RSC Workshop: Refuge from Syria

The Syrian Humanitarian Disaster: Understanding Perceptions, Aspirations and Behaviour in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey

Wednesday, 09 December 2015
The Garden Room, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB
Hosted by Refugee Studies Centre

This one-day workshop will be held on 9 December 2015 to engage researchers and practitioners with findings from recent research into the perceptions, aspirations and behaviour of refugees from Syria, host community members, and practitioners in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Professor Dawn Chatty will present her British Academy funded research on this theme alongside a number of other researchers and practitioners with recent experience in this area. The workshop aims to promote greater understanding of the unique socio-historical context of the Syrian humanitarian disaster in each of the regional hosting countries by addressing specifically changing perceptions and aspirations. In addition the workshop hopes to present examples of good practice and lessons learned from practitioners in all countries bordering on Syria.

The speed with which Syria disintegrated into extreme violence and armed conflict shocked the world and left the humanitarian aid regime in turmoil as agencies struggled to respond to the growing displacement crisis on Syria’s borders. The mass displacement has now  reached Northern Mediterranean shores as well as Central European borders. It has left the neighbouring states of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan in a quandary as to how to effectively provide protection for these people seeking refuge. None have granted the displaced refugee status; each has established temporary measures to deal with this crisis. In many cases the displaced and the host communities have not been consulted and thus tensions have quickly emerged among host communities, displaced Syrians and humanitarian policy-makers and practitioners. That tension, despair and hopelessness has seen thousands leave the region over the past year in search for survival in dignity. This workshop aims to explore the different perceptions and aspirations of Syria’s refugees, humanitarian assistance practitioners, and the host community. It also seeks to probe what social factors with the host community, will, when circumstances permit, positively contribute to the reshaping and re-integration of Syrian society post-conflict.

Provisional programme now available >>

If you are interested in attending and taking part, kindly contact Ariell Ahearn on ahearn.ariell@gmail.com

 

Events: RSC Workshop: Refuge from Syria, 9 December 2015

RSC Workshop: Refuge from Syria
The Syrian Humanitarian Disaster: Understanding Perceptions, Aspirations and Behaviour in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey

Date: Wednesday, 9 December 2015
Location: The Garden Room, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

This one-day workshop will be held on 9 December 2015 to engage researchers and practitioners with findings from recent research into the perceptions, aspirations and behaviour of refugees from Syria, host community members, and practitioners in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Professor Dawn Chatty will present her British Academy funded research on this theme alongside a number of other researchers and practitioners with recent experience in this area. The workshop aims to promote greater understanding of the unique socio-historical context of the Syrian humanitarian disaster in each of the regional hosting countries by addressing specifically changing perceptions and aspirations. In addition the workshop hopes to present examples of good practice and lessons learned from practitioners in all countries bordering on Syria.

The speed with which Syria disintegrated into extreme violence and armed conflict shocked the world and left the humanitarian aid regime in turmoil as agencies struggled to respond to the growing displacement crisis on Syria’s borders. The mass displacement has now  reached Northern Mediterranean shores as well as Central European borders. It has left the neighbouring states of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan in a quandary as to how to effectively provide protection for these people seeking refuge. None have granted the displaced refugee status; each has established temporary measures to deal with this crisis. In many cases the displaced and the host communities have not been consulted and thus tensions have quickly emerged among host communities, displaced Syrians and humanitarian policy-makers and practitioners. That tension, despair and hopelessness has seen thousands leave the region over the past year in search for survival in dignity. This workshop aims to explore the different perceptions and aspirations of Syria’s refugees, humanitarian assistance practitioners, and the host community. It also seeks to probe what social factors with the host community, will, when circumstances permit, positively contribute to the reshaping and re-integration of Syrian society post-conflict.

