2012 Winter Forum

Displacement—the involuntary movement of persons and groups from the places they call home—affects more than 36 million (1 in 170) people worldwide.

 
Refugees, Rights and Resettlement, the 2012 Winter Forum, explored the practical and ethical challenges of displacement. Students met with policy makers at all levels, NGO leaders, academics, humanitarian aid workers and local refugees to debate legal questions of repatriation and resettlement; assessed and designed solutions to practical problems of camp life; developed more effective resettlement processes; and considered the politics of representation through performance and the arts.

The Forum complemented then (and currently) existing programs offered by the Institute, including the Focus cluster Ethics, Leadership, and Global Citizenship for first-year students; DukeEngage Dublin, in which participants partner with refugee- and migrant-led NGOs in Ireland, and the Refugee Resettlement Project. After the Winter Forum, the Institute launched the pilot DukeImmerse program Uprooted/Rerouted.

The Duke Office of Undergraduate Education co-sponsors the Winter Forum each year.