Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso

The central argument of this study is that in post-conflict situations to which refugee women return, their experiences, told in interviews, stories, songs and other texts are an intimate part of the construction of the idea of ‘home’ necessary for their reintegration. This process is also mediated by the parallel construction of ‘home’ that is undertaken by local and international agencies that manipulate language and memory to encourage repatriation. This study will collect primary data through interviews with Liberian returnee women as well as other types of texts (stories, songs, epitaphs, etc) that help answer the research questions. The qualitative data thus generated will be subjected to thematic qualitative data analysis, and presented mostly in narrative.