A programme of the workshop speakers and timetable will be made available shortly. If you are interested in attending and taking part, kindly contact Dawn.Chatty@qeh.ox.ac.uk or Tamsin.Kelk@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Details online at: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/rsc-workshop-refuge-from-syria

Refugee Studies Centre: Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture taking place on 4 November 2015

‘We do not want to become refugees’: Human mobility in the age of climate change  

Professor Walter Kälin (Envoy of the Chairmanship of the Nansen Initiative, and Professor of Constitutional and International Law, University of Bern)

Time and date: 5pm, 4 November 2015

Location: Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW

Registration: The lecture is free to attend and open to all but registration is required.

Disaster displacement is one of the big humanitarian challenges of our times and is likely to significantly increase in the context of climate change. Building on the work of the Nansen Initiative on disaster-induced cross-border displacement, the lecture will explore different tools available to address displacement and other forms of disaster related human mobility.

About the speaker 

Professor Walter Kälin is a Swiss international human rights lawyer, legal scholar, and advocate. Currently, he is Professor of Constitutional and International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bern (Switzerland), and Envoy of the Chairmanship of the Nansen Initiative. He served as a member of the UN Human Rights Committee until the end of 2014. From 2004 until 2010, he was the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons. Professor Kälin is the author of numerous works including The Face of Human Rights (2004) and The Law of International Human Rights Protection (2009). He received his doctor of law from the University of Bern and his LL.M. from Harvard University.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception

 

Events: Refugee Studies Centre Public Seminar Series

Refugee Studies Centre Michaelmas term Public Seminar Series

Theme: Refugee Economies

Series convenors: Professor Alexander Betts and Dr Naohiko Omata.

In recent academic and policy arenas in forced migration, the issue of how to understand refugees’ economic lives has emerged as one of the most pressing agendas. This seminar series will therefore gather leading scholars who have been working on related issues in order to consolidate the empirical and theoretical knowledge of refugee economies. Speakers will be convened from diverse and inter-disciplinary backgrounds from anthropology, economics, and political science. In addition to knowledge building, this seminar series is intended to initiate nurturing wider networks of researchers working on economic lives of refugees and to establish a common space for exchanging ideas, discussing findings and challenges.

Links to each seminar, as well as speaker biographies, can be found below. Seminars take place on Wednesdays at 5pm in Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, except for the Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture which will take place at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. There is also an additional special seminar on Tuesday 13 October at 1-2pm, details below. For any enquiries, please contact rsc@qeh.ox.ac.uk.

13 October, Special lunchtime seminar, 1-2pm Africa after neo-abolition: asylum politicization, expert testimony, and the legacy of anti-trafficking advocacy Professor Benjamin N. Lawrance (Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA)

Location: Meeting Room A, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/africa-after-neo-abolition

14 October

no seminar

21 October

Refugee economies: forced displacement and development Professor Alexander Betts (RSC) http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/refugee-economies-forced-displacement-&-development

28 October

“Displacement economies: thinking through the paradoxes of crisis and creativity”

Professor Amanda Hammar (University of Copenhagen) http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/displacement-economies

4 November

ANNUAL HARRELL-BOND LECTURE *

‘We do not want to become refugees’: Human mobility in the age of climate change Professor Walter Kälin (Envoy of the Chairmanship of the Nansen Initiative, and Professor of Constitutional and International Law, University of Bern)

Location: Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Registration is required for this lecture. Please contact: anneli.chambliss@qeh.ox.ac.uk

http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/harrellbond2015

11 November

Navigating Nakivale: the borderland economy of a refugee camp Professor Morten Bøås (The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/navigating-nakivale

18 November

The economic consequences of refugee return: evidence from Burundi and Tanzania Professor Carlos Vargas-Silva (COMPAS, University of Oxford) http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/economic-consequences-of-refugee-return

25 November

Being Oromo in Nairobi’s ‘Little Mogadishu’: Eastleigh’s Ethiopian refugees and their livelihoods Dr Neil Carrier (African Studies Centre, University of Oxford) http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/being-oromo

2 December

From macro-economy to political economy: situating the refugee development discourse at the large scale Professor Roger Zetter (RSC) http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/from-macro-economy-to-political-economy

 

