Sana Murrani’s Book Launch

Tracing the intimate connections between homemaking, displacement, and spatial resilience in fragile environments, my book Rupturing Architecture: Spatial Practices of Refuge in Response to War and Violence in Iraq, 2003–2023 explores how, over two decades of conflict, ordinary Iraqis have redefined notions of refuge within homes, cities, and borderlands. Through methods like creative deep mapping and memory work, I reveal the power of domestic and urban spaces as acts of resilience and resistance against the violence and displacement endured during this time.

Building on these broader themes, my latest project Ruptured Atlas focuses on the Yazidi community’s spatial odyssey following the 2014 genocide. Using participatory mapping, I document the Yazidis’ profound attachment to Sinjar, their forced displacement, and their continued struggle to re-make home and to homing. This project amplifies their stories of survival and longing for home, offering a lens through which we can understand the fragility and strength of homemaking in the wake of rupture.

Together, these works examine how individuals and communities navigate the trauma of displacement, forging new forms of homemaking in some of the world’s most fragile environments.

Speaker: Sana Murrani, Plymouth