Winter Short Courses January 2011

The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is offering the following three winter short courses in January 2011:

1. Introduction to Refugee Law (January 9-13, 2011):

Course Description: The course will provide post-graduate students, international agency staff, NGO workers, lawyers and others working with refugees or interested in refugee issues with an introduction to the international legal framework which governs the protection of refugees. Through lectures, case studies and small group sessions, course participants will learn about the basic features of international refugee law including the components of the international refugee protection regime; the elements of the definition(s) of "refugee" contained in international instruments; the ethical and professional obligations of those representing refugees; the basic elements of the process by which refugee status is determined; and, the rights of refugees under international law. A background in law is useful but not required. The course will include a simulated refugee hearing in which course participants will be assigned roles to carry out in mock refugee status determination proceedings.

About the Instructor: Parastou Hassouri currently teaches International Refugee Law at the American University in Cairo. She has extensive experience in the field of immigrant and refugee rights. Her previous experience includes serving as an Attorney Advisor at the Immigration Courts of New York City and Los Angeles and working as an immigration attorney in private practice in New York City. In addition, she designed and directed the Immigrant Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, where she focused on responding to anti-immigrant backlash in the United States in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11. More recently, she has worked for human rights and refugee rights Non-Governmental Organizations, including a refugee legal aid program in Cairo.

2. Migration/Displacement, Development and Gender (January 16-20, 2011):

Course Description: In today’s world, the general perception of migration and displacement (be it due to economic, social, political, environmental or other factors) flows is that they are increasing and are often seen as an emergency in diverse parts of the globe. While forced displacement is often viewed as having highly negative effect on the displaced population, migration is also viewed as a remedy to diverse problems such as underdevelopment and violent conflicts. The course aims to assess critically the discourses of migration, displacement and development. In particular, it will discuss the impact of migration and displacement on the countries and (forced) migrants’ communities of origin. Recently, there has been much focus on migrants and their contributions to solving the problems of underdevelopment in their communities of origin. This view is often supported by the figures of financial contributions that migrants remit to their communities which is supposed to be double the size of the official development aid. Refugees on the other hand are still mainly perceived as ‘victims’ with little contribution to their places of origin. Some current research disputes these views and shows the impact of remittances from and to conflict areas.

The course will aim to familiarize students with the current debates and research on these critical areas. One part of the course will focus first on deconstructing the issue of ‘development’. The second goal of the course will be to introduce students to gender and generational analysis to unpack the links between migration/displacement and development and their interaction with gender and age. It will explore different contributions that migrant women and men, young and old make to their communities – social, economic, political, etc. Through case studies, students will be introduced to the debates at international, national and local levels and the current policy thinking on migration, displacement and development in sending and receiving countries.

The course is intended for graduate level students or professionals who have some basic understanding of migration, refugees, displacement and development issues.

About the Instructor: Katarzyna (Kasia) Grabska, PhD, is a researcher and a teacher affiliated with the Gender and Development Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, Switzerland. Her research interests focus on inter-linkages between conflict, forced displacement/migration, gender, development and rights. Her Phd research focused on the impact of forced displacement and return on gender relations among southern Sudanese refugees. She has experience of work and research in the humanitarian field on issues of human rights, migration, refugees and post-conflict development in Egypt, Guinea, Ghana, Sudan, Cambodia and Vietnam. She has conducted research on forced migration policy in the Middle East and East Africa. Before joining pursuing her Phd in development studies at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, she worked as a researcher at the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies program at the American University in Cairo. Her publications’ record includes a co-edited volume on rights of forced migrants, articles in refereed journals and research reports.

3. Community Interpretation for Refugee Aid Settings – CCIP Interpreter Training Short Course (January 23-27, 2011)

*Offered for the first time as a CMRS short course in Winter 2011*

Course Description: Migration and displacement experiences are frequently characterized by language barriers, which impede communication between refugees, migrants, service providers, and the host community. Trained interpreters are essential for communication accuracy in healthcare and legal aid services, and in RSD hearings, etc. Misinterpretations can result in erroneous health diagnosis and treatment, or faulty RSD decisions, frustrating best efforts to provide refugee and migrant healthcare, legal aid, and protection. Yet many service entities rely on interpreters with no formal training to perform their professional and technical role.

This course is specifically for the interpreters who work in refugee and migrant service organizations and agencies, and will cover the fundamental components of professional community / public service interpretation, including: interpreter roles, responsibilities, interpreted-session protocols and procedures, interpretation techniques, cognitive skills and memory training, note-taking strategies, glossary building and reference research strategies, and interpreter ethics, professional responsibilities versus community expectations, and interpreter self-care and burnout issues. The course will also review facilitation strategies for interpreters who conduct new-interpreter orientation workshops in their organizations. The course format will include role-plays, exercises, film presentations, and course reader, in addition to group discussions and presentations.

Requirements for this course: participants should be current interpreters working with refugee/migration organizations, preferably sent by their organization to attend. Priority will be given to interpreters who have had no previous training. Organization staff responsible for interpreter coordination or supervision are also welcome, provided they are fully fluent in two or more languages, so to participate in the multilingual exercises in the course. The language of instruction is English, but the course is not language-restricted; participants may be bilingual/multilingual in any language combination.

In addition to the regular course times of 09:00am to 17:00pm daily, there will be one to two required evening sessions as well.

About the Instructor: Alice Johnson is the director of the Cairo Community Interpreter Project (CCIP) within the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies in the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at AUC. CCIP provides training for community interpreters in refugee and migration settings, as well as technical assistance in language planning for organizations that use interpretation in working with refugees and migrants. Alice has over 16 years experience as a conference and community interpreter and trainer in migration settings in the US, Egypt, Hong Kong, Brazil, Kenya, and Turkey.

Eligibility for all courses:

The courses are offered for graduate level students, researchers and practitioners in the field of migration and refugees. The maximum number of participants in each course is between 25-30.
All courses are conducted in English and no translation facilities are provided. Participants should have a sufficient command of the English language.
Application procedure for all courses:

To apply for the courses, please fill out the online application here: http://forms.aucegypt.edu/cmrs/applicationForm.html

and visit the CMRS Short Course web page for more information: http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/cmrs/outreach/Pages/ShortCourses.aspx .

Applicants may apply and be accepted to more than one course. Please do not hesitate to contact [email][email protected] if you have any difficulty with the application process.

The deadline for submitting course applications is November 30, 2010.
Applicants accepted for the course will be notified by e-mail in December.

Venue of the courses
The courses will take place on the Tahrir Campus in Downtown Cairo.

Course fees:
The tuition fee for each course is 500 USD.
Participants are expected to pay a 30% of the total fees ($150) as a deposit in December 2010.

More information on payment method will be provided to accepted participants.

CMRS provides 5 competitive scholarships that ONLY provide a tuition waiver. Scholarship Requests will be considered on the basis of financial need and eligibility of the participant as well as resource availability at the center. The deadline to apply for scholarships is November 20, 2010.
Tuition fees will cover course material and 2 coffee breaks per course day.
Accommodation and any other expenses are not included. Please see the website for nearby recommended accommodation in Cairo.