On Cancellation of RSC 40th Anniversary Conference

We are very disappointed to announce that the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) 40th Anniversary conference Recognising Refugees will no longer take place on March 20 and 21 as expected.

On 24 January 2023, the UK academic union’s (UCU) announced its largest ever strike action, the dates of which overlapped with the scheduled dates for the conference (March 20-21). RSC and RefMig agreed that the conference could not take place on strike days. Very few colleagues in the UK would wish to cross a picket line and attend the event in breach of the strike. The RSC Strategy Group decided late on 26 January to cancel rather than postpone the event.

We would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that over the course of the past months, RSC faced serious internal staffing issues, which have resulted in significant delays in proceeding to clarify attendance fees and the programme. As RefMig we offered some financial and considerable administrative support to the RSC. Prof. Costello had secured keynote speakers who were about to be announced. An academic keynote by Professor Lamis Abdelaaty (Syracuse University), author of the award-wining book Discrimination and Delegation: Explaining State Responses to Refugees (Oxford University Press, 2021) as well as a keynote conversation with Dina Nayeri on her forthcoming book Who Gets Believed? When the Truth is Not Enough (Penguin Random House, March 2023) were included in the draft programme for the conference.

We appreciate that the cancellation of the conference is disappointing for presenters and the academic community as a whole. As RefMig we will do our utmost to explore alternative ways to discuss the important scholarly work on different dimensions of ‘Recognising Refugees’.

We remain at your disposal to discuss any remaining concerns.

— Cathryn Costello, Natalie Welfens and Mitali Agrawal