WELCOME to the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC)  update containing a summary of the latest news and developments from the RSC.

CONTENTS

NEWS AND EVENTS

- Photographic exhibition: Guatemalan forced migration

- Elisabeth Colson Lecture: Prof James C Scott

- RSC Public Seminars

- Annual Report and 2008 Programme of Events

RESEARCH WORKSHOPS

- Violence, displacement and protection at the border of Uganda and Sudan

- Critical approaches to internal displacement

PUBLICATIONS

- Forced Migration Review

- Forced Migration Online

- Government and Opposition: Special Issue

- Book: Conflict, violence and displacement in Indonesia

- RSC Working Papers

TEACHING

- International Summer School in Forced Migration

- Short Courses

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NEWS AND EVENTS

** Photographic exhibition**

Guatemalan forced migration: the politics of care in representing refugees. The RSC is proud to present this exhibition of photographs by Manuel Gil. The photographer worked in collaboration with researcher Oscar Gil-Garcia, a Visiting Study Fellow at the RSC and doctoral candidate at the University of California at Santa Barbara. A selection of images from the exhibition will soon be available on Forced Migration Online.

9.00am - 6.00pm, 21 April - 3 May, the Gallery, Oxford Town Hall. All welcome.

**Elizabeth Colson Lecture, 21 May **

Prof James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, will present the paper "Zomia, a zone of resistance: the last great enclosure movement and stateless peoples in Southeast Asia". The paper looks at the historical migration of peoples to the highland massif of mainland Southeast Asia and reflects on the acquisition and mobilisation of their ethnic identities as political choices.

5.00pm, Wednesday 21 May, Somerville College, Oxford. All welcome.

** RSC Public Seminars**

** Annual Report and 2008 Programme of Events ** Further details of the work of the Refugee Studies Centre are now available in the Centre’s 2007 Report. Download the PDF file at:

www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/AnnualReport2007.pdf

A Programme of Events with details of all scheduled activities for 2008 is also available at: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/RSC2008prog.pdf

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RESEARCH WORKSHOPS

** Violence, displacement and protection at the border of Uganda and Sudan ** The borderland between Uganda and Sudan has experienced some of the most intense levels of violence and displacement in the world. The RSC is inviting academics, activists, policy makers and humanitarian practitioners to share their research and analysis at a two-day workshop to be held from 26 - 27 June.

**Critical approaches to internal displacement ** The post-Cold War period has seen the rapid emergence of the internally displaced person as an object of international humanitarian concern. To date much of the research on internal displacement has been policy focused. To address this imbalance participants are being invited to submit abstracts that address internal displacement from a broadly critical perspective. The two-day workshop will be held in Oxford from 30 June - 1 July.

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PUBLICATIONS

**Forced Migration Review **

The feature section on Burma includes 29 articles exploring the extent of the displacement crisis, factors affecting displaced people and the search for solutions. The issue also includes 19 articles on other aspects of forced migration. It will be published in Burmese as well as the usual four languages: English, Arabic, French and Spanish.

**Forced Migration Online **

FMO continues to expand it catalogue of multimedia content. Additions include podcasts of presentations from the recent RSC 25th Anniversary Conference in Oxford, as well as from the bi-annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, held in Cairo in January 2008. The collection of videos on FMO also continues to expand. New research guides on ‘Return’ and ‘Reparations, reconciliation and forced migration’ have been added. Research guides on Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestinians in Lebanon have been updated. Meanwhile the FMO team has started work on an exciting new initiative: the JISC-funded Open Access Repository System (OARS) project aims to enhance the existing digital library repository in numerous ways.

** Government and Opposition: Special Issue** This Spring 2008 special issue of the political science journal presents research which explores the intersection of political theory, comparative politics, international relations and the study of forced migration. Edited by Eva-Lotta E. Hedman and Matthew J. Gibney of the RSC, it is the outcome of an international workshop held at the University of Oxford in May 2007.

**Conflict, Violence and Displacement in Indonesia ** This volume, edited by Eva-Lotta Hedman and published by Cornell University Press, foregrounds the dynamics of displacement and the experiences of internal refugees uprooted by conflict and violence in Indonesia. Contributors examine displacement in the context of militarized conflict and violence in East Timor, Aceh, and Papua, and in other parts of Outer Island Indonesia during the transition from authoritarian rule.

** RSC Working Papers **

Four new working papers have recently been added to the series. Topics include: protection of Palestinians; repatriation and reconciliation in Rwanda; displacement in East Timor; and voluntary repatriation in Afghanistan.

Papers can be freely downloaded from: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/pub_working.html

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TEACHING

** Summer School **

The 2008 International Summer School in Forced Migration will be held in Oxford from the 30 June - 18 July. This residential course offers an intensive, interdisciplinary and participative approach to the study of forced migration. Deadline for applications is 1 May.

** Short Courses **

The RSC offers regular short courses. Usually held over a weekend, they each give up to 50 people the opportunity to receive additional professional training and develop expertise in particular refugee-related areas. Courses planned for the academic year 2008/09 include: Palestinian refugees and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Statelessness; and, Psychosocial responses to conflict and forced migration.

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