PhD Fellow

Mae MacDonald

2022 PHD FELLOW

Stanford Profile

Department: Political Science

Immigration Policy Lab

 

Violence against women in refugee camps: The problem that this project seeks to address is the prevalence of violence against women (VAW) in refugee camps. The first stage was exploratory research during three periods of volunteering with refugee NGOs, most recently in Moria 2.0 refugee camp in Lesvos. Through this work, I have developed a theory of three types of VAW on camps and two potential sources of variation (policing system and neighboring conflict). However, I do not know if they are generalizable outside of the Mediterranean context. The summer project is the second stage of this research, which will focus on partnership building, devising a strategy to measure key variables across refugee camps,  and preliminary data collection. I intend to work in collaboration with policy partners, and for the findings to inform changes to camp management, particularly UNHCR programs.