Refugees are often mischaracterized as either “threats” to their new nations of resettlement or as remarkably virtuous, resilient “survivors” of harsh expulsions from their home countries and difficult years in refugee camps. Both imageries fall short of forced migrants’ actual lives and stories. Museums’ display practices and their interpretations of “refugee arts” can easily fall into stereotypes, especially sugary, positive ones. This case study delves into display practices that led well-intentioned curators and their student collaborators to lodge a small exhibition’s vision of refugees and their art production at superficial levels. Many universities now encourage students to conduct community-based research and display findings in campus museums. This study argues that even well-motivated shows on forced migrants’ art production should be executed with subtlety, so as to avoid inaccurate classification schemes regarding “refugee art.”

中文翻译：

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大学艺术画廊中的“难民之爱”：美国政治想象中的“难民手工艺”，2017

难民经常被错误地描述为对他们的新移民国家的“威胁”，或者被误认为是被他们的祖国严厉驱逐和在难民营度过艰难岁月的非常有道德、有韧性的“幸存者”。这两种意象都与被迫移民的真实生活和故事相去甚远。博物馆的展示实践和他们对“难民艺术”的解释很容易落入刻板印象，尤其是含糖、积极的刻板印象。本案例研究深入探讨了展示实践，这些实践使善意的策展人及其学生合作者在一个小型展览中展示了难民及其艺术作品的肤浅视野。许多大学现在鼓励学生进行基于社区的研究并在校园博物馆展示研究成果。