Students

Transmission and support are key foci of the Global Migration Centre as it accompanies students on their journey into Migration research.

The Centre attributes two awards to promote innovative and high-quality research on migration.   It has also put together the Migrants' Rights Law Clinic, relying on a pool of selected and highly committed post-graduate students from the Institute.  The GMC Furthemore hosts a PHD  Doctoral Affiliate programme and offers Internships. 

Also, find out more about the student-led initiative which aims to promote awareness of the contemporary migration crisis, with the Migration Initiative.

Awards

Global MIgration Award
 

gmcaward
 

The Global Migration Award has been created by the GMC to promote innovative and high quality research on global migration. The prize rewards a Master student of the Graduate Institute for her/his outsanding thesis in the field of global migration (including mobility, forced or voluntary migration, transnational or internal displacement, citizenship, diaspora and the many other issues linked to the movement of persons). It is delivered each year on a competitive basis following a peer review process, and is open to any Master students of the Graduate Institute regardless of their specialization.

The next call for applicants is Autumn 2024.

The Award consists of

  • The opportunity to publish the Master thesis within the Global Migration Research Paper Series and;
  • A prize of 1'000 CHF.

How to apply

  • Applicants must be enrolled in one of the Master Programmes of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
  • The perspective can be interdisciplinary or disciplinary alongside the main fields of the Graduate Institute, i.e., international relations, political science, international law, international history, international economics, development studies, anthropology and sociology of development.
  • Theses are accepted in either French or English.
  • Applicants should send their thesis, CV, grade transcripts and the thesis reports in a single PDF file to the following email address: globalmigration@graduateinstitute.ch Applicants should name their file in the following way: SURNAME_FIRSTNAME_Award20XX.pdf

Previous laureates

  • Carolina Futuro (2024)
  • Elio Panese (2023)
  • Franca Elena Kappes (2021)
  • Maevia Griffiths (2021)
  • Silvan Oberholzer (2020)
  • Yaël Parrotta (2020)
  • Juan Pablo Cadena Gómez (2019)
  • Julie Melichar (2017)
  • Cecilia Truffer (2017)
  • Keri Leigh Baughman (2016)
  • Noah Oehri (2016)
  • Eva Ostendarp (2015)
  • Raphael Dallaire Ferland (2014)
  • Nora Bardelli (2014)
  • Yuki Kobayashi (2013)
  • Siow Boon Chia (2013)

International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition

 

irsw

 

The American Society of International Law's International Refugee Law Interest Group (IRLIG) announces its eight annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition, co-sponsored by:

  • American Society of International Law (ASIL);
  • Global Migration Centre, ASIL Academic Partner Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies;
  • International Law Students Association (ILSA);
  • International Journal of Refugee Law; and,
  • Oxford University Press.

Eligibility and Requirements

1. Papers may address any topic related to international law and refugees, stateless persons, internally-displaced persons (IDPs), and forced migrants.
2. Student authors must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program at an accredited university at the time of submission.
3. Papers must be written solely by the candidate, in English, and may not have been submitted for publication elsewhere.
4. Citations should be in footnotes, rather than endnotes. If the paper is selected for publication in the International Journal of Refugee Law, it must comply with the Journal's style sheet and the OSCOLA footnote style. For that reason, students may choose to adopt this style in their submission.
5. Submissions may range from 7,000 to 12,000 words, including footnotes.
6. Each candidate is limited to a single submission.
7.Candidates should only resubmit previously unsuccessful submissions following substantial revision.

Deadline and Method of Submission

1. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time,  XX January 2024
2. Articles should be submitted to irlig@ilsa.org as Microsoft Word attachments. Questions should be directed to the same address.
3. By submitting papers, candidates represent that they fulfill the eligibility requirements of the Competition. The organizers may request formal proof of eligibility.
4. No later than 72 hours after the submission deadline, candidates will receive an e-mail confirming that their submissions have been received.

Competition Procedures and Selection Criteria

1. The author's name and affiliation, the paper title, and word count should be written on a separate first page. Nothing identifying the author should be included in the paper itself.
2. The administrator will detach the first page, and each submitter will be assigned a number. Reviewers will refer only to those numbers in their communications.
3. The Competition will be judged by reviewers named by IRLIG, in consultation with ILSA and the other co-sponsors. In assessing papers, reviewers will take into account:
a. contribution to the literature;
b. knowledge of facts and law;
c. proper and articulate analysis;
d. extent of research, innovation, and scholarly creativity;
e. clarity and organization; and,
f. style, grammar, and proper citation of sources.

