Witnessing as a Feminist Spatial Practice: Encountering the Refugee Camp Beyond Recognition

This PhD thesis aims to engage with the political, cultural and (thus) spatial complexities of an architectural inquiry into the refugee camp. This, in turn, offers a methodology that reclaims the position of the architect as a witness. To do so, it proposes a (postcolonial) feminist approach that thinks of the refugee camp as an encounter; critically, it acknowledges the injustices practised by the ‘refugee regime complex’ operating within refugee camps. Located in Za’atri refugee camp in Jordan, it explores the institutional hierarchies of the camp as it operates within a humanitarian NGO paradigm. Through a critique of the anthropocentric nature of such NGOs, I argue for the necessity of a relational, spatial and feminist approach that pays attention to the affective and political economies circulating through these structures.