We are delighted to announce that ODID Senior Research Officer Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh has been awarded a Special Grant by the Henry Luce Foundation to pursue her research project, Engendering Understandings of Faith-Based Humanitarian Reponses to Displacement, which will examine the gendered nature and impacts of faith-based humanitarian responses to forced migration from the on-going Syria crisis.

The $35,000 grant awarded from the Luce Foundation’s Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs will enable Elena to undertake in-depth field research in Lebanon into the gendered experiences and implications of local faith communities’ responses to the ongoing displacement from Syria. Through the Foundation’s generous support, an international workshop will also be held in 2015 to provide a space for meaningful debate and mutual learning on this important topic between academics, policy-makers, practitioners and displaced persons themselves.

This project expands upon Elena’s long-standing research into the intersections between gender, religion and humanitarianism, including an international workshop on Faith Based Humanitarianism (held in 2010) and a Special Issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies published in 2011 which were also generously supported by the Luce Foundation.

Read more about the project here.