The Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar: Implications of Statelessness

Harvard FXB’s Work-in-Progress (WIP) Series will start the semester with a presentation of Dr. Balsari’s recent research with the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.

WIPs are an opportunity for researchers to share their work while it is still in formulation. A WIP generally starts with a formal presentation, followed by a lively question-and-answer period.

FXB Center researchers have conducted a series of studies among the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazaar since 2015, aimed at highlighting the wide-ranging and lasting impact of the host government’s and aid communities’ actions on the health and well-being of the refugees and the host Bangladeshi community in the region. Dr. Balsari will present findings from the latest studies in our series, since January 2018, and outline the interdisciplinary domains of inquiry that will be pursued in the coming months. This inaugural session will launch a monthly series of updates on the Rohingya crisis, brought to you by the university-wide Harvard-BRAC Research Partnership in coordination with the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University.

Satchit Balsari, MD, MPH, FXB Center Fellow

Dr. Satchit Balsari is on the faculty of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Since 2009, he has been a fellow at Harvard FXB, where his research has contributed to advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations affected by disasters and humanitarian crises. Until March 2017, he served as Director of the Global Emergency Medicine Program at Weill Cornell Medical College/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. His interdisciplinary interests in mobile technology, disaster response, and population health have been informed by his clinical practice in New York City and his field work around the world. In 2018, in collaboration with Professor Caroline Buckee (Epidemiology), he co-led the Hurricane Maria Mortality Study.

At Harvard, Dr. Balsari co-teaches a university-wide course “Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Social and Economic Problems,” led by Professor Tarun Khanna, director of Harvard’s Mittal Institute; and “Societal Response to Disaster and War,” with Professor Leaning at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Balsari also currently leads a university-wide initiative, the India Health Data Net, funded by a seed grant from the Provost’s office.