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Speaker Biographies

ESRC Conference “Whose Security? Migration-(In)Security Dilemmas 10 years after 9/11”

 

Chris Allen is a Lecturer in Social Policy. He is based in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. Since completing his doctoral studies which explored the discourse and theory of Islamophobia, Chris has developed this research in a way that has had both social, political and public appeal and academic impact. As well as appearing regularly in the media, in recent years he has worked alongside Government in an advisory capacity and has submitted written and oral evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia. Chris also sits as an independent expert on the Cross-Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred based in the Department for Communities & Local Government. Chris has published widely and his recent publications include: Allen, C. & Guru, S. (2012) "Between Political Fad and Political Empowerment: a Critical Evaluation of the National Muslim Women's Advisory Group (NMWAG) and Governmental Processes of Engaging Muslim Women", Sociological Research Online, 17 (3); Allen, C. (2011) “Opposing Islamification or Promoting Islamophobia? Understanding the English Defence League”, Patterns of Prejudice 45 (4); Allen, C. (2010) Islamophobia. London: Ashgate.

Leah Bassel is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leicester. She was previously lecturer in Sociology at City University, London and held Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at the Refugee Studies Centre/Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford and with the Group for the Study of Ethnicity, Racism, Migration and Exclusion at the Institute of Sociology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium. Before studying at Oxford, Leah was part of an emergency outreach team of workers in Paris providing humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers. She also set up circus camp project for refugee youth which then became an annual event. Leah’s work focuses on gender, migration and citizenship. She has published widely and her most recent work is a full-length study entitled Refugee Women: Beyond Gender Versus Culture (Routledge 2012).

Rino Colucello is Senior Lecturer in International Studies at Coventry University. His varied research interests include human trafficking and smuggling; Italian and transnational organised crime; and national identity and separatism in Modern Italy. Rino has published widely in these areas of study and among his recent publications are: Coluccello, S. and Massey, S. (2010) “Unlocking the Trafficking Networks”. Police Professional; Coluccello, S. (2008) “Out of Africa: the Human Trade between Libya and Lampedusa”, Trends in Organized, Crime 10 (4); Coluccello, S. (2007) “The Murder of Emanuele Notarbartolo and the Origins of the Mystique of the Mafia”, Transformations in Society and Culture (Eds. Gundle, S., and Rinaldi, L.) London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Yousef Dar is a retired police officer of the Greater Manchester Police and one of the founding members and out-going Vice-President of the National Association for Muslim Police (NAMP). He is current Chair of the Community Safety Forum in Manchester. Yousef has worked on community and police issues through NAMP over many years and organised a key conference on Islamophobia in the Police service, in April 2010. He has also campaigned on issues of equality and diversity within and outside the Police service and, more specifically, has raised questions regarding Schedule 7 and other counter-terrorism policies and measures with the Police, Home Office and appropriate authorities.

Akwugo Emejulu is a Lecturer in Education, Community and Society and a co-director of the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests lie in two areas: ethnicity, gender and socio-economic inequalities in a comparative perspective; and political identity and agency within community development and organisation. Prior to commencing her academic career, Akwugo worked in a variety of roles, in progressive political organisations, in the UK and USA, gaining experience as a community and trade union organiser and participatory action researcher. Among Akwugo’s recent publications are: Emejulu, A. (2011) “Can ‘the People’ Be Feminists? Analysing the Fate of Feminist Justice Claims in Populist Grassroots Movements in the United States”, Interface (Special Issue on Feminism, Women's Movements and Women in Movements), 3(2): 123-151; Emejulu, A. and Bronstein, A. (2011) “The Politics of Everyday Life: Feminisms and Contemporary Community Development”, Community Development Journal, 46(3): 283-287; Bassel, L. and Emejulu, A. (2010) “Struggles for Institutional Space in France and the UK: Intersectionality and the Politics of Policy”, Politics & Gender, 6(4): 517-544.

Anca Loredana Enache is a Research Fellow based at the University of Eastern Finland and holds an MA in Human Rights and Democratization from the European Inter- University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation – EIUC (2011). Her thesis examined the gap between the rights protection needs of migrant domestic workers and the actual implementation of the International Human Rights Norms. Her general research interests cover the areas of Roma in Europe; feminization of migration; transnationalism; race and racism while her current research is on “Families on the Move Across Borders: Children's Perspectives on Labour Migration in Europe”.

