Senior Project Day 1!

Today marked the first day of my senior project/thesis! I'm very excited about it as I've been passionate about human rights, politics, and ethics for a very long time now. Today I dove into the first phase of my paper/project: research. I began with basic source collection. I visited the library, paged through books on historical refugee crises, and jotted down a few of my favorite sources so far. Then I hit the internet. I spent a good amount of the hour reading an article published by the Washington Post on the history of human displacement and the largest refugee crises around the world. There were visual graphs mapping the size and duration of the various crises. I'm interested a multitude of aspects surrounding refugees; however, the ones I'd like to do extensive research on include education interruption and the ethics behind countries being "asylum" countries. I will explore 3-4 of the biggest crises in modern history, which will include the displacement caused by WWII, the Partition of India and Pakistan, the establishment of the Jewish state, and most recently the Syrian refugee crisis. My paper will consist of personal interviews, research, and quite possibly the occasional opinion here and there. Ultimately I hope to shed light on the trials and tribulations of refugees, including those caused by established governments trying to help. I'd also like to focus on the good, meaning I'd like to tell stories that include happy endings. I wish to show that refugees are more than just that- they are inspiring and empowered people living lives just like you and I. I foresee it being challenging to interweave these stories into a fundamentally research-based paper, but hope that a resolution to this will present itself as the "story" unfolds. I'm really excited to get a lot out of this process because I'd like to continue to do research in college. I see this as a preparatory step, as well as a healthy challenge! I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!