Over 168 million people across 50 countries are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2020. Response to epidemics in complex humanitarian crises— such as the recent cholera epidemic in Yemen and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo— is a global health challenge of increasing scale. The thousands of Yemeni and Congolese who have died in these years-long epidemics demonstrate the difficulty of combatting even well-known pathogens in humanitarian settings. The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may represent a still greater threat to those in complex humanitarian crises, which lack the infrastructure, support, and health systems to mount a comprehensive response. 

Two recent UVA Batten graduates had a rare opportunity last summer to support one of the country’s leading organizations working on global hunger. Sadie Rogerson and Emma Nardone were selected to participate — with full funding — in a pilot of the UVA Batten Humanitarian Collaborative Fellowship program.

Two graduating BA’s, Emma Nardone and Sadie Rogerson, have been selected as Batten Humanitarian Collaborative Fellows for 2024. Nardone and Rogerson will work with the  World Food Program USA public policy team doing analysis and advocacy with members of Congress in support of the United Nations World Food Program’s humanitarian work around the world. 

In March 2024, Batten School Dean Ian Solomon and professors Kirsten Gelsdorf and Abigail Scholer joined dozens of scholars and others from around the world in Dharamsala, India, to meet with the Dalai Lama and explore ways to bring contemplative science and practice into teaching, research, policymaking and leadership in all sectors.

News and facts about humanitarian crises don't drive people to action, but a good fiction book might. Batten School professor Kirsten Gelsdorf and Humanitarian Collaborative practitioner fellow Adrienne Ghaly created a book club that might save the world.

David Leblang's research focuses on global migration, including refugee and migrant choice, as well as the link between migration and observed international investment, remittance flows, and the spread of democracy.

Controlling immigration has become a central political goal in advanced democracies. Politicians across the world have experimented with a range of policies such as foreign aid in the hopes that aid will spur development in migrant origin countries and decrease the demand for emigration. We argue that internal policy tools are more effective, in particular, the use of policies that allow temporary migrants short-term access to host country labor markets. 

Batten professor Lucy Bassett brought researchers from around the world together to tackle an issue that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the UVA Humanitarian Collaborative, Bassett organized a workshop focused on how more support can be brought to adolescent mothers and young children.

In a study for World Bank, Batten's Lucy Bassett and co-author share findings about teacher preparedness in Bangladesh's pre-primary education programs.

Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy professor Kirsten Gelsdorf spoke to UVA Lifetime Learning's podcast about the current state of worldwide humanitarian crises and organizations poised to address them.