The OU Humanitarian Innovation Research Group (HIRG), founded in 2020, is a transdisciplinary research team, working towards the development of an effective refugee resettlement model for the benefit of both host and refugee communities in the U.S., within a global framework. The impact of this transdisciplinary team in global communities will be multidimensional, as indicated with each member's expertise: social work, architecture, education, library and information science, marketing, business, innovation, mathematics, health/mental health, and communications. OU HIRG is also an affiliate of the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Community and Society Transformation (ICAST).
"Refugees are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, with the same hopes and ambitions as us - except that a twist of fate has bound their lives to a global refugee crisis on an unprecedented scale." - Khaled Hosseini
OU HIRG’s mission is to improve the well-being and overall integration of refugees in host communities through research, creative activities, and collaboration with community partners. Our work is about building strong communities and networking systems, establishing safe and culturally rich neighborhoods, nurturing equal and inclusive education systems, developing sustainable economies and facilitating opportunities for refugees to become active economic members, improving physical and mental well-being, reducing inequalities in support systems around refugee youth, and helping with the overall integration of refugees in host communities.
“The old model of help for refugees, which is that you've got short term social service and that came from the international community and when the war was over you went home, that's broken down because the average refugee is out of their own country for 17 years." - David Miliband
Our transdisciplinary research proposes to develop a think tank within global reach at the University of Oklahoma, which will be recognized as the nexus for humanitarian innovation projects, benefitting refugees and other displaced populations in the United States and globally. To pursue this long-term goal, OU HIRG’s research focuses on developing transdisciplinary conceptualizations of the concept “sustainable and holistic refugee resettlement process and integration,” using both qualitative and quantitative data to explore a tentative research model.
