Learning by Doing: Reflections of Refugee History – Public Keynote by Peter Gatrell

In his presentation, Peter Gatrell will discuss some of the conceptual and methodological issues which he encountered in writing refugee history, and how he has attempted to deal with them. He will connect these semi-autobiographical reflections with a dicsussion about what is at stake when refugees and institutional actors in the refugee regime "learn by doing". These remarks are informed by his current research, which makes use of the extensive individual case files created by UNHCR between 1951 and 1975.