Liz Fekete is Executive Director of the Institute of Race Relations and head of its European research programme. She has worked at the IRR for 29 years. She writes and speaks extensively on aspects of contemporary racism, refugee rights, far-right extremism and Islamophobia across Europe and is author of A Suitable Enemy: Racism, Migration and Islamophobia in Europe and They Are Children Too: a Study of Europe’s Deportation Policies. Liz was part of the CARF Collective, and an expert witness at the Basso Permanent People’s Tribunal on asylum and the World Tribunal on Iraq. She is currently an associate of the International State Crime Initiative at King’s College London. Her most recent project, “Alternative Voices on Integration in Europe”, foregrounded the work of youth groups and innovative anti-racist projects whose initiatives are largely ignored by the mainstream.

Don Flynn is Director of Migrant Rights Network, a network of civil society organisations working to support the rights of migrants.. He leads MRN’s strategic development and coordinates its policy and project work. He researched and founded MRN after many years experience of working with migrant community organisations, through his previous roles as Policy Officer with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and as an immigration caseworker in London. He also chairs the UK Race and Equality Network (UKREN) and the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM). He has written numerous articles and papers on immigration law and policy in the UK, including: “Immigration Controls and Citizenship in the Political Rhetoric of New Labour”, in Zureik and Salter (eds.), Global Surveillance and Policing: Border, Security, Identity (Willan, 2005); and Immigration Under New Labour (IPPR, 2010).

Mary Hickman is Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for Irish Studies, St Mary’s University College in London. Prior to that she was Professor of Irish Studies and Sociology at London Met University where she established the Institute for the Study of European Transformations and founded the Archive of the Irish in Britain. Mary’s early research concentrated on the analysis of the relationship between class, religion and ethnic identity in complex processes of incorporation of the Irish in Britain and practices of resistance. This was followed by investigation of the discrimination experienced by Irish immigrants. Her current research interests include: migrations and diasporas; national (re)formations; analysis of ethnic and racial differentiations and discriminations; and comparative processes of integration/social cohesion. Between 2008 and 2010, she led an ESRC project entitled: “A Comparative Study of the Representations of 'Suspect' Communities in Multi-Ethnic Britain and of their Impact on Muslim and Irish communities”. This project compares the impact of counter-terrorism policies and representations of 'suspectness' on Irish communities and Muslim communities in two eras of political violence between 1974-2007. Mary Hickman has published widely over the years and her latest book (co-authored with Nick Mai and Helen Crowley) is Migration and Social Cohesion in the UK (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Mogens Hobolth is a PhD student at the LSE's European Institute. His doctoral research focuses on the development and implementation of the EU's border policy, investigating how member states apply common policy in practice, and identifying the factors and dynamics which explain the balance struck between open and closed borders. Prior to joining the LSE’s doctoral programme, he worked at the Courts of Denmark as head of an administration section. He has contributed to numerous conferences and his recent publications include "European Visa Cooperation: Interest Politics and Regional Imagined Communities", in LSE 'Europe In Question' Series (LEQS 34/2011), for which he won first prize in the LSE doctoral paper competition of 2010. He has also written (with Annalisa Meloni), "Promoting the Free Movement of People between the EU and its Neighbourhood", to be published as an EU4Seas Policy Paper (2011).

Eleonore Kofman is Professor of Gender, Migration and Citizenship and Co-Director of the Social Policy Research Centre at Middlesex University, London. She has researched and taught in the areas of Gender, Migration and Citizenship, in particular family and skilled migration; gender and racism; cosmopolitanism, national identities and migration; and gender and welfare regimes in Europe. Eleonore’s research in these fields has been hugely important and has increased our knowledge and understanding of gendered migrations and their links with social reproduction, welfare regimes and urban society in the West. She has an extensive list of publications among which key works to note are: (co-authored with A Phizacklea, P Raghuram and R Sales) Gender and International Migration in Europe: Employment, Welfare and Politics (Routledge, 2000); and (edited with Kraler, A., Kohli, M. and Schmoll, C.) Gender, Generations and the Family in International Migration, University of Amsterdam Press, 2011.

