Mentor Meeting

My first meeting with my mentor, Professor Lauren Carruth, occurred on the fifth of September for about fifteen minutes. We discussed my background knowledge on the subject, which regarding legal knowledge, is very little. We talked some of the guiding questions I should be thinking about and researching as I move forward in my research. Such as who are the types of people receiving asylum in different nations? From where do they come? What is the path refugees take to get from Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Somalia, etc. to get to Sweden, Germany, and other places in Europe? Who automatically receives asylum? How do different people “game” the system? What are the different legal designations for all different categories of people leaving their homes? What are different protections given to people in the different categories? What is the international law and literature surrounding refugees and asylum-seekers? Also, from this meeting, I learned that the percent of refugee resettlement that happens is minuscule compared to the overall numbers of refugees. This realization led me to think that I should probably broaden my scope quite a bit to look at refugee “adjustment” programs and find a better term for what I meant to say which was programs that attempt to help refugees get acclimated to their new environment where they may be for an extended period.

We discussed what my next moves should be going forward and one of them was trying to answer the above questions and others surrounding refugees that we had addressed in more depth. I am also going to been looking at the scholarship surrounding the issue at large and some of my current more specific questions and dilemmas. I will start looking at the process for resettlement and the other protocols the United Nations Human Rights Council oversees and implements. I am looking at the different global organizations tasked with carrying out international law regarding refugees.

2 thoughts on “Mentor Meeting”

  1. Hey Phoebe. It sounds like you had a productive meeting. I think the best insight you received is how we need to learn the vocabulary for our chosen topics. I learned how to speak about my topic through the news, and articles from the major international relations magazines. Sometimes those articles may be put in terms that are easier to understand for the general public, not necessarily the same terms that a group of experts would use for each other. Your post is a good reminder that understanding how experts talk about their respective fields is very important. Thank you for sharing what you all covered.

  2. It sounds like you had an informative and productive meeting, Phoebe. Reading to establish your background knowledge and to establish the basic factual landscape of the topic area (the answers to the who/what questions you mention above) is an important step to take now so that you can use your knowledge of the topic area to identify a research puzzle. Keep thinking about the suggestions from Prof. Carruth as you work on developing and refining your research puzzle, and keep reading and researching. I look forward to seeing how the project develops.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *