One of the most difficult aspects of displacement is the way it disconnects us from the people, organizations, and causes that meant so much to us back home. How do we stay personally, professionally, and politically engaged when we are no longer physically present?
In this panel discussion, literary writer Danson Kahyana (Uganda), editorial cartoonist Pedro X. Molina (Nicaragua), scientist Rasha Azrag (Sudan), and artist Omaid Sharifi (Afghanistan) share the ways in which they continue to engage with their home countries and make a difference from a distance.
Danson Sylvester Kahyana is an Associate Professor in the Department of Literature, Makerere University, Uganda. He holds a PhD in English Studies from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is a published poet and writer of children’s books. He is also an accomplished curator of anthologies. Kahyana is President Emeritus of Ugandan PEN, and a former Board member of PEN International (2019-2022). His work has examined the effect of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (2023) on artistic freedom and explored the representations of the right to healthcare in Ugandan literary and other cultural productions.
Pedro X. Molina is an internationally acclaimed editorial cartoonist who fled Nicaragua after a crackdown by the dictatorship on journalists and government critics in 2018. His work appears in many prestigious newspapers and news websites throughout Latin America, the United States, and Europe. Molina has won a host of prestigious awards, including the Vaclav Havel Award for Creative Dissent, the Gabo Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University, and the Courage in Cartooning Award from Cartoonists Rights Network. He was the finalist for the Herblock Prize in 2024.
Dr. Rasha Siddig Azrag is a medical entomologist from Sudan with over 20 years of experience in the ecology of vector-borne diseases, vector surveillance, and control interventions. Her research centers on the ecology of mosquito vectors in underdeveloped urban settings, with a focus on adaptive behaviors that impact insecticide resistance and the success of control strategies. She is dedicated to advancing sustainable vector control solutions, particularly in high-burden, resource-limited environments. She is a fellow of the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund and Scholars at Risk.
Omaid Sharifi is an "artivist" and president of ArtLords, a collective of artists and activists who create street art in Afghanistan and worldwide. A former fellow at Harvard University, Omaid is a board member of CIVICUS, a worldwide alliance that focuses on strengthening citizen action and civil society, and a member of the ONWARDS Working Group. With a career spanning more than 19 years, he has planned, designed, and implemented a wide range of projects around the world. As a speaker, writer, and advisor on art and social justice, he challenges norms and build bridges across divides—using the universal power of creativity to ignite lasting, transformational change.