Master Class with Prof. Gil Loescher
On 22 September, Carleton graduate students had the opportunity to meet informally with Gil Loescher, hear about the process that led to UNHCR in World Politics, how the book was received, and discuss how this process and work relates to their own research.
Gil Loescher is Visiting Professor at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. He is a long-established expert on international refugee policy. For over 25 years, he was Professor of International Relations at the University of Notre Dame in the United States and was a visiting fellow at Princeton University, LSE, Oxford and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs at the US State Department in Washington DC.
For more than 30 years, he has been a pioneer in the understanding the relationship between world politics and the causes, consequences and possible responses to forced migration, especially refugee movements. His innovation in the field has resulted in dozens of publications and laid the foundation for the future study of the role of domestic and international politics in historical and contemporary responses to refugees.
His 2001 book, The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path, is the definitive political history of the first five decades of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The book draws on decades of interviews, field research around the world and archival research to examine the origins and evolution of UNHCR from a small organization with limited resources and influence to one of the largest and most influential humanitarian organizations in the world.
Please note: The UNHCR and World Politics is available as an e-book in the Carleton Library at no cost to Carleton students.