Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh

Professor听 Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh鈥檚 research examines experiences of and responses to conflict-induced displacement, with a particular focus on diverse forms of Southern-led responses to displacement and a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. She has conducted extensive research in refugee camps and urban areas including in Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, France, Jordan, Lebanon, South Africa, Syria, Sweden, and the UK.

More about Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh

Elena is the Co-Director of 香港六合彩's听Migration Research Unit, and is the Founder and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies听Refuge in a Moving World听research network across 香港六合彩. She is currently the PI of a multi-sited听project funded by the European Research Council,听South-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey听(听补苍诲 ). Between 2016-2021, she was PI of a 4-year AHRC-ESRC funded project, '' (see and @RefugeeHosts), and between 2017-2020, she was joint PI of a 3-year project funded by the British Council-USA entitled听. Elena is currently听 Co-I on the AHRC Network Plus programme,听, where she is jointly leading the Baddawi Camp Lab with Yousif M. Qasmiyeh. Elena is External Affiliate Convenor of the South-South Forum at Dartmouth College, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Her recent publications include听听(Syracuse University Press, 2014),听(Routledge, 2015, paperback published in 2017),听听(co-editor, Oxford University Press, 2014), the听听(co-editor, Routledge, 2018, pb 2020),听听(editor, 香港六合彩 Press, 2020 - Open Access), and 'Recentering the South in Studies of Migration' (the introduction to the special issue of听Migration and Society听of the same title).

In 2018, Elena was awarded the Provost鈥檚 Established Career Academic Public Engagement Award for 鈥渃atalysing the development of 香港六合彩-wide public engagement activities in relation to support for refugees and displaced people and the impact of [her] own research on humanitarian policy and practice.鈥� In 2015, Elena was awarded a 2015 Philip Leverhulme Prize in recognition of 'the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising.' In 2013, she was awarded the Lisa Gilad Prize by the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) for 'the most innovative and thoughtful contribution to the advancement of refugee studies' in 2011 and 2012 (in recognition of her article 'The pragmatics of performance: putting 'faith' in aid in the Sahrawi refugee camps').

Elena is Co-Editor of the new journal,听,听with Mette Berg (香港六合彩-IOE).

Professional History

2018 (1 Oct) - Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies, University College London
2016 (1 Oct) - Reader in Human Geography, University College London
2014 (1 Sep) 鈥� 2016 (31 Sep) Lecturer in Human Geography, University College London
2014 (Jan 鈥� Aug), Senior Research Officer, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford
2010 鈥� 2013, Departmental Lecturer in Forced Migration, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford
2010 鈥� 2012, Director of the RSC International Summer School in Forced Migration, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford
2009 鈥� 2010, Senior Teaching Fellow in Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
2008 鈥� 2009, Research Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Education

2009, DPhil International Development, University of Oxford
2003, MA International Relations, University of New South Wales
2002, MSc Gender and Development, London School of Economics, University of London
2000, BA(Hons), MA Social and Political Sciences, King鈥檚 College, University of Cambridge

Additional roles

External Affiliate Convenor of the South-South Forum, Dartmouth College
Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Exeter University
PI of the European Research Council-funded project South-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey (aka Southern Responses to Displacement)
Co-I (Joint-Lead of the Baddawi Camp Lab) of the AHRC funded Network Plus project, Imagining Futures through [Un]Archived Pasts
Co-Editor of the Migration and Society journal

Recently Completed Projects

PI of the AHRC-ESRC project '' (aka Refugee Hosts) (2016-2021, completed)
PI of the British Council-USA funded project,听Religion and Social Justice for Refugees.听(completed)

Further news

Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh awarded Cornell-香港六合彩 grant for work on migration and refuge

Teaching

I teach on the following modules:听

Undergraduate

Migration and Transnationalism (GEOG0039)

Postgraduate

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Migration (GEOG0127)
Gender, Generation and Forced Migration (GEOG0129, Convenor)
Issues in Global Migration (GEOG0128)

Publications

To view Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh's publications, please visit 香港六合彩 Profiles:

Research Interests

Drawing on a critical theoretical perspective my work contributes to key debates surrounding refugees鈥� and local host community members' experiences of and responses to conflict-induced displacement; critical approaches to knowledge production in refugee and migration studies; the nature of refugee-host-donor relations, and both North-South and South-South humanitarian responses to forced migration. My research - supported by major grants and research awards from the Leverhulme Trust, AHRC-ESRC and the European Research Council - examines experiences of and responses to displacement from Syria through multi-sited research in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. At 香港六合彩, I co-direct the Migration Research Unit and the听Refuge in a Moving World听interdisciplinary research network.