4. A message announcing the name of the winner of the Student Writing Competition will be sent to all members of the International Refugee Law Interest Group following the final selection, as well as to the co-sponsors and to the IRLIG forum on www.asil.org.

The winner's name will also appear in the program of the ASIL Annual Meeting. An e-mail with the final outcome will also be sent to all who submitted papers.

Award and Announcement

1. The winner of the 9th annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition will receive from IRLIG a $100 cash award, as well as complimentary admission to the  ASIL 118th Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington, DC, from X-X April 2024; a complimentary one-year student membership provided by ASIL; and £300 worth of books from Oxford University Press. The winning paper will also be promptly reviewed by the editorial team of the International Journal of Refugee Law, who will advise and work with the winner with a view to bringing the paper forward to publication.

2.The winning paper will also be promptly reviewed by the editorial team of the International Journal of Refugee Law, who will also advise and work with the winner with a view to bringing the paper forward to publication.
3. The award will be formally presented at the 118th ASIL Annual Meeting.
4. To enable the winner to attend the Annual Meeting, the Global Migration Centre at ASIL Academic Partner Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva will contribute up to Sfr 1,000 toward travel expenses.

Doctoral Affiliate

Doctoral affiliation to GMC aims to strengthen the links between the Graduate Institute's PhD students interested in global migration and the Centre's activities.  If you are a PhD student of the Graduate Institute willing to be a GMC doctoral affiliate, please send a a short biography (max. 150 words), the title of your PhD, the name of your supervisor and a photo to: globalmigration@graduateinstitute.ch.

 

  • Fekade Alemayhu Abebe (International Law) PhD Thesis: Searching for a Legal Framework: Missing Migrants in International Law Supervisor: Professor Vincent Chetail.

  • Alexander Ephrussi (Anthropology and Sociology) PhD Thesis:The Many Faces of Home: Law and Affect among Afghans on the Move, PhD Supervisor: professor Alessandro Monsutti

  • Michel Benazzo (International History and Politics) PhD Thesis: The Forgotten Generation: the Rise of Western Islamist foreign fighting in the Bosnian Civil War, 1985-1995 Supervisor: Professor Cyrus Schayeghm Co-Supervisor Timothy Wilson from the University of St Andrewse

  • Jittawadee Chotinukul (International Law) PhD Thesis: Rescuing the International Protection Regime: Towards Enhanced Supervision of International Law concerning Refugee Rights Supervisor: Professor Vincent Chetail

  • Mariana Ferolla Vallandro Do Valle (International Law) PhD Thesis: Differential Treatment of Migrants in the Promotion of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: The Extent and Limits of Human Rights Protection Supervisor: Professor Vincent Chetail

  • Giuliano Beniamino Fleri (International History and Politics) PhD Thesis: A World with No Name. Migration, Identity and Transnational Bonds between Sicily and Tunisia. C. 1900-2000 Supervisors: Professor Davide Rodogno Co-Supervisor: Professor Alessandro Monsutti

