Refuge, Overlooked

The MENA region continues to endure political and economic instability, as well as a volatile security environment. It is home to 14 million refugees and 14.5 million internally displaced people. While more ‘urgent’ refugee crises have dominated the refugee narrative, funding, research and authorship across the last decade – namely due to the political prioritization of certain regional conflicts and foreign interests – a number of refugee groups across the MENA region remain absent from this narrative. Subsequently, the conflicts that produce them, jeopardize their livelihoods and push them into negative coping mechanisms are absent from the discourse and headlines as well.

Launched on World Refugee Day 2023, ‘Refuge, Overlooked.’ is an article and lecture series hosted at the Institute for Migration Studies (IMS) at the Lebanese American University and the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) at York University. The series looks to shed light on one underreported refugee community from the MENA region per month through an online guest lecture co-hosted between the IMS and CRS, as well as through a subsequent article. The series will culminate in an edited volume between 2025-2026.

*Turkey and Iran are also part of this regional focus.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions to this series should be based on original research. They will be evaluated based on their contemporary relevance, contribution to the field, structure and analytical rigor. Submissions are encouraged to be between 2,000 and 3,000 words, excluding footnotes, and must include an abstract of 200 words and 5 keywords.

No bibliography is to be inserted at the end of the manuscript. References are to be inserted as footnotes in any recognized referring style (APA or Chicago preferred).

Additional Notes

• US spelling for English.
• Submission is to be made in .doc format.

Please direct your submissions or any questions you might have to the series co-editors: Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab and Professor Nergis Canefe.