Wednesday, September 18, 2019
12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Room 505
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20052
Grounded in multidisciplinary and multi-pronged research, Dr. Rajput presents the results of an important scholarly work that enhances an understanding of conflict-induced internal displacement in comparative, institutional, and human perspectives. The content ranges from high-level interviews, ethnographic participant-observation and oral histories to policy analysis, taking the audience to not only the geographically dispersed societies across the globe, but across societal levels: comparing national elite policy and institutional actors with the lived experience of families within compartmentalized ‘migrant townships’.
Focused primarily on the forcibly displaced Kashmiri Pandits, forced out from Kashmir Valley in 1989, the analysis also includes case studies of similarly displaced communities of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, and Sudan (Darfur).
The book helps answer two of the most perplexing questions surrounding conflict-induced protracted displacement, namely: how do positions embraced by key actors inform IDP policies, and why despite the official return policies, families remain reluctant to return and equally reluctant to embrace host communities?
About the Speaker:
Dr. Sudha G. Rajput is the author of Internal Displacement and Conflict: The Kashmiri Pandits in Comparative Perspective (Routledge). Her 31-year career at the World Bank touched on multiple aspects of international development, working on thirteen countries of the former Soviet Union. Her co-authored book chapters appear in Scientific Explorations of Cause and Consequence across Social Contexts (Praeger) and in State, Society, and Minorities in Southeast Asia (Lexington Books). She writes for the Forced Migration Review. Her doctoral research has investigated issues of conflict-induced displacement in Kashmir, with a focus on societal and policy reform, leading her efforts to the development of a graduate course, Refugees and IDP Issues, drawing students from fields of conflict resolution, international development, humanitarian assistance and peace-building.
She is a Senior Researcher at the Refugee Law Initiative, a U.K. based think-tank. She is a Consultant/Trainer for USAID, designing and conducting capacity building workshops in Khartoum, Sudan, promoting cross-border co-existence. As a Professional Lecturer, at George Washington University, she teaches at the
Elliott School of International Affairs, where she brings multi-disciplinary approaches to her course on Refugee and Migrant Crisis. She is a trainer for the Forage Center for Peacebuilding Education, where during a 4-day humanitarian assistance simulation, she coaches students on systematic understanding of protracted displacements. She teaches at the University of Maryland Global Campus, delivering the MBA program for the military students. Her interests on post-conflict issues include her past travels to: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Sudan, and Ukraine.
