Fionntán is currently working under the supervision of Dr Tanya Harmer. He holds a BA International: Maths and History from NUI Galway and an MSc in History of International Relations from LSE.

Provisional Thesis Title

Humanitarianism and the Cold War: Refugees in Honduras during the 1980s

Fionntán's thesis looks at refugee camps in Honduras during the 1980s and examines the politics surrounding them and the experiences of those involved with them. During this decade a diverse range of actors were concerned with these camps - Salvadoran refugees, Nicaraguan refugees, Guatemalan refugees, international Non-Governmental Organisations, local NGOs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Honduran state, the United States, and eventually European governments. This research looks at the interactions between these groups.

This micro-study on Honduran refugee camps seeks to answer three overarching research questions. The first is on the relationship between the Cold War and humanitarianism and the way these differing ideological frameworks were simultaneously used to compliment and oppose each other. The second uses the refugee camps as a space in which the global nature of the Central American conflicts can be brought fully to life, in particular as spaces in which Central American campesino and indigenous groups had daily interaction with a diverse range of global actors. The third looks at the refugees themselves, examining their ability to act as agents and the way they experienced their status as refugees.