Karen Jacobsen

Leir Chair in Global Migration and Research Director

Leir Chair in Global Migration, The Fletcher School at Tufts University

Research Director, Feinstein International Center

Contact

Working with Feinstein since 2000

Based in Medford, MA

photo of Karen Jacobsen

Karen Jacobsen directs Feinstein’s Refugees and Forced Migration Research Program. At Fletcher and Friedman, she teaches courses on forced migration and field research methods, and advises Ph.D. and master’s degree students.

Karen is a recognized expert in the field of forced migration, and she consults and writes widely on this topic. From 2013–2014 she headed the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) in Geneva, on leave of absence from Tufts. From 2000–2005, she directed the Alchemy Project, which explored the use of microfinance as a way to support people in refugee camps and other displacement settings.

Karen received her B.A. from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, her M.A. from Northeastern University, and her PhD in Political Science from MIT.

A South African by birth, Karen travels there frequently. She lives in Brookline with her son and dogs.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Urban displacement
  • Refugee and IDP rights and livelihoods
  • Migration and refugee policy

REGIONAL FOCUS

  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Middle East

COURSES TAUGHT

  • Current Issues in Global Immigration Policy (DHP 238), Fall Term
  • Forced Migration (DHP D239), Spring Term
  • Introduction to Research Methods (DHP D235), Spring Term

MOST CITED BOOKS & ARTICLES

  • Jacobsen, Karen. “The Economic Life of Refugees. Kumarian Press, 19, no. 2 (2005): 258-260. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fel003 
  • Dyan Mazurana, Karen Jacobsen and Lacey Gale. “A View from Below: Conducting Research in Conflict Zones.” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 254-274.
  • Jacobsen, Karen. “Livelihoods and Forced Migration.” In The Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, ed. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long, and Nando Sigona (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 100-111. 
  • Jacobsen, Karen and Loren B. Landau. “The Dual Imperative in Refugee Research: Some Methodological and Ethical Considerations in Social Science Research on Forced Migration.” Disasters, 27, no. 3 (2003): 185-206. doi: 10.1111/1467-7717.00228.
  • Jacobsen, Karen. “Can refugees benefit the state? Refugee resources and African state building.” Journal of Modern African Studies 40, no. 4 (2002). 577-596.

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