Special lunchtime seminar, Refugee Studies Centre, Tuesday 13 October, 1-2pm

Please find below details of a special lunchtime seminar at the Refugee Studies Centre on Tuesday 13 October, from 1-2pm (www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/africa-after-neo-abolition ):

Africa after neo-abolition: asylum politicization, expert testimony, and the legacy of anti-trafficking advocacy
Speaker: Professor Benjamin N. Lawrance (Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA)

Location: Meeting Room A, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

African trafficking survivors struggle with anti-immigrant rhetoric and migration securitization in throughout the Global North. Globalization has elevated the importance of documentation; individuals fleeing trafficking face high thresholds to prove captive, coerced, or imprisoned status. This talk explores asylum politicization in Europe and North America and the role of millennial anti-trafficking advocacy in resisting it. Asylum claims (from Togo, Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria) provide unique insight into how trafficking survivors struggle for recognition as social persons. West African case histories show how experts and lawyers in the US and the UK mobilize documentation to resist anti-migration policy.

This is an additional public seminar, open to all.

About the Speaker
Benjamin N. Lawrance holds the Barber B. Conable Jr. Endowed Chair in International Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA. A graduate of Stanford University and University College London, his research interests include comparative and contemporary slavery, human trafficking, cuisine and globalization, human rights, refugee issues and asylum policies. His forthcoming book, Amistad’s Orphans: An Atlantic Story of Children, Slavery, and Smuggling (Yale 2015) examines West African child smuggling in the 19th century. His other books examine asylum, refugee issues, expert testimony, historical and contemporary trafficking in women and children in Africa. His essays appear in the Journal of African History, Biography, Slavery & Abolition, African Economic History, Anthropological Quarterly, Cahiers d’Études Africaines, and the African Studies Review, among others. Professor Lawrance is a legal consultant on the contemporary political, social and cultural climate in West Africa. He has served as an expert witness for over two hundred and seventy asylum claims of West Africans in the U.S., Canada, the U.K, the Netherlands, Israel, and many other countries, and his opinions have featured in appellate rulings in the U.S. and the U.K. He volunteers as a country conditions expert for Amnesty International USA.

Seminar in Oxford: Not so Exceptional? Understanding the Canada-US Border as a Place of Law, Arbel & Goold, 11 May

Please join Border Criminologies and the Refugee Studies Centre for a special seminar with Efrat Arbel and Benjamin Goold, Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada, entitled:

‘Not so Exceptional? Understanding the Canada-US Border as a Place of Law.’

When: Monday, 11 May 2015, 13:00-14:30

Where: Senior Common Room, Faculty of Law, St Cross Building, University of Oxford

About the seminar

With the steady, global movement towards the securitization of borders in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, scholars across various disciplinary fields have analyzed state borders as ‘states of exception,’ sites in which, as Giorgio Agamben provocatively describes, ‘a temporary suspension of the rule of law on the basis of a factual state of danger, is … given a permanent spatial arrangement, which as such nevertheless remains outside the normal order.’ This paper argues against this approach. It suggests that the ‘state of exception,’ as described by Giorgio Agamben and Carl Schmidt, does not properly account for the legal and material realities of contemporary state borders. The paper advances this argument by analyzing how legal power is organized, asserted, and exercised along the Canada-US border. In addition, it seeks to develop a set of criteria by which claims of exceptionalism at the border might be tested, and compares the border with other sites―such as prisons―which also have the potential to become states of exception. In doing so, it strives to develop a site-specific understanding that better illuminates the legal implications of the policies and practices that currently govern the Canada-US border, and to ensure that current debates properly recognize the role of law in constructing the border.

About the speakers

Efrat Arbel is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia. Dr Arbel researches and publishes in constitutional law, refugee law, Aboriginal law, and prison law. Combining her academic work with legal practice, Dr Arbel is also engaged in advocacy and litigation involving refugee and prisoner rights.

Benjamin Goold is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, at the University of British Columbia. At present, Professor Goold is working on two major research projects, the first a major field study of undercover policing and covert surveillance practices in the UK (with Bethan Loftus and Shane Mac Giollabhui), and the second a study of how security products are bought, sold, and consumed (with Ian Loader and Angelica Thumala).