Local Community Experiences of and Responses to Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey (Sep. 2016 - Sep. 2021)

Over 4,4 million refugees have sought safety across Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey from the ongoing Syrian conflict, with local communities, civil society groups, established refugee communities, and faith-based organisations providing essential assistance, solidarity and support to refugees. However, little is known regarding the motivations, nature and impacts of such responses to international refugee flows from conflict. This interdisciplinary and participatory research project is supported by a Large Grant (拢800,000) awarded by the AHRC-ESRC and aims to improve our understanding of the challenges and opportunities that arise in local responses to displacement, both for refugees from Syria and for the members of the communities that are hosting them in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.听This project is reframing debates about the roles and experiences of local communities and refugees in contexts of conflict-induced displacement in the global South. In so doing, the research aims to inform the development of policy, practice and service provision at local, national and international levels. The project team includes Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (PI), Co-Is Prof. Alastair Ager, Dr Anna Rowlands and Prof Lyndsey Stonebridge, Writer-in-Residence Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, and 9 local researchers in the Middle East. Follow the project on the 听补苍诲 through . Selected Open Access project publications听include the following: 30+ chapter edited volume,听;听the 2019 article,听'' (Journal of Humanitarian Affairs); and a co-authored report,听. , which has been exhibited in the IWM 'Refugees' season.

South-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement from Syria (July 2017 - Summer 2023)

With the support of a major European Research Council grant, between 2017 and 2023 I am leading a major multi-sited research project听Analysing South-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement from Syria, through fieldwork in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. This project examines how, why and with what effect Southern actors - states, civil society networks, and refugees themselves - have responded to displacement from Syria. Overall, the project aims to purposefully centralise refugees鈥� own experiences of and perspectives on these Southern-led initiatives. Indeed, by bringing refugees鈥� voices to the forefront, I aim to shed a unique light on refugees鈥� understandings of humanitarianism, and the extent to which they consider that diverse Southern-led responses to conflict-induced displacement can or should be conceptualised as 鈥榟umanitarian鈥� programmes. In so doing, the project makes a particularly significant contribution to debates regarding the desirability and/or tensions of 鈥榓lternative鈥� forms of humanitarianism which have, until now, been monopolised by Northern academic and policy perspectives. Follow us on 听补苍诲 the . Selected Open Access project publications to date include Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2020) ',' Introduction to the Special Issue,听Migration and Society, 3(1): 1-18; Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. with J. Fiori (2020) ','听Migration and Society, 3(1): 180-189; Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. with F. Carella (2020) ','听Migration and Society听3(1): 203-212; and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2019) 鈥�,鈥櫶�Disasters, 43 (S1):听S36-S60.

This ongoing ERC-funded project builds upon long-standing research into this topic, which resulted in my second monograph,听(2015). Through multi-sited fieldwork with and about Sahrawi and Palestinian refugee students in Cuba and Libya, and following their return to the desert-based Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria and the urban Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the book investigates the experiences of Sahrawi and Palestinian refugees during and after their time in Cuba and Libya both as a form of international migration, and as an example of South-South cooperation.

Completed Projects: Faith-Based Humanitarianism; Stateless Diasporas; and Gender, Islam and Displacement

Faith-Based Humanitarianism in Contexts of Forced Displacement (2010-2016)

This research project examines how, why and to what effect faith-based actors 鈥� including international networks, major humanitarian organisations and local faith communities 鈥� provide assistance and protection to individuals and communities displaced by conflict. In 2011, a听Special Issue of the听Journal of Refugee Studies听was published on 鈥淔aith Based Humanitarianism in Contexts of Forced Migration鈥澨�(24(3), Sep. 2011), and more recent听research funded by the Henry Luce Foundation听explored the intersections between gender and faith-based responses to forced migration, with a particular focus on the gendered nature and implications of local faith communities鈥� responses to displacement from Syria. Between 2014-2016, field research was conducted with refugees and local faith communities in Lebanon, and an international workshop was held in 2016 to provide a space for debate and mutual learning between academics, policy-makers, practitioners and displaced persons themselves.

