‘The Ungrateful Refugee’ : Breaking Down Misconceptions about Immigrants
“Dina Nayeri explains her book, The Ungrateful Refugee, which draws on her own experience as a young refugee in the United States after her family fled Iran. Nayeri says that despite being Christian, her family found it difficult to be accepted. Asked about the title of her book, she says: “We are grateful, we do love our country… but that gratitude is private. It can’t be channelled, it can’t be forced.”
The Waiting Place Schools Project
Dina describes The Waiting Place Schools Project, an outreach project aimed at promoting refugee acceptance among UK school children, supported by the University of St. Andrews. To read more from the University of St. Andrews, visit St. Andrews Impact and Innovation and St. Andrews School of English.
The project is based on Dina’s children’s book, The Waiting Place.
A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women: Readings, Music, & Conversation
Watch Dina and other notable Iranian women read translations of old Persian Poetry for NYPL’s “Thousand Years of Persian Poetry.”
Dina starts at 13:16.
Scotland’s Future Podcast – Series 2 Episode 2
Watch Dina speak with fellow St Andrews faculty Ali Ansari and Stephen Gethens about the protests in Iran for the Scotland’s Futures Podcast Series.
‘Refugees need dignity not shame’
Dina speaks to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about her book, The Ungrateful Refugee.
Who Gets Believed?
“Does someone’s gender, race or culture have an impact on how much you believe what they have say? We all have hidden biases that influence and affect who we believe. In this talk, Dina breaks down what makes people and their stories believable. Then how we can challenge our own biases and change our relationship with belief.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.”
Is the distinction between migrant and refugee meaningful?
“Under President Trump, American immigration policy has been in the spotlight. While Trump may talk the most about stopping illegal entry into the U.S., he is also taking action to reduce the volume of legal migrants the country accepts as refugees. But what makes one immigrant a refugee and another simply a migrant? Writer Dina Nayeri offers her humble opinion questioning that distinction.”
AM2DM’s Rebel Womxn
Dina discusses her book The Ungrateful Refugee and the pressure to assimilate and always be grateful as an immigrant.
Problem Stories (October 24, 2019) | Rendez-vous de l’Institut
In her 2019 Fellow Talk at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Dina explains the premise behind her book, Who Get’s Believed?
“Today’s refugees will spend years battling to be believed—not because they are liars but because they’re forced to make their stories fit a small set of accepted narratives, and because “truth” in storytelling is a product of culture. When they arrive in Europe or America, the displaced endure increasingly arduous and narrow definitions of truth. Meanwhile, powerful voices spread provable falsehoods with impunity. Why are some narratives believed, and others dismissed as lies? What is the coded language of truth in the West? “
Iowa City Book Festival 2018 – Paul Engle Prize
Dina is named the seventh recipient of the Paul Engle Prize, presented by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization.
Geschwister-Scholl-Preis
Dina participates in a press conference for The Ungrateful Refugee, after receiving the 2020 Geschwister-Scholl-Preis.
Dina Nayeri on Truth, and Who Gets Believed
Dina in conversation with Alice McCrum about truth and lies in creative nonfiction, at the American Library of Paris, where Dina was a fellow in 2021.
Alice Barbe and Dina Nayeri in Conversation (October 5th, 2021) | Entre Nous
Watch Dina in conversation with activist Alice Barbe at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, where Dina was a fellow in 2019-2020.
Selected Radio Interviews
The New York Times “First Person” Podcast Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Dina
NPR’s “All Things Considered” Juana Summers interviews Dina
CBC Radio’s The Sunday Magazine(Canada) Amil Niazi interviews Dina Nayeri
BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Shahidha Bari interviews Dina Nayeri
BBC Radio 5 Laura McGhie, presenter Salma El-Wardany interviews Dina Nayeri
Monocle Meet the Writers, Georgina Godwin interviews Dina Nayeri
Standard Issue podcast interviews Dina Nayeri
The New Statesman “The World Review” interviews Dina about the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in Iran
Dina talks with Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones about displacement and trauma on BBC World Service’s program Emotional Baggage.
Dina’s Guardian Long Read (Foreign Mothers) Audio Version read by Dina Nayeri
Listen to Dina on PRI’s Live Wire Radio!
Listen to Dina read her taekwondo story from Guardian Long Read on a podcast! ‘I wouldn’t be the refugee, I’d be the girl who kicked ass’
Listen to Dina talk about being a refugee with Pajtim Statovci on Guardian Books podcast
Watch Dina Nayeri on CNN’s “Connect the World”.
Listen to Dina Nayeri’s interview ‘Refuge’ Captures Divide Between Father And Daughter Through Lens Of Immigration on NPR’s “All Things Considered”