Events: Refugee Studies Centre Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture | Innocence: understanding a political concept

On Wednesday 10 June at 5pm, Professor Miriam Ticktin of The New School for Social Research will deliver the RSC’s Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture. Professor Ticktin will speak on ‘Innocence: understanding a political concept’. All are warmly invited to attend. More details, including information on how to register, are below, or visit our website: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/Colson2015.

Abstract

With the grounding assumption that innocence plays a central role in the politics of forced migration and asylum, this lecture will delve into the idea of innocence, trying to understand it and render its workings more legible, and arguing that it is a political – not simply a religious or moral – concept. By examining the figure of the child, the trafficked victim, the migrant, asylum seeker, the enemy combatant and the animal, Professor Ticktin will suggest that innocence sets up hierarchies of humanity, all the while feeding an expanding politics of humanitarianism. Ultimately, she will ask if innocence is a concept we want to protect.

About the speaker

Miriam Ticktin is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research and co-director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility. She received her PhD in Anthropology at Stanford University, in co-tutelle with the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, and an MA in English Literature from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Before coming to the New School, Miriam was an Assistant Professor in Women’s Studies and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, and also held a postdoctoral position in the Society of Fellows at Columbia University.

Professor Ticktin’s research has focused in the broadest sense on what it means to make political claims in the name of a universal humanity. She has been interested in what these claims tell us about universalisms and difference, about who can be a political subject, on what basis people are included and excluded from communities, and how inequalities get instituted or perpetuated in this process. She is the author of Casualties of Care: Immigration and the Politics of Humanitarianism in France (University of California Press, 2011; co-winner of the 2012 William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology) and co-editor (with Ilana Feldman) of In the Name of Humanity: the Government of Threat and Care (Duke University Press, 2010), along with many other articles and book chapters. She is a founding editor of the journal Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Development. Next year she will be a fellow at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. register

Location

The lecture takes place in the Garden Room at the Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB.

Register

Registration is required for this event. To RSVP, please contact the Centre Administrator, Anneli Chambliss Howes, at anneli.chambliss@qeh.ox.ac.uk or on +44 01865 281720.

RSC Events: Global refugee policy | Refugee Studies Centre Public Seminar Series

Source: Forced Migration List – List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html

Global refugee policy | Refugee Studies Centre Public Seminar Series, Trinity term 2015
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/trinity-2015
Beginning Wednesday, 29 April

All seminars take place at 5pm in Seminar Room 1, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford Department of International Development. No registration is required* and all are welcome to attend.

Global refugee policy is a formal statement of, and proposed course of action in response to, a ‘problem’ relating to protection, solutions or assistance for refugees or other persons of concern to the global refugee regime. It is discussed and approved within UNHCR’s governing structures, and is intended to either limit the behaviour of governments or guide UNHCR’s activities. Despite the time and resources invested in the making, implementation and evaluation of global refugee policy, and concerns about the elements and implications of particular policies, our understanding of the process that leads to these policies at the global level, and factors affecting their implementation at the local level, is surprisingly limited.

Building on discussions at the RSC’s 30th Anniversary Conference and the December 2014 Special Issue of Journal of Refugee Studies on the topic, this seminar series will examine particular aspects of the global refugee policy process to further our understanding of how global refugee policy is made, implemented and evaluated, and the extent to which a more critical understanding of this process contributes to our ability to influence outcomes.

We also have the Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture this term, further details on which will be announced shortly.

