William McNicoll | Global Migration Processes

William McNicoll

William McNicoll

William McNicoll holds a master’s degree in geography from Université Laval. His research focuses on migration dynamics in the Syro-Lebanese space. He is interested in the cooperation between community based organisms and the other actors of the humanitarian landscape in Lebanon (UNHCR, Lebanese government, municipalities, etc.) in the context of the Syrian migration crisis. This cooperation, sometimes difficult, is essential to the delivery of services (education, health, shelter) to Syrian refugees spread across the country, in urban areas as well as informal settlements. More precisely, he will do his fieldwork in Bekaa valley in order to study the informal settlements and power relations found there, as well as the role of NGO in these areas that are little studied.

Photographic contribution

Michel Huneault is a documentary photographer and visual artist. Before devoting himself entirely to photography starting in 2008, he worked for more than ten years in international development. He holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a Rotary Peace Fellow, focusing on the role of collective memory in the aftermath of large-scale trauma. First in Berkeley and then in New York, he was a student and assistant to photographer Gilles Peress of the Magnum agency. Today, Michel Huneault is still interested in development, trauma, migration and other complex geographic realities, including the impacts of climate change. In 2016, he was awarded the Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship to continue his research on migration issues. In 2018, ROXHAM, his visual and sound project on the passage of asylum seekers from the United States to Canada was adapted into virtual reality by the National Film Board of Canada.