Western University experts available to media ahead of World Refugee Day

Ukrainian refugees from 2022, crossing into Poland.

World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the United Nations (UN), will be marked this year on Monday, June 20, and comes at a time when the world is seeing record numbers of people displaced from their home countries as a result of war and conflict.

According to the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees, at the end of 2021 the global number of refugees stood at 89.3 million. Since then, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other emergencies pushed the figure over the milestone of 100 million.

Western University has the following experts available to discuss a wide range of topics for World Refugee Day:

Kelly Anderson

Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine& Dentistry

Areas of Expertise: Immigrant and refugee mental health; psychotic disorder among migrant groups including refugees

Stephanie Bangarth

Professor, Department of History, King’s University College

Areas of Expertise: Canadian immigration and refugee policy history; refugee movements to Canada; refugee reception history Canada

Kate Choi

Professor, Department of Sociology, Director Centre for Research on Social Inequality

Areas of Expertise: Immigrant and refugee health, immigrant and refugee fertility; social inequality, racial and socioeconomic disparities

Michael Haan

Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Director for the Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations

Areas of Expertise: Demographer, research intersects areas of immigrant settlement and refugee settlement

Vicki Esses

Professor, Department of Psychology, Director, Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations

Areas of Expertise: Refugee flows, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) responses to refugees, immigration and cultural diversity, ethnic relations

Randa Farah

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Areas of Expertise: Refugees, involuntary displacement, history/memory and identity; nations and nationalisms, humanitarianism.

Kevin Pottie
Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry

Areas of Expertise: Refugee health guidelines, global mental health, evidence-based guidelines

Bharati Sethi

Associate Professor, School of Social Work, King’s University College

Areas of Expertise: Social determinants of health in immigrant and refugees’ lives and capture its relevance to social justice. She teaches in the areas of community practice, policy, and transnationalism.

Commentary reflects the perspective and scholarly interest of Western faculty members and is not an articulation of official university policy on issues being addressed.

MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Zadorsky, Media Relations Officer, Western University, 226.377.1673 (mobile), jzadorsk@uwo.ca.