The Program on Refugees, Forced Displacement, and Humanitarian Responses (PRFDHR)

As the movement of refugees has reached unprecedented levels globally, the program explores the profound and permanent consequences that these movements pose for economics, politics, environment, health, religion, culture and other areas.

The Refugee Program is a campus wide initiative, drawing on the intellectual resources of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Yale’s twelve professional schools, including more than fifty Yale faculty and scholars in economics, political science, history, sociology, anthropology, global affairs, management, medicine, nursing, psychology, public health, law, divinity, religious studies and forestry & environmental studies. It also engages undergraduate and graduate students who have been taking the lead in many initiatives on refugee and displacement issues on campus.

The activities of the program include:

• Providing research grants for Yale faculty and students;
• Developing internship opportunities for Yale students;
• Convening on-campus events, such as lectures, conferences, symposia, films, performances and exhibitions;
• Supporting long-term research initiatives on refugee issues in the Middle East and South/Southeast Asia;
• Launching a global “Refugee Research Network”;
• Hosting short-term residencies for humanitarian experts each year;
• Supporting presentations and meetings abroad on refugee issues;
• Encouraging faculty and students to publish online or in print;
• Introducing a gateway course on issues of refugees and forced displacement.

The Program on Refugees, Forced Displacement, and Humanitarian Responses reinforces the MacMillan Center’s role as a hub of interdisciplinary research and teaching on contemporary issues of global, institutional, and human import. The MacMillan Center draws its strength by tapping the interests and combining the intellectual resources of the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences and of the professional schools.