Staff profile
| Affiliation | Telephone |
|---|---|
| Research Postgraduate (PhD) in the Department of Geography |
Biography
I am political geographer interested in the governance of refugees, responses to climate change, and humanitarianism, with particular attention to the question of value and processes of accumulation.
My PhD research looks at the interrelation between ecological vulnerability and the governance and exploitation of refugees. It explores this through the case of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, living in some of the world’s largest refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, and on the island of Bhasan Char. I look to locate the governance of Rohingya refugees within the context of the ecological precarity of these sites of encampment and of Bangladesh in general, and an understanding of how global relations of imperialism structure this precarity and the refugee experience.
In doing so, I explore processes of capital accumulation within the context of both the refugee camp, and responses to climate change. Globally, the climate crisis is generating new forms of accumulation even as places are consigned to be sacrifice zones, with no hope of surviving climate change. At the same time, refugees confined to camps are understood to be part of a huge global surplus population, of no utility for capital, even as they are subjected to vast infrastructures of humanitarian and militarised governance and investment. My research seeks to understand the relationship between disposability and accumulation, through looking at the interrelation and valorisation of land considered marginal and people considered surplus.
My research is funded by the ESRC. Before starting my PhD, I worked in research and campaigning at the NGO War on Want. I have a BA in Politics and Sociology from Warwick University, and an MPhil in Political Theory from Oxford University.
Research interests
- Refugees and migration control
- Humanitarianism
- Surplus populations
- Waste and value
- Imperialism