All of the titles below link to thematic research sections addressing refugee. Each section will open as a PDF and contains a written introduction with approximately 8-12 open-access and multi-media resources (books, articles, videos, podcasts, etc.).
Labels and Media Framing: “Refugee” and “Migrant”
This section investigates the terms “refugee” and “migrant” in their social and legal constructions, demonstrating the impact of those labels on our thinking and questioning the distinction between both words.
What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Forced Migration?
What is visible about forced migration and those who experience it is not always the full picture. This section uses a transnational collection of books, articles, and films – some produced by people who’ve experienced displacement themselves – to present a more nuanced image of displacement.
What Is It Like To Go To School at the US-Mexico Border? An Introduction for Young Adults Interested in Border Studies
This section introduces young adults to what it is like to go to school at the US-Mexico border using videos, articles, books, and guided discussion questions.
Challenges of German Bureaucracy for Syrian Refugees
This section focuses on the experiences of forcibly displaced Syrians who now compose a majority of recent asylum seekers in Germany along with the bureaucratic challenges they face.
On Forced Migration, International Policy, and Existing Outside of the Law
This section aims to interrogate the problematic nature of current international migration laws and to understand (but not justify) the seeming ‘need’ to exclude certain individuals by looking at Giorgio Agamben’s theories of homo sacer and the state of exception.
What Makes a Place a Home? Protracted Refugee Situations and Refugee Camp Design
What makes a place a home? This section encourages students to question narratives portraying refugeehood as temporary and consider who is leading refugee camp design – and to what end.
Forgetting Humanitarian Aid: Mutual Aid for and by Refugees
This section uses concepts of mutual aid to complicate traditional humanitarian aid structures in and around refugee communities while prompting readers to design and advance mutual aid networks themselves.
