Conference report
As part of ELAC’s ongoing research on humanitarian ethics, Hugo Slim1 and Anaïs Rességuier organised a conference on 17 December 2013 at the University of Oxford entitled “Humanitarian Workers: Personal Ethics, Psychology, and Lifestyle”. The aim of the conference was to come to a better understanding of the human face of humanitarian action. While individual actors play a significant role in shaping the practice of humanitarian aid, their experience has been generally disregarded by recent academic literature which has mainly focused on macro-level analyses of the political and operational challenges that this practice faces in armed conflicts and disasters. The primary objective of the conference was to start a discussion on the lived experience of individual humanitarians through three disciplinary angles: ethics, psychology and anthropology. The dialogue took place at the interface of theory and practice, inviting around the table European researchers and humanitarian professionals. This paper gives a summary of the presentations and discussions that took place over the day.
