Organised by the Refugee and Migration Law Discussion Group.

Ben Doherty, Guardian correspondent, and Rob McNeil, Deputy Director and Head of Media and Communications, The Migration Observatory will be leading a practical session on bridging the divide between academia and the media and having an impact on the public debate and discourse surrounding immigration and asylum issues.

Ben and Rob will be leading a practical and informal session on bridging the divide between academia and public engagement and publishing in mainstream media on refugee, asylum and immigration issues. They will provide insight on the way newspapers and media organisations work and what shapes their narratives, pitches that are likely to get attention, how to turn academic work into media outputs, and how to frame arguments when writing for the media. They will also consider how academic work can influence and impact public debate.

Discussion and Q&A will be led by Emilie McDonnell, DPhil in Law candidate at the University of Oxford, whose research focuses on the right to leave in international law and externalised migration control. She is a lawyer from Australia and the Co-founder and former Director of the Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service.