THE ROHINGYA ARTOLUTION: TEACHING LOCALLY LED COMMUNITY–BASED PUBLIC ART EDUCATORS IN THE LARGEST REFUGEE CAMP IN HISTORY by Max Levi Frieder Dissertation Committee: Professor Judith Burton, Sponsor Professor Mary Mendenhall Approved by the Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Education Date 20 May 2020 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in Teachers College, Columbia University 2020 ABSTRACT THE ROHINGYA ARTOLUTION: TEACHING LOCALLY LED COMMUNITY–BASED PUBLIC ART EDUCATORS IN THE LARGEST REFUGEE CAMP IN HISTORY Max Levi Frieder Community-based public art education in emergencies is an emerging transdisciplinary field that exists at the crossroads of art education and education in emergencies. The Rohingya refugee camp is the largest refugee camp in the history of the world, on the border of Myanmar in Southern Bangladesh. As a response to the 2017 Rohingya refugee influx crisis, the international NGO Artolution started the first locally led collaborative public art education program in the refugee camps by selecting and educating individuals fleeing the Rohingya genocide. My research examines the learning that occurred throughout three years of teaching artist education programs with 14 Rohingya refugee and Bangladeshi women and men, through their journey to lead independent art education programs. This research employs a performance-based ethnographic data collection methodology, with qualitative interviews, focus groups, and narratives collected from the teaching artists and participating learners over three phases of data collection that took place from 2018-2019 in collaboration with UNHCR, UNICEF, IFRC, et al. The findings of the study suggest that the Rohingya Artolution teaching artist team is a living model for building a durable approach for emergency responses and humanizing a resilient future where history is defined by the voices that establish their own roles and identities in the world. The findings were presented through interweaving personal narratives and testimonials of the displaced and host teaching artists with supporting thinkers and commentary, in order to accurately link the stories of their learning and experiences by tracking the evolving teaching artist education process of cultivating creativity, curiosity, and expression in crisis-affected populations, and what that means for the future of their communities. ¬ Copyright Max Levi Frieder 2020 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to every life that has brought the Rohingya Artolution to life and to every person who it has, is, and will inspire everyday, now more than ever. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is the culmination of my life’s work and it truly belongs to the Rohingya Artolution teaching artists, because we are all the collective authors that together made this story come to life. I am eternally grateful for the transcendent shared learning, which will live with me everyday for the rest of my life. The interwoven paths of Professor Dr. Judith Burton and myself, seemed to have been fated long ago to have our lives brought together. You are a light, and we share that same light. All my appreciation to you for how our learning has transformed me forever, and all the lives the Rohingya Artolution has touched because of your guidance, thank you. To Dr. Mary Mendenhall, thank you for being a groundbreaking force that brought education in emergencies into my life, and has cultivated deeply significant growth. To Dr. Lena Verdeli, your crucially empathetic voice for global mental health has shaken me to my core, and has shown me the importance of the arts and global mental health for the future of the world. To Dr. William Pasmore, the generosity of your dynamic perspective was a gift. To my doctoral dissertation cohort, thank you for the shared knowledge and dialogue. A tip of my hat to Rocky Schwarz, the technical genius who always reminded me to remember that resilience, in 1945 or today, lives within all of us. I have to thank the incredible characters that joined me on the many wild adventures to the Rohingya refugee camps. Vik Muniz, thank you for sharing a life lived remembering; “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” Adam Osta, thank you for planting the first seed. Thank you to Joel Bergner, for co-founding and co-directing a dream that has grown beyond anything we could have ever imagined in a million years, ala rasi. To the Artolution Board of Directors, Advisory Council, Global Ambassadors, Global Teams iv and HQ; you are what makes all of this a reality, and it is an honor to have such a visionary and mission-driven global culture of care, thank you. All of this work was only possible because extraordinary individuals genuinely cared about expanding the horizons of the history of art and art education in crisis zones through organizations collaborating and believing in the Rohingya Artolution. I want to share my deep gratitude to Steven Corliss, Ephraim Tan, Firas Al-Khateeb, Caroline Gluck, UNHCR; Aarunima Bhatnagar, Danielle Posner, Caryl Stern, UNICEF; Manuel Pareira, Damon Elsworth, IOM; Ewinur Machdar, Dr. Parveen Shahnaz, Ian O’Donnell, IFRC; Dean Brooks, INEE; and Dr. Dipu Moni, Bangladesh Ministry of Education. To pay homage to the experiences that prepared me to live and work in the Rohingya crisis context, I have immense gratitude for the learning over the years from; Dr. Joy Moser, JR, Marc Azoulay, Dustin Yellin, Fabio Ghivelder, Erika Benincasa, Robi Damelin, Bassam Aramin, Majida Ali Habib, Ty Flewelling, Chime for Change, World of Children, Paul Hastings, Kerstin Munroe, Dr. Costanza Lafuente, Audrey Azoulay, David Stallings, Scott Esserman, Jerry Mishack, Andrucha Waddington, Jonathan & Stephanie Fields, Martin & Hagar Fletcher, Raymond Zwerin, Yussi Lee and Mike Fink. Thank you to my whole family for encouraging my outlandish journeys. To my brother, who always kept me real, dancing and laughing. To my mother, for nurturing and sustaining the light of creativity inside of me from when I was drawing Noah’s Ark at three years old, till today. To my father, thank you for the gift of the wisdom of accepting graciously the bewildering surprises of life everyday. To my Grandfather Harold Sokoloff, thank you for believing in me since I was a kid drawing umpires at the game. And to Emma Altman, I love you to the moon and back, everyday more and more. This dissertation is dedicated in loving memory to those who have guided me to this day, who are not with us today: Belle Sokoloff, Francis Frieder, Ira Frieder, Edgar Gross, James Douglas, Ross Hart, Nade Haley, and Donna Bruton. v This story owes a deep seed of gratitude to Suza Uddin, who was the conduit for this entire study to grow from a small seed into a forest, shukria bhaiya. To the Rohingya Artolution teaching artists, you are the future of a world that needs you now more than ever. The orb of colorful light alive inside of each of us is how we repair the world every single day, and you are my greatest teachers and sages. Akajooka, Para Para. M. L. F. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I—INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE .....................................................1 Background of the Problem ...............................................................................1 Origins of the Problem .......................................................................................4 Pilot Study and Research Precedent ..................................................................6 Problem Statement .............................................................................................7 Research Questions ..........................................................................................10 Research Sub-questions ..........................................................................11 Limitations of the Study...................................................................................11 Participant Population .............................................................................11 Context .............................................................................................................12 Role of Researcher ...........................................................................................13 Potential Biases ................................................................................................15 Type of Study and Rationale for the Methodology .........................................17 Qualitative Data Treatment .....................................................................18 Instruments .......................................................................................................19 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................20 Educational, Artistic, and Social Implications .................................................21 Educational Implications ........................................................................21 Artistic Implications................................................................................22 Social Implications..................................................................................22 Assumptions .....................................................................................................23 Assumptions not to be Debated ..............................................................23