  • Hirotaka Fujibayashi (Department of International Relations and Political Science) PhD Thesis: Varieties of Refugee Policy in the Global South Supervisor: Professor Cedric Dupont
  • Aadarsh Gangwar (Anthropology and Sociology) PhD Thesis: How to Pass as an “Authentic” Queer? Queer disruptions to truth and credibility assessment within (Swiss) asylum procedures Supervisor: Professor Aditya Bharadwaj
  • Raksha Gopal( International Relations/Political Science) PhD Thesis: Redefining State, Statelessness and Motherhood at the Margins Supervisor: Professor Elisabeth Prugl
  • Julia Auburn Greene ( International Relations/Political Science)  PhD Thesis: Varieties of Exclusion: Explaining the differing legal trajectories of immigrant groups Supervisor: Professor David Sylvan.
  • Elise Hjalmarson(Anthropology and Sociology) PhD Thesis: Gendered subjectivities and the everyday negotiation of competing desires, aspirations, and values among Cuban women living in Spain Supervisor: Dr. Valerio Simoni
  • Franca Elena Kappes (International Relations and Political Science) PhD Thesis: Preliminary dissertation title is as follows: "Cyber-Hobos, Stateless War Machines, and Diasporic Rhizomes: Mapping Nomadic Entanglements in a (post)Westphalian World". Supervisor: Professor Anna Leander
  • Nina Khamsy (Anthropology and Sociology) PhD Thesis: Scales of mobility of Afghan migrant youth in the digital era Supervisors: Alessandro Monsutti and Till Mostowlansky and Professor Zuzanna Olszewska from Oxford University.
  • Taehoon Lee (International Economics) PhD Thesis: Three essays in Economics of Migration Supervisor: Professor Martina Viarengo
  • Donika Limani (Interntional Economics) PhD Thesis: Three Essays in Development Economics ---- (subject to change) Supervisor: Professor Jean-Louis Arcand
  • Irene Magnanini (International law) PhD Thesis: Queering International Migration Law Supervisor: Professor Vincent Chetail
  • Tobias Christophe Michael Marschall (Anthropology and Sociology) PhD Thesis: The Image of Remoteness: Mobility and Alterity in Eastern Afghanistan Supervisors: Professor Alessandro Monsutti, Dr. Till MostowlanskyI
  • Shriya Patnaik (International History and Politics) PhD Thesis: Re-constructing and Re-imagining the Matriarchal Community of Devadasis: Gender, Subalternity and Human Rights Projects in Postcolonial India (1947-2015). Supervisor: Professor Nicole Bourbonnais
  • Balasubramanyam Pattath (International Economics) PhD Thesis: Essays in Public Finance and Development Economics Supervisor: Professor Jean-Louis Arcand
  • Malavika Rao (International Law) PhD Thesis: Food Deprivation and Non-Refoulement in International Law Supervisor: Professor Vincent Chetail
  • Rodolfo Ribeiro Coutinho Marques (International Law) PhD Thesis: The Nationality of Individuals in International Law Supervisor: Professor Andrew Clapham
  • Sucharita Sengupta (Anthropology and Sociology) PhD Thesis: To wait to Belong?: The Rohingya in the refugee camps of Bangladesh. Supervisor: Professor Alessandro Monsutti
  • Liline Steyn (International Law) PhD Thesis: The role and complexities of the principles of best interests of the child and child participation in the Convention of the Rights of the Child in the context of migration Supervisor: Professor Vincent Chetail.
  • Gina Wirz-Suárez (Anthropology and Sociology) PhD Thesis: Women in exile: A multi-sited ethnography of transnational activism Supervisor:Professor Graziella Moraes Da Silva

Profiles

Fekade Alemayhu Abebe

(International Law)

 

Fekade Alemayhu Abebe

Fekade Alemayhu Abebe is  a third-year PhD candidate in international law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies from Ethiopia. He has  an LL.M in international humanitarian law and human rights from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and an LL.M in Public International Law from Addis Ababa University. Before coming to Geneva, he  served as a lecturer of law in two Ethiopian universities. His areas of interest include human rights of migrants, international humanitarian law, and broadly in Third World Approaches in International Law (TWAIL).

PHD Title
Searching for a Legal Framework: Missing Migrants in International Law

Supervisor
Professor Vincent Chetail

MichelE Benazzo

(International History and Politics)

 

Benazzo

Michele Benazzo,is a second-year PhD candidate in International History and Politics. He holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Padova, Italy, and an MLitt in Terrorism and Political Violence from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His main interest is the interplay between Migration, Integration and Political Violence, and his research intersects History and International Relations to explain transnational violence -specifically, European Muslim foreign fighting. He held seminars and lectures for High School and University students (MA) on these subjects. His research areas are Western Europe, North Africa and the Balkans, and he employs sources in Italian, English, French, Arabic and Bosnian. Before joining the Institute, he completed a one-year Internship at Amaplast-Confindustria, Milan as Security Analyst, and volunteered in Bosnia and Albania. Since 2022, he is recipient of the Doc.CH research grant from the SNF.

PhD Title
The Forgotten Generation: the Rise of Western Islamist foreign fighting
in the Bosnian Civil War, 1985-1995


Supervisor
Professor Cyrus Schayegh, Co-Supervisor Professor Timothy Wilson from the University of St Andrews

Jittawadee Chotinukul

(International Law)

 

Jitta

Jittawadee Chotinukul is a PhD researcher in international law at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. She previously served as research assistant and research collaborator at the Global Migration Centre (GMC). Prior to academia, Jittawadee worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Thailand on refugee status determination. She also has professional experience with a Geneva-based human rights NGO and an independent think tank in Singapore. She was a legal adviser in one of the leading law firms in Southeast Asia specialising in intellectual property. Jittawadee is a research affiliate at the Refugee Law Initiative (University of London), a member of the Asia-Pacific Research Group of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law (UNSW), and a member of the Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights (Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility and Cornell Law School). She is a qualified lawyer in Thailand..