If you’d like to receive updates about our public seminars and lectures, please visit our Connect With Us page and subscribe to our email alerts: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/RSC-Connect

29 April 2015
Understanding global refugee policy: the case of naturalisation in Tanzania
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/understanding-global-refugee-policy-the-case-of-naturalization-in-tanzania
Dr James Milner (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Carleton University)

6 May 2015
Better late than never? The evolution and implementation of UNHCR’s urban refugee policy
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/the-evolution-and-implementation-of-unhcrs-urban-refugee-policy
Dr Jeff Crisp (independent consultant) and MaryBeth Morand (Senior Policy and Evaluation Officer, UNHCR)

13 May 2015
Ethnographic understandings of global refugee policy: Looking at policy in practice
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/ethnographic-understandings-of-global-refugee-policy-looking-at-policy-in-practice
Dr Marion Fresia (Professeure assistante, Institut d’ethnologie, Université de Neuchâtel)

20 May 2015
UNHCR’s protection guidelines: What role for external voices?
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/unhcrs-protection-guidelines-what-role-for-external-voices
Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill (Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College)

27 May 2015
Global policy for IDPs: A parallel process?
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/global-policy-for-idps-a-parallel-process
Dr Phil Orchard (Senior Lecturer, Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations, University of Queensland)

10 June 2015
Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/Colson2015
Professor Miriam Ticktin (The New School for Social Research)

Please note: There is no seminar on 3 June.

*The 2015 Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture will take place in Seminar Room 3 and is free to attend and open to all, but registration will be required. Information on how to register will be circulated soon.

Courses: International Summer School in Forced Migration – application deadline 1 May 2015 (reminder)

Courses:

International Summer School in Forced Migration – application deadline 1 May 2015 (reminder)

Please note: We are currently experiencing some technical problems with our online application form for the Summer School. We are working to fix these issues and hope to have them resolved soon. In the meantime, if you have difficulties submitting the form, there is now a Word form available at www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/summer-school which you can download, fill in and send back to us by email. If you have applied within the last three weeks and you have any concerns, please contact us at summer.school@qeh.ox.ac.uk and we will be happy to assist you.

APPLICATIONS OPEN

Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford
International Summer School in Forced Migration 06-24 July 2015

Applications are invited to the 2015 International Summer School in Forced Migration, to be held at Wadham College, Oxford. The Summer School, now in its 26th year, offers an intensive, interdisciplinary and participative approach to the study of forced migration. It aims to enable people working with refugees and other forced migrants to examine critically the forces and institutions that dominate the world of the displaced. Beginning with reflection on the diverse ways of conceptualising forced migration, the course considers political, legal and wellbeing issues associated with contemporary displacement. Individual course modules also tackle a range of other topics, including globalisation and forced migration, and negotiating strategies in humanitarian situations.

Applications:

Online: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/summer-school. For any enquiries please contact: summer.school@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Entry requirements:

Applicants should have:
1. experience of working with, or on issues related to, refugees or other forced migrants
2. a first degree as a minimum
3. proficiency in the English language. As a guide, foreign-language English speakers should be able to obtain a score of 7.00 in ELTS/IELTS or 570 in TOEFL.

The participants:

Typically comprising more than 40 nationalities, participants include host government officials, intergovernmental and non-governmental agency practitioners involved with assistance and policymaking for forced migrants, and researchers specialising in the study of forced migration. The course, which is residential, is held in Oxford. Teaching is conducted in English.

The teaching:

Lecturers and tutors include research staff, academics and professionals from the Refugee Studies Centre and other world-class institutions, drawn from a number of disciplines and practices including law, anthropology, politics, and international relations.

Fees:

For self-funded candidates: £3,300

Deadlines:

The closing date for applications is 1 May 2015. The closing date for receipt of course fees is 15 May 2015.

For more information: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/summer-school

Events: RSC Public Seminar Series, Hilary term 2015: ‘The history of refuge’

RSC Public Seminar Series, Hilary term 2015:

‘The history of refuge’
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/hil2015

Refugee Studies and Historiography have only lately begun to draw on each other more considerably. Some important studies in other disciplines have drawn on and examined historical events and developments of forced migration. Nonetheless, refugee research has long lacked an empirically rich history of its subject. Moreover, the focus of this fruitful cooperation is often directed at historical experiences and causes of flight. In contrast, this seminar series will be concerned with the history of refugee protection, with hospitality, sanctuary and asylum for forced migrants throughout history. Speakers will present pre-modern forms of protection as well as various historical refugee policies in modern contexts. Their papers will illustrate continuities and transformations of refuge over time. Thereby, the seminar series will contribute to revealing the historicity of past and current challenges in refugee protection and to illuminating opportunities of lessons from the past.

