have been disrupted and reshaped by conflict, political repression, environmental crises, and other forms of forced (im)mobility.
For many dis/placed students, entering higher education means navigating legal uncertainty, bureaucratic barriers, and unequal access to opportunity. How do universities respond to these realities? Under what conditions do they become spaces of recognition, belonging, and possibility? And when do they reproduce exclusion?
Despite growing attention to displacement globally, the higher education experiences of dis/placed students have received limited attention from both researchers and policymakers. Focusing on South and Southeast Asia, areUsafe? works alongside dis/placed students through multi-sited ethnographic research to understand how they experience, negotiate, and reshape their educational journeys. By centring their voices and perspectives, the project seeks to contribute to academic debates and inform policies that support more equitable access to higher education.