PhD title
Rescuing the International Protection Regime: Towards Enhanced Supervision of International Law concerning Refugee Rights

Supervisor
Professor Vincent Chetail

Mariana Ferolla Vallandro Do VallE

(International LAW)

 

Mariana Ferolla

Mariana Ferolla Vallandro Do Valle is a PhD candidate at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, where she carries out research on the prohibition of non-discrimination on the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights in relation to migrants. She is a teaching assistant at the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies and a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Migration and International Law. Prior to her doctoral studies, Mariana worked as a lawyer in the public law sector and acted as a volunteer at an NGO for migrants’ rights based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She holds a Master’s and a Bachelor’s Degree from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Mariana’s research interests include international refugee law, human rights, international criminal law, and State responsibility.

PHD Title
Differential Treatment of Migrants in the Promotion of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: The Extent and Limits of Human Rights Protection

Supervisor
Professor Vincent Chetail

Giuliano Beniamino Fleri

(International History and Politics)

 

Giuliano Beniamino Fleri

Giuliano Fleri is a doctoral researcher at the Department of International History and Politics of the IHEID. His research interests include the history of migration in the central Mediterranean, the analysis of humanitarian/securitarian discourses and transnational region formation between Southern Europe and North Africa. Giuliano held an MA in Philosophy from the University of Catania. He has been research assistant for the UNHCR Records and Archives Section and the University of Manchester. He is currently an SNF Doc.Mobility fellow at the Insittut für Europäische Ethnologie at Humboldt University in Berlin. His latest article ‘The (Re)Birth of a Mediterranean Migraiton System. The Case of Tunisian Migration in Sicily’ has been published in the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. Title of the PHD : Supervisors:

PHD Title
A World with No Name. Migration, Identity and Transnational Bonds between Sicily and Tunisia. C. 1900-2000

Supervisors
Professor Davide Rodogno, Co-Supervisor: Professor Alessandro Monsutti

Hirotaka Fujibayashi

(IR and Political Science)

 

Hiro

Hirotaka Fujibayashi is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations and Political Science at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. He holds a BA in Laws and Political Science and an MA in International Studies from the University of Tokyo, Japan. His research interest includes a broad range of refugee and migration issues, focusing in particular on the Middle East, Asia, and the broader Global South context.

PhD title
Varieties of Refugee Policy in the Global South

Supervisor
Professor Cedric Dupont

Aadarsh Gangwar

(ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY) 

 

Aararsh

Aadarsh's doctoral project concentrates on LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers, exploring discourses of “authentic” queerness within asylum systems and asylum seekers' practices of assembling credibility. His project makes a queer intervention that unsettles the centrality of truth and credibility assessment to asylum, and aspires to displace truthfulness, which is impossible to objectively ascertain and therefore easy to contest, as a virtue upon which the fates of asylum seekers hinge. Having joined the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 2019, Aadarsh completed his master's degree in 2021 before starting his doctoral research. Prior to coming to Switzerland, he was studying, researching, and tutoring at Ashoka University in India. He keenly invites collaboration with scholars interested in gender and sexuality, especially in the context of migration and displacement.

PhD title
How to Pass as an “Authentic” Queer? Queer disruptions to truth and credibility assessment within (Swiss) asylum procedures

Supervisor
Professor Aditya Bharadwaj

Raksha Gopal

(IR and Political Science) 

 

Raksha Gobal

Raksha Gopal is a doctoral student in the International Relations and Political Science Department and a Research Assistant at the Gender Centre for the SNF Division I project Gendering Survival from the Margins. Her dissertation is an ethnographic project that proposes a reconfiguration of the transnational politics of migration by privileging the narratives and perspectives of refugee mothers on the margins of India. Bringing together literature from migration studies, feminist political economy, critical security studies, and postcolonial thought, she asks: How do the everyday practices of motherhood negotiate, reconstitute and disrupt the categories of state, statelessness, and motherhood among refugees? She completed her Master's in International Relations and Political Science from IHEID in 2022 through the fast-track programme and holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Delhi, India. Her research interests lie at the intersection of migration and mobilities, international security, and gender studies.

PhD title
Redefining State, Statelessness and Motherhood at the Margins

Supervisor
Professor Elisabeth Prugl

Julia Auburn Greene

(IR and Political Science) 

 

Julia Greene

Julia Auburn Greene, is a doctoral student in the International Relations/Political Science department. Her research interests include comparative migration studies, a path inspired by coursework during her MA at the Institute. Julia's dissertation seeks to explain the drivers of states' immigration policies and differences in legal treatment between immigrant groups by focusing on the perceptions of immigration in legislative debates. Prior to arriving at the Institute in 2018, she spent 4.5 years working at the intersection of food security and multilateralism with an international organization based in Bonn, Germany. She holds a BA in International Studies from Rhodes College.