All seminars take place on Wednesdays at 5pm in Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, OX1 3TB. No registration is required and everyone is welcome to attend. For any enquiries, please contact rsc@qeh.ox.ac.uk.

21 January 2015
Refugees and the Roman Empire
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/refugees-and-the-roman-empire
Professor Peter Heather (King’s College London)

28 January 2015
Refuge and protection in the late Ottoman Empire
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/refuge-and-protection-in-the-late-ottoman-empire
Professor Dawn Chatty (Refugee Studies Centre)

4 February 2015
*No seminar*

11 February 2015
The arrival of refugees and the making of India and Pakistan in 1947
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/the-arrival-of-refugees-and-the-making-of-india-and-pakistan-in-1947
Professor Yasmin Khan (Kellogg College, University of Oxford)

18 February 2015
Exile, refuge and the Greek polis: between justice and humanity
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/exile-refuge-and-the-greek-polis-between-justice-and-humanity
Dr Benjamin Gray (University of Edinburgh)

25 February 2015
Hospitality, protection and refuge in early English law
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/hospitality-protection-and-refuge-in-early-english-law
Dr Tom Lambert (Exeter College, University of Oxford)

4 March 2015
Refugees – what’s wrong with history?
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/refugees-2013-what2019s-wrong-with-history
Professor Peter Gatrell (University of Manchester)

11 March 2015
Out with the ‘international problem children’! US migration plans, settlement fantasies and the pacification of Europe
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/out-with-the-international-problem-children-us-migration-plans-settlement-fantasies-and-the-pacification-of-europe
Dr Gerhard Wolf (University of Sussex)

Courses: International Summer School in Forced Migration, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL IN FORCED MIGRATION
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/summer-school

06-24 July 2015
Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

Download the brochure (PDF 316 KB): http://origin.library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1116006239837-63/Summer+School+2015_12pp_WEB.pdf

Applications are invited for this year’s International Summer Schoolin Forced Migration, to be held at Wadham College, Oxford. The Summer School, now in its 26th year, offers an intensive, interdisciplinary and participative approach to the study of forced migration. It aims to enable people working with refugees and other forced migrants to examine critically the forces and institutions that dominate the world of the displaced. Beginning with reflection on the diverse ways of conceptualising forced migration, the course considers political, legal and wellbeing issues associated with contemporary displacement. Individual course modules also tackle a range of other topics, including globalisation and forced migration, and negotiating strategies in humanitarian situations.

The participants
Typically comprising more than 40 nationalities, Mid-career and senior practitioners involved with assistance and policymaking for forced migrants and researchers specialising in the study of forced migration. The course, which is residential, is held in Oxford. Teaching is conducted in English.

The teaching
Lecturers and tutors include research staff, academics and professionals from the Refugee Studies Centre and other world-class institutions, drawn from a number of disciplines and practices including law, anthropology, politics, and international relations.
Sponsorship

Asfari Foundation and Saïd Foundation bursaries are available for Summer School candidates who work on refugee-related issues from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria (or Palestinians and Syrians resident in the Arab world). Candidates wishing to be considered for a bursary must apply directly via the International Summer School office and not the Foundations. Please note the deadline for all bursary applications to the International Summer School is 1 March 2015. For any enquiries please contact
summer.school@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Fees
£3,300

Applications
Online: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/summer-school

For further information and an application form, please visit our website or contact
Heidi El-Megrisi
International Summer School Manager
Refugee Studies Centre
Oxford Department of International Development
University of Oxford
3 Mansfield Road
Oxford, OX1 3TB
United Kingdom
tel: +44 (0)1865 281728/9
fax: +44 (0)1865 281730
email: summer.school@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Reminder: Refugee Studies Centre Short Course: Palestine Refugees and International Law

Forthcoming dates

6-7 March 2015: British Institute, Amman, Jordan

13-14 March 2015: Asfari Institute, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/palestine

About the course

This two day short course places the Palestinian refugee case study within the broader context of the international human rights regime. It examines, within a human rights framework, the policies and practices of Middle Eastern states as they impinge upon Palestinian refugees. Through a mix of lectures, working group exercises and interactive sessions, participants engage actively and critically with the contemporary debates in international law and analyse the specific context of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and Israel).