(Re)Conceptualising Stateless Diasporas (2011 - 2015)

This Leverhulme-funded explored the experiences of members of two Middle Eastern stateless diasporas in four countries in the European Union: France, Italy, Sweden and the UK. In particular, it examined how Palestinians and Kurds negotiate, mobilise and/or resist notions of shared belonging in the EU, and analyses how Palestinians and Kurds who hold diverse socio-legal statuses conceptualise connections with other members of 鈥榯heir鈥� communities across time and space, and socio-political commitments to 鈥榯heir鈥� respective homelands and nationalist projects in the contemporary Middle East. Academic outputs included a Special Issue on 鈥�,鈥澨�Journal of Intercultural Studies, 34(6) (Dec. 2013), and a series of articles including 'On the Threshold of Statelessness: Palestinian narratives of loss and erasure鈥� (Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies,听2016) and 'Palestinians and the Arab Uprisings: Political activism, and narratives of home, homeland and home-camp' (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2016).

Gender, Islam and Displacement (2010 - 2014)

Drawing upon multi-sited research in the Sahrawi refugee camps (Algeria), Cuba, South Africa, Spain and Syria, this ESRC-funded research developed a postcolonial and intersectionalist analysis to investigate the roles of gender, ethnicity and Islam in performances of the Sahrawi refugee Self and Other 鈥榦n鈥� and 鈥榦ff-stage鈥� during interactions with secular, Christian and Muslim audiences in the refugee camps and in the international arena. In particular, it examines how, why and to what effect young Sahrawi refugees in the diaspora 鈥榠nherit鈥� and reproduce an 鈥榦fficial discourse鈥� which represents, and consequently constitutes, the Sahrawi refugee camps as 鈥榠deal鈥� spaces inhabited by 鈥榠deal refugees鈥�: secular, democratic and gender equal. My book,听听was published by Syracuse University Press in January 2014.

Refugee-Refugee Relationality听

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Southern Responses online presentation at Washington University

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Annual Lecture at Bergen鈥檚 Humanitarian Institute听

Impact

Throughout my research into experiences of and responses to conflict-induced displacement, I regularly engage with different academic and non-academic audiences. For instance, I have been interviewed by the BBC News, Channel 4 News, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, and the BBC Radio 3 New Thinkers programme; my research has been cited by听The Guardian;听补苍诲 I regularly contribute to evaluations and assessments by humanitarian organisations and agencies such as Oxfam and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). My research has been exhibited in a number of museum spaces, including as part of the 2017 Venice Biennale, the 香港六合彩-Culture Moving Objects exhibition (2019), and the Imperial War Museum鈥檚 2020-2021 Refugee Season.

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In 2018, I was awarded the Provost鈥檚 Established Career Academic Public Engagement Award for 鈥渃atalysing the development of 香港六合彩-wide public engagement activities in relation to support for refugees and displaced people and the impact of [her] own research on humanitarian policy and practice.鈥�

Faith-Based Humanitarianism

As part of this project, between 2011 and 2014, I collaborated with a 'Joint Learning Initiative' on Local Faith Communities and Resilience听involving academics, policymakers, practitioners and representatives from a diversity of faith communities to explore the nature and impacts of initiatives developed by local faith communities in humanitarian situations. In addition to co-editing a major听听with Alastair Ager (Columbia University), I oversaw the development of a policy note and an open-access Forced Migration Online听resource summary听page on local faith communities and humanitarianism which were launched in 2013. In 2016, I was appointed Academic Co-Chair of a new听Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities focusing on Refugees and Forced Migration. My recent publications on this matter include a piece in听,听an MRU Policy Brief on Gender, Religion and Humanitarian Responses to Refugees, a major research report on听, and a coauthored 2022 chapter on 鈥淩eligions and Forced Migration鈥� in听, edited by Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities.

In 2014, the听听was acknowledged in a new UNHCR Partnership Note on faith-based organisations as 鈥榠mportant to the thinking behind all areas of the follow-up to the听Dialogue on听Faith and Protection.鈥� The Special Issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies which I edited in 2011 on 鈥楩aith-Based Humanitarianism in Contexts of Forced Displacement鈥� and the policy note 鈥楲ocal faith communities and resilience in humanitarian situations鈥� were cited as key resources in UNHCR鈥檚 report and, previously, at UNHCR鈥檚 2012 Dialogue.

In May 2014, I participated in an expert panel discussion at the Westminster Faith Debates on 鈥楨ngaging Religion for Development.鈥�

In July 2013, I was invited to contribute to听The Immanent Frame听鈥� a forum established by the SSRC (Social Science Research Council)鈥� alongside other leading figures working on the intersections between religion, secularism and the public sphere. My contribution addresses the polemics of state-led 'religious engagement' in contexts of displacement and humanitarian crises:听'.

