Adrienne de Ruiter on dehumanisation in the global migration crisis
25 September 2024
Recently, lecturer-researcher Adrienne de Ruiter published the book Dehumanisation in the Global Migration Crisis at Oxford University Press, in which she investigates the concept of dehumanisation in light of the global migration crisis. We asked her a few questions.
This book stems from my doctoral research at the European University Institute. It is an adaptation of my dissertation. I have continued to work on sharpening my argument after my defence (in 2019) and this is the result.
In particular, the book is aimed at two audiences. The analysis of dehumanisation in the international migration crisis is relevant for researchers (and other interested parties) concerned with perceptions surrounding refugees, asylum seekers and unwanted migrants. I made a critical discourse analysis of the way the term ‘dehumanisation’ is used, appropriate and inappropriate, to call attention to the situation of these groups. I also incorporated interviews with refugees and asylum seekers in Lebanon, Germany and Italy on the various forms of social and moral exclusion they experience.
The book is also of interest to researchers working on the meaning of dehumanisation. I use the international migration crisis as a case study to develop a new theory of dehumanisation. This new theory focuses on the idea that dehumanisation is not necessarily about denying that victims have human characteristics and can think and feel in a human way. Rather, it revolves around denying that this is morally relevant to how we should treat victims. This new theory of dehumanisation is of interest to philosophers, social psychologists and other researchers concerned with the question of what fundamentally characterises dehumanisation.
As an Associate Professor of Humanism and Philosophy, I research what it means for people to recognise each other as human beings. My research on dehumanisation ties in with this. It studies how it is possible for people not to see and treat each other as human beings. My current research continues this line of enquiry into (challenges to) human moral status, but within the field of philosophy and ethics of technology. How do technologies, such as social artificial intelligence, question what makes us human? And what moral status can we ascribe to ourselves in light of technological developments?
This ties in with my teaching at UvH, especially the master's course Future Challenges to Humanity and Humanism. We reflect with students on how technological and social developments, such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and the climate crisis, are questioning our thinking about humanism and humanity.
Dehumanisation in the Global Migration Crisis, Adrienne de Ruiter, Oxford University Press (2024), ISBN: 9780198893400
Adrienne de Ruiter is an ethicist and political philosopher and works as a research lecturer at the University of Humanistic Studies.
Recently, lecturer researcher Adrienne de Ruiter published the book Dehumanisation in the Global Migration Crisis in which she researches the concept of dehumanisation in light of the global migration crisis. We asked her a few questions.