Dawn Chatty, (born October 16, 1947) is an American Emerita Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, who specialises in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, nomadic pastoral tribes, and

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

. From 2010 to 2015, she was

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Anthropology and Forced Migration at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and from 2011 to 2014, Director of the

Refugee Studies Centre The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) was established in 1982, as part of the University of Oxford's Department of International Development (Queen Elizabeth House), in order to promote the understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migrati ...

Early life and education

Chatty was born on October 16, 1947, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, United States, to Diaeddine Chatty and Eleonora Swanson (''née'' Dorfman). She was educated at Wakefield High School in Arlington County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, and was a member of the class of 1965. She studied anthropology at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA), and graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA)

honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, ...

. She then studied social development at the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands, from which she graduated with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA) degree. Having returned to UCLA, she studied for a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in social anthropology under Hilda Kuper.

Academic career

Chatty is both an academic and practising anthropologist. She has held appointments at universities and at humanitarian organisations. This reflects her research interests: the

, nomadic pastoral

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

, and

, particularly young refugees. From 1977 to 1979, Chatty was

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the University of Damascus in Syria. She then worked for

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

(UNDP) as a technical assistance expert and was based in

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

between 1979 and 1988. She then returned to academia and was an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

Sultan Qaboos University Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) () is a public university located in al-Seeb, Oman. Established in 1986, it is one of the two public universities in the country and is named after Qaboos bin Said al-Said, the Sultan of Oman from 1970 until 202 ...

in Oman from 1988 to 1994. In 1994, Chatty joined the

, where she spent the rest of academic career until retirement. From 1994 to 2002, she was the Dulverton Senior Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House (now the Department of International Development). In 2002, she was appointed university lecturer in

forced migration Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR defines 'forced displaceme ...

and elected a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of St Cross College, Oxford. In September 2004, she was promoted to Reader in Forced Migration. From October 2005 to September 2007, she held a

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

Major

Research Fellowship A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for list of academic ranks, academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under ...

; the research she conducted during this period was published as ''Dispossession and Displacement in the Modern Middle East'' (2010). Between 2011 and 2014, she was Director of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. In January 2012, she was awarded a

Title of Distinction The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not established chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. Howeve ...

of Anthropology and Forced Migration. In 2015, Chatty retired from full-time academia and was appointed an Emerita Fellow of St Cross College and an Emerita Professor of the University of Oxford. She is a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

of anthropology at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's Abu Dhabi campus. Chatty's 2018 book ''Syria: The Making and Unmaking of a Refuge State'', an overview of 150 years of forced migration into and out of Syria for the general public was criticized in one review for containing errors of fact and of omission, in particular, in discussion the multiple causes of the Syrian Civil War, Chatty omits any discussion of the Syrian government's longstanding support of multiple Palestinian militant organizations, and omits discussion of the destruction and depopulation of Syria's Yarmouk Camp, which contained 110,000 people, most of them descendants of Palestinian refugees, at the beginning of the war.

Personal life

In 1979, Chatty married Oliver Nicholas Patrick Mylne. Together they have two children: one son and one daughter.

Honours

In 2015, Chatty was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...

for the humanities and the social sciences.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatty, Dawn 1947 births Living people 21st-century American anthropologists American women anthropologists Social anthropologists Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of the British Academy University of California, Los Angeles alumni International Institute of Social Studies alumni Writers from New York City 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American writers People from Arlington County, Virginia Academic staff of Damascus University Academic staff of Sultan Qaboos University American women academics