PhD title
Varieties of Exclusion: Explaining the differing legal trajectories of immigrant groups

Supervisor
Professor David Sylvan

Elise Hjalmarson

(Anthropology and Sociology)

 

Elise Hjalmarson

Elise Hjalmarson is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and research assistant for the ERC-funded project 'Returning to a Better Place: The (Re)assessment of the "Good Life" in Times of Crisis'. Situated at the intersection of gender, migration, and Latin American studies, her doctoral work examines the affective and embodied dimensions of transnational migration among Cuban women living in Spain. Prior to undertaking her PhD, Elise completed her MA at the University of British Columbia and lectured at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua with Kulturstudier. She is also the co-founder of migrant justice group Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture (RAMA). Her research interests include migration and borders, gender and feminist theory, race and ethnicity, affect and emotion, and qualitative methods.

PhD title
Gendered subjectivities and the everyday negotiation of competing desires, aspirations, and values among Cuban women living in Spain

Supervisor
Dr. Valerio Simoni

Franca Elena Kappes

(IR and Political Science)

 

Franca

Franca Elena Kappes, is a doctoral student at the International Relations and Political Science Department at the Graduate Institute. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of Critical Security Studies, Global Governance, International Political Sociology, and Migration and Diaspora Studies - with a regional focus on the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. More specifically, her research focuses on nomad-state relationships, the impact of (stateless) diaspora groups on intra-state conflict and separatist movements, the role of non-state actors within (security) governance networks, and the consequences of regime complexity and institutional overlap. She holds a Master’s degree in International Relations/Political Science from the Graduate Institute and a BA in Political Science from the Free University Berlin."

PhD title
Preliminary dissertation title is as follows: "Cyber-Hobos, Stateless War Machines, and Diasporic Rhizomes: Mapping Nomadic Entanglements in a (post)Westphalian World".

Supervisor
Professor Anna Leander

Nina Khamsy

(Anthropology and Sociology)

 

Nina Khamsy

Nina Khamsy's research focuses on the entanglement of mobility and digital connectivity in European migration trajectories. In 2015-16, migrants and refugees arriving at the boarders of Europe have made extensive use of mobile communication to navigate their way to safety. The literature has either insisted on the empowering capacity of digital media or on the threats of online surveillance. In contrast, the everyday use of digital media by migrants considering their sociocultural backgrounds has received little attention. She goes beyond technological determinism to focus on the co-constitution of technology and society. She examines the case of young Afghan migrants who are marked by high levels of media use and mobility in Europe to ask: how do young Afghans use digital media, and how, in turn, do digital media shape their trajectories? She studies the online and in-person scales in three cities that form a European trajectory: Athens (arrival), Belgrade (transit), and Geneva (desirable destination).

PhD title
Scales of mobility of Afghan migrant youth in the digital era

Supervisors
Professors Alessandro Monsutti and Till Mostowlansky and Professor Zuzanna Olszewska from Oxford University

 

Taehoon Lee

(International Economics)

 

Lee

Taehoon Lee is a PhD candidate in Development Economics and a consultant at the Migration Research Division in IOM. He holds a Master in Economics from Paris School of Economics, France and a BSc in Economic Theory and Statistics from New York University, USA. He worked as a research assistant and a research associate at nccr – on the move in Geneva and Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, respectively.

PhD title:
Three essays in Economics of Migration

Supervisor
Professor Martina Viarengo

Donika Limani

(International Economics)

 

Limani

Donika Limani is a PhD candidate in Development Economics and her research focuses on Economics of Migration and Remittances. By studying longitudinal micro-data from households of Kerala, India, she aims to uncover the motivations which drive migrants to remit back to their origin households especially in a temporary migration selling (Gulf Migration). Additionally, she looks at how remittances impact household consumption as well as inequality at the community level. She obtained a BSc in Economics, Politics and International Studies from University of Warwick, UK, and a Master in Economic Policy from CEU, Hungary. In addition to being a teaching assistant for MINT courses at IHEID, Donika has extensive experience as a consultant for several international organisations, such as the ILO, UNDP, OSCE, etc. She has recently co-founded a start-up, DataBuds, focusing mainly on research projects of international donors in the Balkans.

PHD Title
Three Essays in Development Economics ---- (subject to change)

Supervisor
Professor Jean-Louis Arcand

Irene Magnanini

(International Law)

 

Irene Magnanini

Irene Magnanini (she/her) is a PhD candidate in International Law at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, where she was awarded a full scholarship to research on the application of queer theories to the international migration law framework. Prior to that, she worked in different capacities with IOM in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bangladesh and with UNHCR in Italy. Other relevant work experiences include having been a Legal Assistant with the NGO European Lawyers in Lesvos, an Advocacy Intern with Franciscans International in Geneva and a Volunteers' Coordinator for the intercultural organization AFS in Reykjavík. She holds a Master's Degree in International Law from the Graduate Institute and a Bachelor's in International Relations from the University of Trieste. Irene considers herself a queer activist who contributes to a common aim through her research activity.

