Elena Habersky
e.habersky.1@research.gla.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7140-7729
Research title: Navigating Restrictions: How Sudanese in Cairo Contest the Egyptian-Sudanese Border.
Research Summary
PhD Research Project
Forced Migration and the Politcs of Borders in the Middle East and North Africa
Within this project, I will be looking at how Sudanese migrants in Cairo contest the Egyptian-Sudanese border. This will be done through a year-long ethnographic study.
Current Research Interests
My research interests include how urban migrants contest border regimes, community and refugee-led initiatives and spaces in urban settings, legal entitlements owed to refugees and asylum seekers, and European border externalization to North Africa.
Supervisors
Grants
College of Social Sciences (CoSS) PhD Scholarship: 2024-2027
Conferences
Selected Conferences
Habersky, Elena, Co-Chair, Workshop: “Migration and its Governance, Knowledge Production, Migration Studies and the ‘Southern Perspective’?”. IMISCOE Annual Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, July 2024.
Habersky, Elena, “Creating Community for Educational Rights in Cairo”. Emerging Scholars Workshop: Forced Migration in MENA, University of Glasgow, March 2023.
Habersky, Elena, “Contesting Borders, Protesting Deportation: The Darfuri Refugee in Amman and Cairo”. TRACES Mobility Project Conference, AUC, January 2023.
Hetaba, Amira and Elena Habersky “The Search for Safe Spaces for Education within the Insecurity of the Urban: South Sudanese Refugees and Community Schools in Cairo”. Refugee Law Initiative Conference, June 2022.
Habersky, Elena and Gerda Heck “The European Trust Fund, and regional responses to it: Egypt”. IASFM18, July 2021.
Habersky, Elena and Gerda Heck, “Governing Migration through Integration Programs”. European Association of Social Anthropologists 2020 Conference, July 2020.
Habersky, Elena, “Uganda: A Paradoxical Paradise?”. International Conference on Researching Challenges in Africa (ICRAC) Conference, AUC New Cairo, December 2019.
Additional Information
Selected Presentations
Habersky, Elena, "Refugee Led Organizations in Cairo: Tafawol Organization for Special Needs and Development". Workshop on Migration and Integration coordinated by the TRACES of Mobility Project and Northeastern University, American University in Cairo, January 2025.
Habersky, Elena, “Egypt’s Refugee Response”. Refugee Law Initiative: The Contemporary Role of the Global Refugee Regime in Africa”, April 2024.
Habersky, Elena, “On Idle Possibilities and Missed Chances: Refugee Rights in Egypt and the Current Response to the Sudanese Conflict”. University of Cologne Global South Studies Center Weekly Seminar, November 2023.
Habersky, Elena, “Refugee Entitlements in Egypt: Discrepancies Between Law & Practice and Community Response”. DiaMiGo Fall Academy, University of Cologne, October 2023.
Habersky, Elena, “Trends in North Africa: Migration, Refugees and IDPs”. United Nations Resident Coordinator MENA Meeting, Geneva, June 2023.
Habersky, Elena and Mohamed Farahat, “Divergent Policies for In Situ and Migratory Stateless in North Africa”. Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa: Emerging Movements for Change, Lancaster University, June 2022.
Habersky, Elena (in collaboration with CMRS and University of Central Florida), “A Transatlantic Conversation: Managing Migration in Florida and Cairo”. Online Webinar, March 2022.
Habersky, Elena, “Confronting the Challenges of Migration in the MENA Region”. UN Major Group for Children and Youth, Webinar, October 2021.
Habersky, Elena, “From Cairo to Kampala”. The AUC/Mellon Foundation Monthly Seminar, AUC New Cairo, April 2019.
Habersky, Elena, “Listening to the Lives of Darfuris in Amman and Cairo”. The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies Monthly Seminar, AUC Tahrir, October 2018.
