Tribute to Barbara Harrell-Bond

The June 2019 issue of FMR is being published as a tribute to Barbara Harrell-Bond, founder of the Refugee Studies Centre and of Forced Migration Review, who died in July 2018. In addition to the main feature on ‘Ethics and displacement’, it will include a special section focusing on Barbara’s work and influence.

When Barbara died, tributes poured in from around the world. The section to be dedicated to Barbara in the June 2019 issue of FMR will attempt to illuminate different aspects of her work, approach and achievements. As this is FMR, we also want each article to be useful for our readers around the world – not just a tribute but a vehicle for inspiring, for learning, and for improving policy and practice for refugees.

“So you think you can save the world? I hope you don’t plan on sleeping much.” Thus said Barbara Harrell-Bond to a young researcher in Cairo. Academic, activist and advocate, Barbara was tireless – and demanding – in her pursuit of:

  • fighting injustice in the way refugees are treated throughout the world
  • respecting the rights, agency, resilience and dignity of refugees
  • using academic research to make a positive difference to their world
  • speaking truth to power, backed by robust evidence

 

We invite authors to consider what we might learn from her rationale for and her approach to the above. What did she achieve? What impact did she have on individuals, organisations and systems? What key elements of her work can we carry on, how, and why?

Also, more concretely, we invite authors to discuss the impact and relevance today of her:

  • publications Imposing Aid: Emergency Assistance to Refugees and Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism
  • work to establish refugee studies as a new, inter-disciplinary field of academic studies, and to set up refugee studies centres in various countries in the Global South
  • organisations AMERA and IRRI/Rights in Exile
  • critical approach to humanitarianism
  • opposition to camps

 

If you are interesting in contributing an article, please contact the Editors at fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk with an outline of what you plan to write on. We will only be able to publish 8–12 articles and do not wish to receive submissions which have not been discussed in advance.

Articles may range from 600–2,000 words in length. You are welcome to include some personal reminiscences but please ensure that your article is primarily analytical, policy/practice-oriented, challenging and useful for our global readership.

We would like to include a wide range of perspectives and we encourage those working in the Global South and/or with a refugee background to contact us with their proposals.

Deadline for submission of proposals: 4th February 2019
(but we encourage you to submit proposals as soon as possible)

Deadline for submission of articles: 25th February 2019

If you are planning to write, please read our guidelines for authors at www.fmreview.org/writing-fmr.

 

Marion Couldrey and Jenny Peebles
Co-Editors, Forced Migration Review
fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk
  www.fmreview.org