Through community-led research, photography, and personal testimony, Rohingya contributors explore how statelessness, uncertainty, and prolonged displacement shape emotional wellbeing in the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar. Drawing on a survey of 247 participants alongside photographs, interviews, and Rohingya concepts of distress and resilience, this article examines the psychological consequences of living without a clear path towards the future.

Hanna Ji is a designer and recent graduate of the Master of Design in Communication Design programme at the University of Arkansas. In 2025, she travelled to Cox's Bazar as part of her thesis research, collaborating with Rohingyatographer, the Refugee and Migration Lab (RML), and the Rohingya Arts Club to facilitate creative storytelling workshops with Rohingya adolescent girls. Her research explores how participatory design and storytelling can support education, self-expres

For a stateless people, the image is often the only site of citizenship we possess. In the absence of a sovereign state to recognise our rights, visual representation becomes a strategic tool for political survival. Ai Weiwei’s 2021 documentary, Rohingya, emerges at the volatile intersection of high art, global humanitarianism, and the digital distribution of suffering.

The Rohingya are among the most researched peoples yet the least heard. Since 2017, much scholarship, what Nasir Uddin calls “calamity research,” frames our lives through suffering. His edited volume, Reshaping Rohingya Futures (2025), seeks to shift focus from despair to recognition of Rohingya agency, resilience, and self-determination.

The Rohingya crisis has become one of the most disheartening and complex issues. The Rohingya ethnic minority group consists of...

Abstract: This interview with the Rohingya photographer, video maker, and social activist Ro Yassin Abdumonab was conducted by Marcelo...