Our pillars
Academic Pillar
The Academic Pillar is responsible for developing and running graduate-level academic training programmes. Our academic activities draw upon the best of the University of Oxford’s Refugee Sttudies Centre’s resources, teaching, and mentorship. We ensure that people with lived experience of forced displacement can acquire the skills and qualifications to become leaders across the humanitarian sector. We do this through our unique ‘pathway’ approach to professional development, which supports access to practical and academic skills training, and degree programmes at Oxford and elsewhere. We support learners who have pursued Bachelor’s degrees (or have equivalent education experience) and who may have interest in Master’s and doctoral degree, as well as post-graduate opportunities.
Livelihoods Pillar
The Professional Placements Pillar facilitates career placements for scholars who have been affected by forced displacement. Our professional placement activities aim to support RLRH affiliates who have completed our academic and research training programmes to access opportunities with organisations and individuals who are are committed to supporting refugee leadership in positions of influence. Most placements we offer are with partners in humanitarian and development research and practice, though RLRH affiliates welcome making connections in other fields. To date, 45 placements have been completed or are currently ongoing.
Previous and current hosts include:
PILnet, Chatham House, DRC’s Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat (ReDDS), Mixed Migration Centre, Migration Policy Institute, Oxford’s Forced Migration Review (FMR), UNITAR’s Global Platform for Action, Australian National University’s Rewriting Jurisprudence, East African Centre for Forced Migration and Displacement (EACFMD), and Refugee Education UK, as well as research groups and academics at the University of Oxford, the British Institute in Eastern Africa, the Australian National University, and more.
Research Pillar
The Research Pillar enables researchers who have been affected by displacement to lead primary and secondary research studies in the field of forced migration, from start to finish. Our main thematic interests in Refugee Studies are 1) livelihoods and self-reliance; and 2) leadership and participation of displaced populations in humanitarian response and policy-making. RLRH collaborates on research projects with partners committed to organisations to provide research support, advice, and training. Through partnerships with NGOs and international organisations across East Africa and globally, the RLRH ensures that its research is available and widely disseminated.