PhD title
Queering International Migration Law

Supervisor
Professor Vincent Chetail

TobiaS C. M. Marschall

(Anthropology and Sociology)

 

Tobias Marschall

Tobias Marschall is a PhD candidate in Anthropology and Sociology and photographer currently based in Geneva, Switzerland. His thesis considers how the image of remoteness is a principal vector to shape difference and migration pathways in eastern Afghanistan. Between 2015 and 2019, he grounded his visual ethnography in walking the rugged terrain of the Afghan Pamirs, in attending migrants' Central Asian nodes and in participating to their online extension.


PhD Title
The Image of Remoteness: Mobility and Alterity in Eastern Afghanistan

Supervisors
Professor Alessandro Monsutti, Dr Till Mostowlansky

Shriya Patnaik

(International History and Politics)

 

patnaik

Shriya Patnaik is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History and Politics, where her research is funded by the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship. Her research focuses on the historical genealogy surrounding discourses related to prostitution, trafficking, and sex-worker rights in colonial and postcolonial India. In particular, she focuses on the now-extinct matriarchal community of temple-dancers called Mahari-Devadasis in the state of Odisha (a matrilineal community categorized as ‘religious prostitutes’ in colonial India), along with their legal and healthcare rights under international humanitarian conventions. Her research is methodologically reliant on oral histories, colonial-period archival records, along with UN/ILO humanitarian conventions on the rights of marginalised communities in the Global South. Shriya has pursued her Bachelor's in History from Cornell University, and has subsequently pursued her Masters' in International History with a focus on Gender Studies from the Columbia University-London School of Economics dual degree MA-MSc program. Besides her academic interests, she has actively worked in the public policy and NGO/development sectors in India on gender and human rights initiatives, and these experiences have played a crucial role in shaping her research focus on women’s rights and civil society movements at a transnational scale. She is also a PhD affiliate with the Graduate Institute Gender Centre, and has worked as a research scholar with the Swiss Network of International Studies.

PhD Title
Re-constructing and Re-imagining the Matriarchal Community of Devadasis: Gender, Subalternity and Human Rights Projects in Postcolonial India (1947-2015)

Supervisor
Professor Nicole Bourbonnais

Balasubramanyam Pattath

(International Economics)

 

Balu

Balasubramanyam Pattath (Balu) is a 2nd year PhD student in Development Economics. He is a research fellow at the International Institute of Migration and Development, Thiruvananthapuram and previously worked as a research associate at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. Recently, he designed and coordinated the rollout of a COVID-19 return migration survey conducted by the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, commissioned by the Kerala and Tamil Nadu State Governments.

He has a Master in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute, Geneva and a Bachelor in Economics from the University of Delhi, India. He is supervised by Professor Jean-Louis Arcand and Professor Martina Viarengo. Prior to starting the PhD program at the Graduate Institute, Balu was awarded the runner-up prize in the Global Migration Award for best master thesis in migration in 2019 for his paper entitled "Keeping up with Kerala's Joneses."

PhD title
Essays in Public Finance and Development Economics

Supervisor
Professor Jean-Louis Arcand

 

Malavika Rao

(International Law)
 

Malavika Rao


Malavika Rao  is a PhD Candidate in International Law at the Graduate Institute Geneva. She also worked as a Teaching Assistant in the International Law Department at the Graduate Institute Geneva from 2019-2021. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the application of the principle of non-refoulement in international law to instances of food deprivation. Her areas of interest include international migration law and international environmental law, with a focus on the issues of starvation and climate change. Prior to joining the PhD program, Malavika worked as a Utility Justice Legal Fellow at The Utility Reform Network in San Francisco (TURN) from 2017-2018. She received her LLM in Environmental Law and Energy Law & Clean Technology from the University of California Berkeley in 2017. She has a BA.LLB (Hons.) from Christ University, Bangalore, India.

PhD title
Food Deprivation and Non-Refoulement in International Law

Supervisor
Professor Vincent Chetail

Rodolfo Ribeiro Coutinho Marques

(International Law)
 

Rodolfo Ribeiro


Rodolfo Ribeiro Coutinho Marques is a PhD Candidate in International Law and Teaching Assistant at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. Before starting his doctoral studies, he worked with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), both in Geneva and in Brazil. His research interests range from legal theory, international refugee law, international human rights law, and laws of war to forced migration studies more broadly. Rodolfo holds a master’s degree in International Law from the Graduate Institute and an LLB (Dean's list) from the Federal University of Paraiba (Brazil). He is a qualified lawyer in Brazil and a Research Affiliate at the Refugee Law Initiative (University of London). His research focuses on the meaning of nationality as an international legal concept.

