Savaş has two lines of inquiry. In the first line, she examines refugee belonging and deservingness from the perspectives of both the receiving society and the displaced persons. Her research identifies how demographic (i.e., age, gender, ability, race, religion, marital status), symbolic (e.g., attitudes, stereotypes), and institutional (e.g., welfare institutions, humanitarian aid structures) factors foster vulnerability and resilience among refugees as they build new selves, identities and communities after displacement. In her second line of research, she studies how people express and interpret political opinions and ideals through activism, advocacy, and voting. With the aim of contributing to a better understanding of the relationship between multi-layered citizenship and belonging, she adopts a social justice lens, utilizes feminist theories and methods, sociocultural and developmental frameworks, a range of epistemologies from postpositivist to interpretivist, and brings macro, meso and micro levels of analyses together. She taught in the Departments of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan; and mentored students from various disciplinary backgrounds. Savas joined the Bennington faculty in Fall 2020.

“Who Holds up Half the Sky” is an investigative podcast discussing the possibilities of advancing feminist activism in China under censorship and lack of free speech. Influential activist figures appear in China’s history from the Qing dynasty to the Maoist era with its famous quote: “Women Hold up Half the Sky”. But Chinese women have undergone much pressure from foot binding and arranged marriages to unequal pay and domestic violence. Over the years, I have dived deeper into issues of multiculturalism, social activism, and gender identities. This work defines my curiosity which stems from a continuous movement through distinct cultural spaces, which started in China.

You can read more about the podcast, and the research for it, as well as listen to the full interviews and the full-length podcast here: andreeacoscai.com/2020/09/09/sound-projects/

Cover art by Meaghan Paine Mixing by Jullian Androkae

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Who Holds Up Half the Sky