The UC Santa Barbara Library is presenting a talk by Dr. Maryam Kia-Keating, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. The talk, titled “Exiled: Loss and Resilience Among Refugee and Forcibly Displaced Youth and Communities,” will be held on Tuesday, January 22 at 4 pm in the Pacific View Room of the UCSB Library, followed by a public reception. Dr. Kia-Keating’s talk is in conjunction with UCSB Reads 2019; The Pacific Views: Library Speaker Series is co-sponsored by the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor.
Mass migration and forced displacement of communities due to disruptions by violence, climate change, and economic and political instability have heralded an era of global movement that has reached crisis levels. Approximately half of the world’s refugees are youth under the age of eighteen. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history, guaranteeing children the rights to education, health, protection, dignity, and non-discrimination, along with other basic human rights. Yet, many refugee children and adolescents face statelessness, and are obstructed from access to education. Moreover, they are likely to face multiple and cumulative adversities that can lead to significant and long-term negative outcomes.
Dr. Kia-Keating’s talk will draw from the contributions of psychological research in clinical and prevention sciences to the dialogue on refugee and forcibly displaced youth and communities resettled in the United States. She will highlight research on resilience and the benefits of “building longer tables, not taller fences.”
Maryam Kia-Keating is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She received her A.B. from Dartmouth College, Ed.M. from Harvard University in Risk and Prevention, and Ph.D. from Boston University in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Kia-Keating completed her predoctoral clinical internship at the University of California, San Diego/VA Healthcare Systems. As a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego, she was the Clinical Director of a school-based secondary prevention program for six high schools. Dr. Kia-Keating has received specialized training in child traumatic stress in her work with two National Child Traumatic Stress Network research and intervention centers: the Childhood Violent Trauma Center at the Yale Child Study Center, and the Center for Refugee Trauma at the Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical Center Boston. Dr. Kia-Keating served on the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on the Psychosocial Effects of War on Children and Families who are Refugees from Armed Conflict Residing in the United States. Dr. Kia-Keating’s research has been funded by NICHD, NIMH, and NIAAA. She focuses her work around coping and resilience in the context of experiences of trauma, stress, and adversity, particularly for ethnic minority and other vulnerable and/or understudied populations including refugees and immigrants. Her research aims to better identify the cultural, developmental, protective, and promotive factors and processes that explain both risk and resilience in the face of high-risk environments, in order to inform prevention and intervention efforts.