Maria Margaronis is currently the London correspondent of the New York-based, weekly periodical The Nation (http://www.thenation.com/) which covers politics and culture from a liberal Left perspective. She has written on various issues of concern in Europe and has most often covered Greek and UK politics. She has also written for the Guardian, the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement and made radio documentaries for the BBC. Her recent reports and writings have focused on the effects of the Eurozone debt crisis on Greece and have considered the emergence and impact of extremist parties. A recent article on Golden Dawn, “Fear and Loathing in Athens: the Rise of Golden dawn and the Far Right”, appeared in the Guardian (weekend supplement) of 27 October 2012.

Natalka Patsiurko is a Research and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sociology of the University of Aberdeen. Her areas of research include labour migration, informal economies and migration policies, as well as nationalism and identity in Eastern Europe. She was a team member on FP-7 ENRI-East project, investigating minority identities in eight Eastern European countries. Natalka Patsiurko received her doctoral degree at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she examined recent illegal labour migration from Ukraine to Southern Europe.

John Solomos is Head of Department of Sociology, at City University in London. He joined City as Professor of Sociology in 2001, having previously worked at Aston University, Warwick University, Birkbeck College, Southampton University and London Southbank University. His research and teaching is focused on the sociology of race and racism, sociological theory, human rights and social theory, qualitative research methods and multiculturalism and citizenship. Over the years John has published extensively in these areas and his recent publications include Transnational Families: Ethnicities, Identities and Social Capital (Routledge 2010 and 2011, co-author with Harry Goulbourne, Tracey Reynolds and Elisabetta Zontini); The Sage Handbook of Race and Ethnic Studies (Sage 2010, co-editor with Patricia Hill Collins), Race and Ethnicity in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan 2010, co-editor with Alice Bloch) and Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader 2nd Edition (Routledge 2009, co-editor with Les Back).

John currently serves on the Strategic Research Board of the Economic and Social Research Council and is joint editor with Martin Bulmer of the international journal Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Kerstin Rosenow-Williams (Ph.D.) is a researcher at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Ruhr University Bochum, in Germany. She has published on Islamic organizations and on integration and migration policies from a German, European, and transatlantic perspective. Her most recent publications include Organizing Muslims and Integrating Islam in Germany (Brill, 2012) and a forthcoming volume (edited with Kortmann, Matthias) on Islamic Organizations in Europe and the USA: a Multidisciplinary Perspective (Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Emanuele Toscano is a researcher at University G. Marconi in Italy, and Associate Research Fellow at Centre d’Analyse et d’Intervention Sociologique, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, in Paris. His research interests are focused on alter-global movements and on populism and extreme right movements. His recent publications include a monograph (co-authored with D. Di Nunzio), Dentro e fuori CasaPound. Capire il fascismo del III millennio, Armando Editore: Roma, 2011; and journal articles among which are “The Sphere of Action of the Alterglobal Movement: A Key of Interpretation", Social Movement Studies, 11 (1): 79-96, 2012; and (with Di Nunzio, D.) "Il Movimento CasaPound: l'affermazione dell'individuo e i limiti per la democrazia", Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 53 (4): 331-360, 2012.

Mariangela Veikou studied social anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK) and sociology at the European University Institute (Italy) where she obtained her PhD in 2001. She has held research positions at the European University Institute (Italy), the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (Italy), the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (Netherlands) and the University of Peloponnese (Greece), and teaching positions at the International School for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Democritus University of Thrace (Greece) and Panteion University of Athens (Greece). Her publications include articles in refereed journals and chapters in books on ethnic identity, migration and ethnography.

Salma Yaqoob is Community Engagement Manager at the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust. She is also a committed political activist and has, over the years, been involved in the anti-war movement in the UK and in local and national level party politics. Among the many activist and political positions she has held are: Vice-Chair of Respect (2005 - 2012); Birmingham City councillor (2006 - 2011); and head of the Birmingham Stop-the-War coalition (2005 - present). Over the years Salma has made numerous and notable media appearances including several on the BBC’s Question Time panel. Salma’s resignation as Birmingham City councillor (due to ill-health) and from the Respect Party (due to a break-down in trust at senior levels) was a matter of regret for many in public life. Caroline Lucas (Green Party MP) summed it up thus: "Really hope Salma Yaqoob's resignation from Respect doesn't mean she's leaving politics – we need her clarity and vision". Salma has also contributed to The Guardian, The Independent and other organs of the newspaper press.