My work concentrates on forced migration as a result of conflict and disasters. My current work concerns humanitarianism in protracted displacement and chronic crises, housing and home for forced migrants, self-recovery as well as young persons. Much of my work has been in urban contexts and in camps. As a human geographer, I am interested in how, in chronic crises and displacement, the relationships between people and places change due to displacement.
I also research the ethics and politics of humanitarianism, the experiences and practices of humanitarians, and the unintended consequences of humanitarian categories and labelling practices, particularly in the context of long-term conflict and displacement. Temporal and spatial dimensions of both forced migration and humanitarianism are cross-cutting themes.
Collaborating with colleagues, organisations and citizen groups in Sri Lanka, Georgia, Uganda, Malawi, Lebanon and Jordan I have developed innovatory methods for ethnographic fieldwork, participatory action research and real time research. I am particularly interested in how such methodological insights may contribute to improving knowledge production, particularly among humanitarian organisations and policy makers.
Research group membership
Migration and Refugees Network
Research grants and awards
Holding Aid Accountable: Relational Humanitarianism in Protracted Crisis (AidAccount).
Date: 2020 – 2023; Funder: Research Council of Norway:
Status: I am Co-I on the project.
Co-researchers: Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) (Project owner); Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Makerere University; Rako Research and Communication Centre in Hargeisa, Somaliland; Centre for Migration Research and Development in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Effects of Externalisation: EU Migration Management in Africa and the Middle East.
Date: Oct 2020 – Sept 2024; Funder: NORDFORSK: Joint Nordic-UK research programme on Integration and Migration:
Status: I am Co-I on the project.
Co-Researchers: Christian Michelsen Institute (project owner), Danish Institute for International Studies, University of Manchester.
Self-recovery housing for development: scaling up crisis preparedness and humanitarian shelter response.
Date: Nov 2019 – Sept 2021; Funder: EPSRC/GCRF (EP/T015160/1):
Status: I am PI on the project with Charles Parrack
Co-researchers: CARE UK International, Catholic Relief Services, Habitat for Humanity, IFRC, Overseas Development Institute (we have secured 3 additional months through COVID funding for this project)
Title: From education to employment? Trajectories of young people in Lebanon’s refugee crisis.
Date: Dec 2018 – Oct 2021; Funder: ESRC/GCRF (ES/S004742/1)
Status: I am PI on the project woth Maha Shuayb (CLS),
Co-researchers: Centre for Lebanese Studies, Lebanese American University (We have secured 6 extra month of COVID funding for this project)
Towards employment? Youth trajectories in Jordan and Lebanon’s refugee crisis.
Date: 2019 – 2021; Funder: International Development Research Centre (IDRC) (109043-001)
Status: I am Co-PI on the project with Maha Shuayb.
Co-researchers: The Centre for Lebanese Studies, Lebanese American University (project owner)
Further information
CENDEP homepage:
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/architecture/research/cendep/