Migration and Refugees Research Network Celebration

Join us in person for an insightful gathering to celebrate the Migration and Refugees Reseach Network, at Oxford Brookes University.

This event celebrates the Oxford Brookes University of Sanctuary Award (2025) and the achievements of the Jean Monnet project (2020-2025).

It will host talks, discussions, Q&A, food and a musical performance. We will be joined by Dr Leonie Ansems De Vries (King’s College London) followed by a roundtable discussion with local experts and practitioners.

It's a great chance to listen and connect with fellow enthusiasts and experts, as well as and enjoy some music, food and drinks. Everyone’s welcome!

During the event we will consider the impact of the UK's public policy turn towards an increasing anti-migrant and anti-asylum seeking agenda. We will be exploring the question: ‘what is the role of the University in supporting sanctuary in this climate?’

The event is open to all university staff and students in Oxford and beyond, as well as local partners and those working on themes related to migration and refugee support and welcome.

Dr Leonie Ansems de Vries is a Reader in International Politics and Director of Research in the Department of War Studies. She is also the Chair of the Migration Research Group. Leonie co-founded and co-chairs the Higher Education Humanitarian Group. Leonie combines critical theoretical approaches with extensive empirical research using collaborative and arts-based methodologies. She brings together research on migration, borders and the politics of violence with practical action and policy development on safe pathways, including the development of safe pathways into UK higher education for displaced students and academics.Leonie is the author of Re-Imagining a Politics of Life: From Governance of Order to Politics of Movement (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2014). Her forthcoming book, Politics of Exhaustion (Bristol University Press, 2025) examines the ways in which exhaustion is employed as a tool of governance to control forced migrants and how it is endured and resisted as a lived experience. Her research has also appeared in journals such as Review of International Studies, International Political Sociology, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Geopolitics, and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and on online media platforms such as openDemocracy and The Conversation.
 
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