Awarded by the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University, the Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies recognises outstanding scholarly studies from any discipline focusing on Middle East migration, refugees and diasporas. Usually two prizes are given annually. The first prize is awarded to one or more established scholars. The second prize is awarded to one or more graduate students. This year the selection committee awarded four different prizes: one for a book by a scholar, two for papers by scholars, and one for the best graduate student paper.

Dr Irfan's article, 'Educating Palestinian Refugees: The Origins of UNRWA’s Unique Schooling System', was published in the Journal of Refugee Studies.

The selection committee commented that Dr Irfan’s article presented a 'clear, cogent, deeply-researched reconstruction of UN education for Palestinians, and the ways the latter influenced its approach'. The committee found the power of the article to reside in its eloquence, analytical richness, and in seriously exploring the subjectivities of Palestinian refugees.

The Alixa Naff Article Prize was also awarded to Dr Samuel Dolbee of Harvard University.

Earlier this year, Dr Irfan won the Contemporary Levant Best Paper Award for her paper ‘Petitioning for Palestine: Refugee appeals to international authorities.’

Find out more about the prize here.

Access the article here.