The short course commences with the background of the Palestinian refugee crisis, with special attention to the socio- political historical context and legal status of Palestinian refugees in the region. This is followed by a careful examination of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including its philosophical underpinnings and ensuing human rights instruments in international law. The key themes, which have taken centre stage in the debate on the Palestinian refugee crisis, are statelessness, right of return, repatriation, self-determination, restitution compensation and protection. These themes are critically examined along with current discussions about the respective roles of UNRWA, UNHCR and the UNCCP in the Palestinian refugee case.

This course is suitable for: experienced practitioners; graduate researchers; parliamentarians and staff; members of the legal profession; government officials; and personnel of inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations.

This programme qualifies for Continuing Professional Development with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (CPD SRA) in the United Kingdom.

Instructors

Dawn Chatty, Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration and former Director, Refugee Studies Centre

Professor Dawn Chatty is a social anthropologist and has conducted extensive research among Palestinian and other forced migrants in the Middle East. Some of her recent works include Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced Migration in the Middle East (ed. with Gillian Lewando-Hundt), Berghahn Press, 2005, and Dispossession and Displacement in the Modern Middle East, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Susan M Akram, Clincal Professor, Boston University School of Law

Professor Susan M Akram teaches immigration law, comparative refugee law, and international human rights law at Boston University. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC (JD), and the Institut International des Droits de l’Homme, Strasbourg (Diploma in international human rights). She is a past Fulbright Senior Scholar in Palestine, teaching at Al-Quds University/Palestine School of Law in East Jerusalem.

Apply

Fee: £350. The fee includes tuition, lunch and all course materials. Participants will need to meet their own travel and accommodation costs and arrange any country entry requirements. Instructions for payment of course fee will be sent with your offer of place. Your place will be confirmed once payment has been received. Offers are made on a first-come-first-served basis to suitably qualified and experienced applicants.

Maximum twenty-five spaces

The Palestine Refugees and International Law short course is also an optional module within the International Summer School in Forced Migration. Candidates may wish to apply to attend the Summer School: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/summerschool

Click here to complete the online application form: http://mr31.qeh.ox.ac.uk/application-form-palestine-refugees

Events: ‘Refugee and Forced Migration Studies: The state of the art’ (Refugee Studies Centre Public Seminar Series, Michaelmas term 2014)

Refugee and Forced Migration Studies: The state of the art | Public Seminar Series, Michaelmas term 2014 

Wednesdays at 5pm in Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/michaelmas2014

This term’s series is convened by Dr Cathryn Costello and Dr Kirsten McConnachie

This series will range across disciplines and subjects in refugee studies, commencing with the launch of The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (OUP, 2014), a multi-contributor volume providing an overview of the discipline, its evolution and challenges. Refugee and Forced Migration Studies has grown from being a concern of a relatively small number of scholars and policy researchers in the 1980s to a global field of interest with thousands of students and scholars worldwide. Like the Oxford Handbook, this series will critically assess the development of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, providing an opportunity for scholars to present their most recent monographs and other research, and discuss their contribution to the discipline, its place in the academy, and refugee studies’ relationships with policy and practice.

15 October 2014
The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies [Book launch]
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/the-oxford-handbook-of-refugee-and-forced-migration-studies-book-launch
Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (University College London) and Professor Gil Loescher (Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford)

22 October 2014
The Ideal Refugees: Gender, Islam, and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival [Book event]
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/the-ideal-refugees-gender-islam-and-the-sahrawi-politics-of-survival-book-event
Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (University College London)

29 October 2014
Governing Refugees: Justice, Order and Legal Pluralism on the Thai-Burma border [Book event]
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/governing-refugees-justice-order-and-legal-pluralism-on-the-thai2013burma-border-book-event
Dr Kirsten McConnachie (Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford)

