Faculty of Anthropology, St Antony’s College

Start year: 2018

Thesis subject area: Issues of identity among stateless asylum-seekers from the Gulf. 

Supervisors: Professor Walter Armbrust and Professor Zuzanna Olszewska

My doctoral research examines what happens when stateless persons from Kuwait - known as the Bidoon - seek asylum in Europe. Difficulties and dilemmas arise as stateless persons are asked to prove their identities according to the expectations of European migration agencies and authorities, especially in terms of what documentation they may or may not have. I am specifically researching issues around identification: how identities are imagined, reproduced, and contested during the asylum process, through tribunal hearings, and when various groups of Bidoon in Europe organise and make communal claims for particular projects, political goals, and forms of communal support.

My research also explores the notion of morality in this context. This includes the ethics of ethnographic writing and representation in work on forced migration with asylum-seekers and refugees, and what consequences this has for an ethically-informed engaged or public anthropology.

The fieldwork for this project is conducted in the UK, Sweden, France, and other European countries.

Previous education

MPhil Modern Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford (2017)
BA Arabic and Politics, SOAS University of London (2015)

Awards

ESRC Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship
Clarendon Fund Scholarship - University of Oxford
St Antony’s College Warden’s Scholarship - St Antony’s College, University of Oxford
International Scholarship - Erik och Göran Ennerfelts Stiftelse