Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social and Geographic Dimensions of Humanitarian Care Work

Overlapping conditions of conflict, human rights violations, climate change and other inequities have resulted in historically high rates of refugee movements. Given the many challenges facing refugee populations, a range of humanitarian organizations from grassroots groups to international Non-Governmental Organizations work to support the social, legal, and material needs of refugees. This project investigates how care is practiced by refugee humanitarian groups, the social and political issues affecting care provision and how humanitarian care work shapes life in refugee contexts. This study uses 1) interviews with humanitarian care workers, and 2) workshops with humanitarian organizations and care workers, to understand how care is provided for refugees in the context of geographic formation and negotiation. Methodologically, this project develops an approach to understand the geographic dimensions of refugee care provision co-produced with refugees in the data collection process. This doctoral dissertation project generates original empirical research on humanitarian practice and care work through ethnographic participant observation, participatory workshops and in-depth interviews with humanitarian practitioners. The research investigates how humanitarian practitioners navigate and negotiate geographic contexts to support refugees and how care provision is shaped by the complex social dimensions in border areas. This research advances scholarship on displacement and feminist geographies by examining care work in border spaces at the geographical heart of questions over belonging, equity, and ethical considerations. A series of workshops are used to identify models of care and these are summarized in publications disseminated to the community of humanitarian organizations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.