PhD Title
The Nationality of Individuals in International Law

Supervisor
Professor Andrew Clapham

Sucharita Sengupta

(Anthropology and Sociology)
 

Sucharita

Sucharita Sengupta is a PhD candidate at the department of Anthropology and Sociology in the Graduate Institute of Geneva, from 2017. She works under the supervision of Professor Alessandro Monsutti, on the quest to belong and resistance against exclusion, by ‘stateless' people through the case study of Rohingya refugees in camps of Bangladesh. The work intends to explore belonging, agency and resilience of people devoid of statehood or citizenship and inquire into existing categories within refugee studies through that based on her field work in the camps. The research through the empirical data will like to investigate debates on the anthropology of state and how modern governance is conceived through borders and mobility. The study will also attempt to analyse how through the production of new and changing social relations the Rohingya refugees are able to challenge the classical understanding of belonging, and citizenship. In this kind of a survival, precarity is the new normal, when everyday hardship is marked by waiting and hopes to gain access to new forms of citizenship rights to evade socio-economic vulnerabilities and political stamping out.

PhD Title
To wait to Belong?: The Rohingya in the refugee camps of Bangladesh.

Supervisor
Professor Alessandro Monsutti

Liline Steyn

(International Law)
 

Liline Steyne

Liline Steyne is currently a first year PhD in international law student at the Graduate Institute. She holds a BA Humanities, LLB and LLM from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her research focus is on children rights in the context of migration. From January 2019 Till June 2021, she worked as a legal practitioner at the Stellenbosch University Law Clinic where my main practice areas were family and property law. She worked on numerous children matters which inspired her to further her studies. Children rights to her is a very interesting field especially when looking at it through the lens of migration and refugee law. During her studies at Stellenbosch University, she also worked as a research assistant in the final year of her LLB at the South African Research Chair in Property Law.

PhD Title
The role and complexities of the principles of best interests of the child and child participation in the Convention of the Rights of the Child in the context of migration

Supervisor
Professor Vincent Chetail.

Gina Wirz-Suárez

(Anthropology and Sociology)
 

Gina Wirz

Gina Wirz-Suárez is PhD candidate in ANSO at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. She holds a Master’s in Social Sciences from the University of Lausanne. She also completed a bachelor's in Political Science and a Master's in Gender Studies at the National University of Colombia. She is interested in social movements, gender studies, and forced migration studies. For her MA thesis at UNIL, she analysed the case study of the transnational participation of Colombian women in exile. She focused on the actions towards the last peace process in Colombia. She highlighted how the lack of refugee status recognition hindered their access to political participation. For her doctoral thesis, she plans to delve into the transnational political participation of Colombian women in exile through a multi-sited ethnography. Specifically, she is interested in; i) how women define themselves as political activists and ii) how immigration regimes and the social-political contexts enable or constraint their transnational activism.

PhD title
Women in exile: A multi-sited ethnography of transnational activism

Supervisor

Professor Graziella Moraes Da Silva. 

Migrants' Rights Law Clinic

WHAT IT IS

With a growing need for an evidence-based approach to migration and human rights, the Migrants' Rights Law Clinic (MRLC) stands as a unique initiative in the heart of International Geneva to foster neutral, practical and solution-oriented expertise and dialogue. Its aim is to provide objective insights on the multifaceted issues relating to the human rights of migrants.

While migration has never been higher on the international agenda, misperceptions surrounding the protection of migrants remain. Yet the duty to protect migrants’ rights has been firmly reaffirmed by UN Member States in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants of September 2016.

With such a need for an evidence-based approach to migration and human rights, the Migrants’ Rights Law Clinic (MRLC) stands as a unique initiative in the heart of International Geneva to foster neutral, practical and solution-oriented expertise and dialogue. The MRLC acts as an independent pool of expertise at the disposal of governments, as well as international and non-governmental organizations. Its aim is to provide objective and pro bono expertise on the multifaceted issues relating to the human rights of migrants. The services offered by the MRLC are tailored to stakeholders’ needs and can take a variety of forms, such as research briefs, preparatory research, fact-finding reports or expert opinions.

