SCHOLARS TODAY
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2016 there are around 60 million refugees worldwide who have been displaced by multiple conflicts and persecutions. As the world faces a refugee crisis on a scale unparalleled since World War II, Vassar faculty and students are collaborating across many disciplines both to study the crisis and to provide support for those displaced. In pursuing these goals, Vassar is once again making a concerted effort to invite refugee scholars to campus to share their stories and spread awareness about the issues faced by displaced peoples.
In spring 2016, Professor Maria Höhn developed a course about the 21st century refugee crisis as a forum for discussion and research about the ongoing crisis and ways that Vassar could help address it. The final projects for this course sought to learn from past crises in order to inform our present response. Summaries of those projects can be found here.