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Public Seminar Series Michaelmas term 2022

Convened by Professor Alexander Betts (Director, Refugee Studies Centre)

This year the RSC Public Seminar Series will take place through fortnightly seminars, on Tuesday lunchtimes from 1-2pm. This term, the seminars will cover a wide range of themes, including social cohesion, humanitarian energy, refugee education, and statelessness. 

About the speakers

Cory Rodgers is an anthropologist exploring the influence of humanitarian and development policies on communal identity and inter-group relations. His current research in Kenya and Lebanon looks at humanitarian strategies to promote social cohesion between refugees and local communities living in contexts of protracted displacement. Since 2015, he has worked primarily in Turkana County in northwestern Kenya, the site of the decades-old Kakuma refugee camp, where he has documented the politicisation of a ‘host community’ identity among Kenyans living in the vicinity of the camp. His doctoral project was an ethnography of the ways that urban development in Turkana have given rise to intra-ethnic schisms between the growing town-based populations and the rural majority of mobile pastoralists.

Watfa Najdi is an architect, urban planner, and researcher. Her work focuses on the intersection between urban and refugee studies, in particular refugee mobility, livelihoods, and socioeconomic integration in urban areas. Watfa is the Lebanon Research Coordinator for the Refugee-Led Organizations Project at the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the project coordinator at the Refugee Research and Policy Program at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (AUB). She has conducted and contributed to research projects on social cohesion and communal relations between refugees and host communities, refugee shelter programs and HLP rights, as well as refugee entrepreneurship and digital livelihoods.

Registration

This seminar will be held in person. No registration required. 

Please direct enquiries to rsc-outreach@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Public Seminar Series Michaelmas term 2022 poster (pdf)

PODCAST

Listen to the podcast

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.

Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture

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

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.

Connect with us

To keep up to date with our events and activities, sign up for email alerts from the RSC and Forced Migration Review, and connect with us on social media.

Forthcoming events

Humanitarian extractivism: the digital transformation past, present, future

Wednesday, 08 May 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

Film screening and discussion: Missing in Brooks County

Wednesday, 15 May 2024, 5pm to 7pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

Forced Migration on Film: A Conversation with Marc Isaacs | Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2024

Wednesday, 22 May 2024, 5pm to 6.30pm @ Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne's College, 56 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HS

Book launch: The Politics of Crisis-Making: Forced Displacement and Cultures of Assistance in Lebanon

Wednesday, 29 May 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

Skilled worker visas for refugees – a qualitative evaluation of the UK’s Displaced Talent Mobility Pilot

Wednesday, 05 June 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

A celebration of the life of David Turton

Saturday, 20 July 2024, 2pm to 3pm @ The Crypt Cafe, St Peters Church, Northchurch Terrace, London N1 4DA