The Cautious Politics of “Humanizing” Refugee Research

Darling, Jonathan

Abstract

In this intervention, I reflect on what it may mean to ‘humanize’ refugee research. The assumption often made is that ‘humanizing’ can arise through a concern with the particularity of the individual, through drawing from ‘the mass’ the narrative of the singular and employing this as a means to identify, , and potentially understand others. Yet such a move risks a reliance on creating relations of empathy and compassion that elide political responses to dehumanization and often relies on a assumption of what constitutes the category of “the human,” an assumption that has been critically challenged by post-colonial writing.

Citation

Darling, J. (2021). The Cautious Politics of “Humanizing” Refugee Research. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 37(2), 56-62. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40798

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Nov 22, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 31, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 31, 2022
• Journal: Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees
• Print ISSN: 0220-5113
• Electronic ISSN: 1920-7336
• Publisher: York University Libraries
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 56-62
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40798
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1215869