5 November 2014
ANNUAL HARRELL-BOND LECTURE*
Displacement and integration in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: a century later
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/harrellbond2014
Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Talal

12 November 2014
Love of women and a place in the world: romantic love and political commitment in the life of a forced migrant
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/love-of-women-and-a-place-in-the-world-romantic-love-and-political-commitment-in-the-life-of-a-forced-migrant
Professor Jonny Steinberg (African Studies Centre and the Centre for Criminology)

19 November 2014
Sans Papiers: The Social and Economic Lives of Young Undocumented Migrants [Book event]
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/sans-papiers-the-social-and-economic-lives-of-young-undocumented-migrants-book-event
Professor Roger Zetter (Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford) and Dr Nando Sigona (University of Birmingham)

26 November 2014
Inequality, immigration and refugee protection
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/inequality-immigration-and-refugee-protection
Dr Katy Long (Stanford University and University of Edinburgh)

3 December 2014
Citizenship revocation and the privilege to have rights
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/citizenship-revocation-and-the-privilege-to-have-rights
ProfessorAudrey Macklin (University of Toronto)

TIME AND LOCATION
All seminars take place on Wednesdays at 5pm in Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, OX1 3TB. Everyone is welcome to attend and no registration is required. All events are free of charge.

*The Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture takes place at the Examination Schools, 81 High Street, Oxford OX1 4AS. Please note: all are welcome to attend, but registration is required for this event. Sign up here: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/forms/lectures/annual-harrell-bond-lecture-2014

RSC Event: Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture 2014: ‘Displacement and integration in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: a century later’

Displacement and integration in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: a century later’ 

Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Talal

Wednesday, 5 November 2014, 5pm to 6.30pm

Examination Schools, 81 High Street, Oxford OX1 4AS

Please note: This event is open to all but registration is required. To register, please visit: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/harrellbond2014

The communities comprising the modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have a long history as refugee hosts. HRH Princess Basma bint Talal will examine the ways in which earlier refugee communities’ experience of displacement itself contributed to their integration within the developing Jordanian state. Princess Basma will discuss the ways in which Jordan’s Circassian, Chechen, and Armenian communities have negotiated different aspects of their specific identities and integrated in Jordan, considering the role of forced migration itself in creating identities.

About the speaker:

For nearly thirty years, Princess Basma has worked to promote a range of global issues, most notably in the areas of human development, gender equity and women’s empowerment, and the well-being and development of children. She is particularly involved with supporting the implementation of sustainable development programmes that address the social and economic needs of marginalised groups, including refugees.

Princess Basma is Honorary Human Development Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). She is also a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

 

RSC Short Course: Short Course: Health and humanitarian response in complex emergencies

RSC Short Course: Health and humanitarian response in complex emergencies
6-7 December 2014
Oxford Department of International Development
3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK

About the course:

Complex emergencies can result in movements of populations, widespread malnutrition, disease, mental illness, suffering and other outcomes that trigger humanitarian responses from a wide range of national and international actors. Many deleterious outcomes of complex emergencies could be prevented through effective programming directed toward physical and psychological health and well-being.

This two day short course will present critical examination of the normative frameworks for humanitarian responses in addressing the health and well-being of populations in complex emergencies. Alternative approaches to complex emergencies will also be presented and assessed.

The topics reviewed in this course will include:

* appropriate assessments of population health and well-being;
* community mobilisation;
* health services;
* food security and nutritional maintenance;
* health considerations for shelter and site planning;
* water and sanitation;
* the relationship between health and human rights.

Case studies and group discussions provide a forum for critical examination of the appropriateness of the reviewed standards and facilitate assessments of alternative ways for addressing: the health needs of populations; community participation; and appropriate programming in complex emergencies.

This course is suitable for: experienced practitioners; graduate researchers; parliamentarians and staff; government officials; and personnel of inter-governmental and nongovernmental organisations.

Please see the Download the Flyer (in PDF Format) for further details and visit the website at: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/study/short-courses/health-and-humanitarian-responses