Launch of the Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. Seminar given on 15 October 2014 as part of the RSC Michaelmas term 2014 Public Seminar Series
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 worldwide studying displacement either from traditional disciplinary perspectives or as a core component of newer programmes across the Humanities and Social and Political Sciences. Today the field encompasses both rigorous academic research which may or may not ultimately inform policy and practice, as well as action-research focused on advocating in favour of refugees' needs and rights. This authoritative Handbook critically evaluates the birth and development of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, and analyses the key contemporary and future challenges faced by academics and practitioners working with and for forcibly displaced populations around the world.
In this talk, Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Professor Gil Loescher, two of the Handbook's editors, discuss how the book provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of the key intellectual, political, social and institutional challenges arising from mass displacement in the world today. Laying out the thinking behind the Handbook, they examine how it addresses these challenges and attempts to unify a diverse, evolving and crucial field.
Professor Loescher and Dr Fiddian-Qasmiyeh are joined by a number of the Handbook's authors, who reflect on their own contributions to the volume and highlight some of cutting-edge approaches and challenges emerging in their respective areas of expertise.
Read more about the Handbook: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/oxford-hand…es-now-available
