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Karolina Augustova

PhD Candidate in Sociology and Politics, Aston University

My general research interest is focused on micro politics; i.e. how international politics impact the narratives associated with everyday experiences of individuals, particularly in the Post-Soviet states and Balkan countries. During my undergraduate studies (Charles University, Prague), my research activities examined the risk factors of female homelessness within the social and political contexts of the Czech Republic, and then the human rights and the everyday life of children with multiple disabilities living in the institutional care home in the rural Western Ukraine.
My recent study projects have been focused on forced migration, border and asylum politics, transit, masculinity, irregular border crossing, illegality, and migrant squatting. During my MA of Sociology (Aston University, Birmingham), I have used a range of visual and ethnographic methods to explore irregular border crossing attempts of young Afghan and Syrian men across the Balkan corridor to the EU. Drawing upon my MA, I am currently undertaking a PhD research (Aston University, Birmingham), investigating the everyday experiences of illegality of displaced men who are temporarily living in transit squats behind the EU borders (Serbia). This study is fully funded by the School of Languages and & Social Sciences, Aston University.

Experience

  • –present
    research student of Sociology and Politics, Aston University