Why I created this blog...

A proposal for an article of mine was recently accepted by the editors of a special issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly. The theme is "Researching Refugees" and the editors called for articles to fall under one of three topical areas: Historical Overview of Refugee Studies, Methodological and Ethical Aspects of Refugee Research, and New Approaches to Refugee Research.

My article will address the following:

Refugee studies is an interdisciplinary field of study with a strong policy and practice orientation. As a result, the pool of potentially relevant research literature is diffuse and challenging to monitor. This article will review resources and strategies for keeping current with research and publication developments. The focus will be on Internet-based services that any researcher can utilize, regardless of the type of institution within which s/he is based. Resource types that will be highlighted in the article include weblogs, discussion lists, and current awareness services. Relevant tools such as RSS feeds, e-mail alerts, and news readers will also be described in practical terms.

So I will be exploring a number of web services in order to make recommendations, and I thought a blog would be a useful way to not only keep track of my experimentation but also provide an online supplement to the final article.