The Working Paper on听Local Faith Communities and the promotion of resilience in humanitarian situations, and a听听were referenced in听The Guardian听article 鈥樷€�.听I contributed to a debate on this subject on 23 May 2013, and some of my key insights were included in听The Guardian鈥檚 debate roundup:听.

In January 2013, I was awarded the听Lisa Gilad Prize by the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM)听for my 2011 article '.' Awarded at each biennial meeting of the IASFM, the prize is given for 'the most innovative and thoughtful contribution to the advancement of refugee studies鈥� published in one of the two immediately preceding volumes of the听Journal of Refugee Studies.

Gender, Youth and Forced Migration

In 2011, I presented the findings of my research in and about the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. My Policy Briefing () was launched at a policy roundtable at UNHCR-Geneva, leading to a number of changes in UN- and NGO-led projects and programmes for women and children in the Sahrawi refugee camps.

Research Students

Primary Supervisor

Tyler Valiquette: Queer Migration in the Periphery: Responses to Venezuelan sexual minority refugees in Colombia and Brazil (2022-present; primary supervisor with Richard Mole, 香港六合彩 Geography)
Claire Fletcher: The roles of faith-based organisations in supporting asylum-seekers in the UK (2016 鈥� present; 1+3 ESRC Funded; primary supervisor, initially with Claire Dwyer, with Tatiana Thieme since 2020, 香港六合彩 Geography)

Second Supervisor

Andrew Knight: Community-based humanitarianism: exploring refugee-to-refugee humanitarian initiatives in the context of the Syria crisis (2017 - 2022, DPU 60th Anniversary Scholarship, secondary supervisor, with Andrea Rigon, 香港六合彩-DPU)
Shayan Moftizadeh: Exploring identities among the second-generation Kurdish diaspora in the UK (2016 - present; secondary supervisor, initially with Claire Dwyer, 香港六合彩 Geography)
Ceri Butler: The Integration of Refugee Doctors in the UK (2015 鈥� present; co-supervisor, with Fiona Stevenson, 香港六合彩 Medical School)

Completed

Dr Diego Garcia Rodriguez: Exploring gender, sexuality and Islam: An ethnography of religious empowerment in Indonesia (2016 - 2020; secondary supervisor, with Richard Mole, CMII/SEESS)
Dr Khatereh Eghdamian: Rethinking Religion in Humanitarianism Beyond Identity Politics: Discursive representations of Syrian refugees and their effects on religious minorities in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey (2015 鈥� 2019, ESRC-funded; primary supervisor, with Claire Dwyer, 香港六合彩 Geography)
Dr Suriyah Bi: The Feminisation of Marriage: Ghar Dhamads, Generational Shifts, and Global vs. Local in Birmingham鈥檚 British-Pakistani Community (2015 鈥� 2019, GoK-funded; primary supervisor, with Claire Dwyer, 香港六合彩 Geography)
Dr Tom Brocket: Between West Bank and East Coast: Making Palestinian heritage in and from the United States (2016 - 2018, ESRC-funded; secondary supervisor, with Caroline Bressey, 香港六合彩 Geography)
Dr Chloe Lewis: Rape as a Weapon of War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Uncovering the Elusive Male 鈥榁ictim鈥�(2011 鈥� 2018, ESRC-funded; co-supervisor, with D. Chatty, University of Oxford)
Dr Kerrie Thornhill: Reconstructed Meanings of Sexual Violence in Post-Conflict Liberia (2011 - 2016, Trudeau Foundation Scholar; co-supervisor with P. Daley, University of Oxford; DPhil awarded with no changes)

Grants, Prizes and Awards

AHRC Network Plus Award (2020-2024)
AHRC Development Award (2019-2020)
European Research Council Grant (ref: ASSHURED 715582) (2017-2022)
Provost鈥檚 Established Career Academic Public Engagement Award (2018)
British Council-USA (2018-2020)
AHRC-ESRC Large Project (ref: AH/P005438/1) (2016-2021)
UNHCR (2018-2020)
Philip Leverhulme Prize awarded by the Leverhulme Trust (2015)
Lisa Gilad Prize awarded by the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (2013)
The Henry Luce Foundation (2010-2011, 2014-2016 and 2018-2020)
Oxford University Press John Fell Fund (2012-2014)
Leverhulme Trust (2011-2015)
Joint Learning Initiative (2012-2014)
Oxford Department for International Development, University of Oxford (2011-2013)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2012)
World Bank (2010-2011)
UK Department for International Development (DfID) (2010-2011)
Commonwealth Foundation (2010-2011)
Economic and Social Research Council (2005-2009)

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