David Turton

Emeritus Reader and Former Director of the Refugee Studies Centre (1997-2001)  

Affiliation: Refugee Studies Centre 
Expert in: Forced migration
Geographic focus: Ethiopia, Europe

David Turton is a former Director of the Refugee Studies Centre. He is now affiliated with the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford. He has been carrying out anthropological research amongst the Mursi of southwestern Ethiopia since 1969, focusing on the impact of long term ecological change on human displacement and on the relationship between warfare, ethnicity and political identity.

In refugee studies he has been mainly concerned with the conceptual and methodological problems involved in the study of forced migration as a field of academic enquiry. Apart from many articles on the Mursi, his publications include edited volumes on warfare, migration and ethnic minorities in Europe, ethnographic film and Ethiopian federalism.