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Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh

Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies and Co-Director of the Migration Research Unit, UCL

My research focuses on the intersections between gender and religion in contexts of displacement with a particular regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on an ethnographic, critical theoretical perspective my work contributes to key debates surrounding refugees’ experiences of conflict-induced displacement, the nature of refugee-donor relations, and both North-South and South-South humanitarian responses to forced migration.

I am currently leading two research projects: the first is a 4-year project funded by the AHRC-ESRC, which examines local communities’ responses to displacement from Syria in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey (see www.refugeehosts.org, @RefugeeHosts). The second is a 5-year project funded by the European Research Council which examines Southern-led humanitarian responses to Syrian refugees (www.southernresponses.org, @SouthernResp).

My recent books include The Ideal Refugees: Gender, Islam and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival (Syracuse University Press, January 2014), The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (co-editor, Oxford University Press, 2014, pb 2016), South-South Educational Migration, Humanitarianism and Development: Views from the Caribbean, North Africa and the Middle East (Routledge, 2015), Intersections of Religion and Global Migration: Issues at the Global Crossroads (co-editor, Palgrave, 2016), and the Handbook of South-South Relations (co-editor, Routledge, 2018).

Experience

  • –present
    Reader in Human Geography, UCL

Education

  • 2009 
    University of Oxford, International Development

Honours

ERC Grant (2017-2022); AHRC-ESRC Grant (2016-2020); 2015 Philip Leverhulme Prize; 2012 Lisa Gilad Prize in Forced Migration