Each year, the Examiners for the MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies have the discretion to award a prize for the best thesis submitted by one of the students on the course.
We are delighted to announce that this year’s prize has been awarded to Karen Hargrave for her thesis on ‘Repatriation through a trust-based lens: Burma and beyond’, which was written under the supervision of Dr Matthew Gibney.
The Examiners felt this was excellent work which offers an interesting new way to consider prospects for return. The thesis has clear real-world relevance in the context of the Thai-Burma border; and the potential to make a distinctive contribution to repatriation theory. Karen investigated the notion of ‘trust’ as an important component of repatriation and deftly combined several research angles: repatriation, a philosophical exploration of trust, and an analysis of the refugee situation on the Thai-Burma border. Her thesis offers an original, sophisticated argument and rigorous, in-depth analysis, showing a sound grasp both of Burma’s politics and the dynamics of refugee assistance. It has the potential to make an important and necessary contribution to discussions about repatriation and the Examiners have encouraged Karen to revise the work for publication as an RSC Working Paper at the first opportunity.
All students on the MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies who receive a distinction in their theses are encouraged to revise their work for publication in the RSC Working Paper Series. This year, nine candidates in all have been invited to publish.
