Claire Walkey, who recently completed her DPhil at the RSC, has written a new blog for the Refugee Law Initiative reflecting on her doctoral research. Titled ‘Refugee studies without refugees: some methodological reflections’, she reflects on how little refugees themselves, and their views, actually came into the research. While her research focused on what government and UN officials do and decide, she had expected refugees to appear as ‘actors in the story’, but they did not. Claire considers the methodological implications of this.