Refugees & HCI SiG: Situating HCI within humanitarian research

Abstract

Currently the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees estimates that there are around 65.8 million forcibly displaced people worldwide [16]. As digital technologies have become more available, humanitarian researchers and organizations have begun to explore how technologies may be used to address refugee needs under the umbrella of Digital Humanitarianism. Interest in refugee and humanitarian contexts has also been expressed within the HCI community through the organization of workshops at conferences. While previous engagements within the HCI community have focused on our experiences of working within refugee contexts as well as developing a common research agenda, we have yet to explore how HCI research fits within wider humanitarian research and in relation to digital humanitarianism. This SIG invites HCI researchers to engage in discussions on situating HCI research within humanitarian research and response.