How Bazar, How Bazar

Peter Allen ’25, Marley Fortune ’25, Annabelle Mullins ’26, Camille Prats ’25, and Colette Scott ’26

Grant Burrier, associate professor of teaching in The Global School, and Tahar El-Korchi, professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering

The team won a 2024 President’s Interactive Qualifying Project Award.

Team members completed their IQP “How Bazar? Creating Interactive Media to Promote Community Building,” at the Lyon, France, Project Center, partnering with SINGA Lyon, an organization that seeks to accelerate the inclusion of migrants and asylum seekers in communities.

The students conducted research on immigration politics in France and developed strategies for SINGA’s annual Bazar Festival to promote greater understanding of migrants and create new connections among people.

From the team’s final report: “Migrants in a new country often face discrimination and have difficulty finding acceptance in new communities. In Lyon, we studied how community events and interactive media can be combined to create connections between people and increase inclusion of newcomers.

“Through archival research, ethnographies, and semi-structured interviews, we discovered that anti-immigration politics are gaining support in France, but SINGA Lyon represents a community-based response promoting inclusion and building community support for migrants. We also determined useful strategies to improve SINGA’s annual Bazar Festival, enhancing its ability to foster connections and education.”

The team created a digital icebreaker game, a migration quiz, and a feedback form for SINGA to use at the festival and other events to promote connection and community.

Prats, an interactive media and game development major, said the project sponsor was excited by the team’s ability to build games. “They thought that games would be a good way to reach out to people without having to have a serious conversation about immigration,” she says. “A game can be a friendlier way to start a conversation.”

Team members wrote in their final report that the project was especially important in France’s current political climate. “As politicians push for legislation restricting the rights of immigrants, organizations like SINGA are more important than ever in improving the lives of immigrants. Being able to work with SINGA showed us a lot about the importance of community and inclusion in our own lives as well as within their organization.”