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Barbara Harrell-Bond: A life not ordinary

Barbara Harrell-Bond: A Life not OrdinaryDirector: Enrico Falzetti

Written by Katarzyna Grabska and Enrico Falzetti

Produced by Katarzyna Grabska in collaboration with AMERA Int.

Documentary: 58 min

Watch the trailer: https://vimeo.com/260901002

Through the prism of an extraordinary life, this documentary explores the achievements of Barbara Harrell-Bond – academic, refugee activist and life-long advocate of refugee rights.

The film takes us on a personal journey of a not-so-ordinary woman born in a remote town in South Dakota during the Great Depression. It traces her career from her initial engagement with the civil rights movement in the late Fifties, to her move to the UK in the mid-Sixties where she studied social anthropology at the University of Oxford, and then to her travels in West Africa where she carried out much of her academic research.

Her first-hand experience of the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria in 1980, and the humanitarian crisis in Sudan in 1982, led her to establish the first centre for refugee studies in Oxford, of which she is the founding director. A very strong advocate of legal aid programs for refugees in the Global South, Barbara endeavoured also to pioneer and establish a number of these programs including in Uganda, Egypt, South Africa, and the UK. 

Far from being only an academic, the focus of Barbara’s life-long work has been on refugee rights, and on keeping refugees at the centre of humanitarian interventions. Issues which resonate even more deeply now, in an age in which safe havens for refugees are increasingly being eroded and violations of human rights are on the rise.

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Registration not required.

Refreshments will be provided after the screening.

Information on future screenings elsewhere will be provided on this website when available.

Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture

The Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture is held in Trinity term. It is named after Professor Elizabeth Colson, a renowned anthropologist.

Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture

The Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture is named in honour of Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, the founding Director of the Refugee Studies Centre. It is held each year in Michaelmas term.

Public Seminar Series

Each term the RSC holds a series of public seminars, held on Wednesday evenings at Queen Elizabeth House. Click here for details of forthcoming seminars.

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Forthcoming events

Conflict Refugees: European Union Law and Practice

Wednesday, 13 November 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB

NGO Refugee Advocacy: Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges

Wednesday, 20 November 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB

Anthropology of Good: Exploring Volunteerism in the 2015 European Refugee Crisis

Wednesday, 27 November 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB

Rewriting Refugee Law: Centring Refugee Knowledges and Lived Experiences

Wednesday, 04 December 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB