Iranian PhD Student Wins Gavin Mooney Memorial Essay competition

The stories of illegal migrants and refugees held in Australian detention centres are harnessing the power of social media to shape the nations political debate and entire activist movements, an award-winning Flinders University writer claims. Digital media student Amin Ansari, who has extensively published in his native Persian, has received the 2015 University of Sydney Gavin Mooney Memorial Essay competition prize for his observations of how digital media allows asylum seekers to find a voice. Amins prize-winning essay focuses on how boat people - or asylum-seekers as he prefers to call them - are using digital media to highlight their disastrous situation in remote detention centres. In an interview with SBS Radio's Persian Program, Amin speaks about his award-winning essay.

Amin Ansari Source: Courtesy Flinders University