Exiled Scholars in Western Academia: Refugees or Intellectuals?

This volume focuses on the experiences of refugee scholars in Western academia through first-hand narratives that move between dominant humanitarianism and the academic establishment. It provides an intellectual view of this humanitarian industry from a refugee perspective, alongside stories of the refugee scholars’ contribution to the production of knowledge in the West. Contributors discuss their unique experiences and reflect on the changing nature of knowledge production, transfer, and exchange in a world increasingly affected by forced migration. Such reflections are not new. However, in this volume they explore how personal life difficulties and/or successes, mixed with emotional distress and cultural adjustments, could be framed into a scholarly analysis of academia in exile. In today's globalized world, the term "refugee" often evokes both sympathy and criticism, leaving refugee scholars in Western universities to ponder the ambivalent nature of their identity. This duality of identity creates new opportunities for rethinking concepts such as humanitarianism, indigenization, asylum, diversity equity and integration, scholar activism, and the transnational production of knowledge in the universities of the twenty-first century. Assembling scholars from around the world working in political sciences, international studies, anthropology, law, philosophy, and the humanities, this volume addresses both the geopolitical predicaments and the intellectual contributions of exiled academics in our troubled times.

Alfred Babo is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the International Studies Program at Fairfield University, USA.

Sayed Hassan Akhlaq is a Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University, USA.