Power, Ethics, and Human Rights: Studies of Refugee Research and Action

Refugees experience some of the most visible manifestations of human rights abuses in the world - and raise difficult issues for researchers and policymakers alike. This is an investigation of a broad range of complexities that arise as ethnographers work with refugee populations from different geographical areas in research, policy formation, and legal and social assistance. The contributors draw on their intensive fieldwork to explore issues surrounding power and disempowerment between researcher and subject; dilemmas over the protection of research informants; and the rights and actions of refugees in representing themselves and their cultures in advocacy and policy arenas. These explorations seek to revitalize, in detail drawn from case studies, theoretical debates on anthropology and ethnographic research, while suggesting new, empowering approaches to applied work and ethnographic study. The contributors include Ruth M. Krulfeld, Lucia Ann McSpadden, Greta Uehling, and Faith R. Warner.