Supervised by Dr Vincent Chetail, Professor of International Law and Director of the Global Migration Centre (GMC), the MRLC capitalizes on the leading expertise of the GMC in the field of migration and human rights. It actively involves students from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, offering them a unique practical experience during their studies. Striving for the highest quality and degree of professionalism, students are selected on the basis of their strong motivation, commitment and skills, while working under the close supervision of the GMC Director and in collaboration with GMC researchers.  
 

FOR STAKEHOLDERS

The MRLC welcomes requests for pro bono expertise from any international organizations, non-governmental organizations or governments, in the form, for instance, of research briefs, preparatory research, fact-finding reports or expert opinions.

Please send us an email briefly stating your needs, the specific issue(s) to be dealt with and the timeline to globalmigration@graduateinstitute.ch
 

FOR STUDENTS

The MRLC relies on a pool of selected and highly committed  students from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Interested candidates should email in a single pdf file their CV, cover letter and grades transcripts (undergraduate and postgraduate) to globalmigration@graduateinstitute.ch (please indicate ‘Law Clinic application’ in the subject of your email). Candidates are kindly asked to state their availability (hours per week and duration) in their application.

 

Migration Initiative

Logo Migration Initiative small

WHO WE ARE

The Migration Initiative was founded in February 2016 by a group of students concerned about migration issues in the modern world. The initiative aims to catalyse student and community engagement with migrants in Geneva, as well as across the world including places like Lesvos, Idomeni and Calais. While the Migration Initiative is based out of the Graduate Institute, Geneva (IHEID), we are open to engaging with any organisations, initiatives, or individuals who hold to principles in line with our own.

 

OUR GOALS

  • Defend migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and other victims of forced displacement rights and denounce inhumane anti-migrant policies.

  • Create a platform for exchanges of knowledge and experience to generate new ideas and promote reflection.

  • Raise awareness and open a more human perspective on current migration issues.

  • Get students engaged with the concrete reality of migration, and reinforce the link between Swiss civil society and migrant communities

  • Promote and participate in the integration of affected groups in Geneva through a variety of social projects.

 

OUR VALUES AND VISION

As mobility is a human phenomenon, we acknowledge that we are all migrants. We believe that all human beings deserve the same rights and dignity, and we promote respect of all people in forced or voluntary migration, in their individuality and diversity.

Through a variety of projects, we wish to open a space for critical reflection on human mobility, and facilitate inter-personal exchanges between students – and civil society more generally – and migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. We believe that personal change and mind opening is the first step towards a better future society.

Everyone is welcome to get involved with our mission and our projects! If you are interested please contact us on Facebook, or by email at gisa.migrationinitiative@graduateinstitute.ch

 

ONGOING PROJECTS

French Courses
MI French classes are held twice a week from 18:15-19:45 on Mondays and Wednesdays at Maison de la Paix to help refugees and vulnerable migrants in Geneva to improve their French levels – whether for work, for study, or just to better communicate here in Geneva. We are continuously accepting volunteers to teach French (no formal training required and it is not necessary to be a native speaker).

The Intensive Summer French course, a 3-week course for incoming international students and refugees living in Geneva, is organized by the IHEID with the collaboration of the Migration Initiative.

English Courses
Following the success of the French classes, we recently began providing English classes under the same model. Classes are held at Maison de la Paix from 18:15-19:30 on Tuesdays. We are looking for teachers – you do not require formal training or to be a native English speaker as long as you are confident in your ability to teach.

Scholarship Program
The Migration Initiative has successfully lobbied for IHEID to facilitate the provision of scholarships for refugees to attend IHEID and further their studies. Currently a full annual scholarship is available for refugees who have already received a residence permit in Switzerland and meet the academic requirements of entry for Masters or PhD programmes. The Initiative continues to collaborate with the Institute in promoting the scholarship as well as assisting the candidates with any application-related queries.

Fundraising
We hold one large fundraising event a semester to raise funds for small NGOS that support migrants and refugees. In the past, we have raised money to NGOs with projects in post-hurricane Central America,  (in partnership with LANI Initiative), in Greece, to support children education and women empowering projects, and to an NGO helping Rohingya refugees.

Student activites
We organize lunch discussions, invite alumni to share their research and professional experience related to migration, organize film screenings, excursions, and interdisciplinary panels such as during the Swiss Sustainability Week

Community Engagement
Activities with the migrant and refugee community in Geneva, such as picnics in the beginning and end of the year, holidays parties for Halloween, Iftar, and Christmas. We also share information about local volunteering opportunities including with Essaim d’Accueil that  organises regular events and meetings between locals, students, migrants and refugees. If you are interested in their work, please see their website or Facebook page.

If you are interested in a particular project, please feel free to email directly the Migration Initiative at the addresses below: