We had a great start this week to our joint
seminar series on Psychology and Refugee Protection - the public face of our
collaboration with the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study, University
of London.
Our first seminar (of four) looked at the
issues of “expert” knowledge in the asylum appeal tribunals – how and when is
it useful and how is it best introduced into refugee protection
determinations? Professor Anthony Good
came down from Edinburgh University to give an excellent and thoughtful
introduction to the area, describing how knowledge of other countries is
provided to the courts, and turning his anthropological eye on the cultures of
the different disciplines that have to work together to address crucial
decisions about people’s lives. I
followed Professor Good by wondering aloud if areas of psychological literature
couldn’t also be considered to be ‘background information’, against which
specific medical reports and statements offered by claimants might be
assessed. Judge Mark Ockelton gave
thoughtful and illuminating responses to the talks and we all took some great
questions from the floor.
There was a wonderfully full and varied
audience in the beautiful, wood-panelled Senate House seminar room – from
practitioners to academics, lawyers to psychologists, decision makers, expert
witnesses, including many friends and well-known faces from the field.
Now I’m looking forward even more to the
next one, in early December: We’ll be talking about
integration – what is it? who needs it and when? Find out more at http://rli.sas.ac.uk/events-courses-and-training/psychology-and-refugee-protection-seminar-series/
and book a place now! Hope to see you
there.
