Guest editorial

摘要

This Special Issue focuses on the work of The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA), in particular, the work of one of its contemporary branches, the Iraq Research Fellowship Programme (IRFP). Through the IRFP CARA has worked to support the academic freedom of Iraqi scholars at risk of oppression and exclusion from the academy. This Special Issue is one of a number of events and publications to mark CARA's 80th year and it is particularly written to celebrate the achievement of teams of Iraqi scholars whose work is associated with phenomena pertaining to medicine, conflict and survival. These scholars have sought support, knowing that 'working as an academic in Iraq is a hazardous occupation'. We have elaborated elsewhere the social and political context of medical research in Iraq (Brunskell-Evans and Moore 2012; see review later in this volume). This includes the murder of academics and decimation of the academy in the years following the Occupation by the United States and Coalition forces. In the words of IRFP scholars 'there have been terrible losses'... 'key members of our research teams have been assassinated. This creates a feeling of darkness'(op cit.).