Ukrainian youth challenging the given role of a war refugee in arts-based collaborative research

Abstract This paper explores how Ukrainian youth challenge their given role as war refugees through arts-based collaborative research. Drawing on two projects involving Ukrainian youth in Finland – a documentary video project and dream collage creation – the paper examines how participants contest dominant refugee narratives through multimodal expressions. Using nexus analysis, the study analyses the intersection of participants’ historical bodies, interaction orders, and discourses in place. Findings reveal that youth resisted portrayals as vulnerable victims or heroes, instead emphasising their identities as ambitious young people eager to live their lives and pursue dreams. They challenged researchers’ assumptions by foregrounding joy, humour and normalcy rather than war experiences. The collaborative process prompted researchers to critically examine their own privileged positions and preconceptions. While arts-based methods enhanced knowledge democratisation, they did not automatically disrupt power hierarchies or dominant discourses. The study highlights the need for ongoing reflexivity and negotiation of roles in participatory research with forced migrant youth. It demonstrates how arts-based approaches can create spaces for marginalised voices to contest reductive categorizations, while also revealing the persistence of deeply rooted discourses that shape interactions between researchers and participants.