Dr Karolina Benghellab
- Lecturer (Sociological & Cultural Studies)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1464-1074Biography
I joined the University of Glasgow as a lecturer in Sociology in 2023. Before that, I was a lecturer in Sociology and International Relations at Northumbria University, an ESRC postdoctoral fellow at Aston University, and an IPC-Mercator fellow at the Istanbul Policy Centre (Sabanci University). I started asking questions about inequalities, migration, and violence one decade ago when being part of voluntary groups working with homeless women in Czechia, children with disabilities in Ukraine, and migrant communities in the UK and Serbia. Volunteering with people facing numerous discriminations has shaped my academic journey, which later took me to live in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon and Turkey.
Research interests
My research focuses on the relationship between international border management and what people on the move call 'games' (border crossing without authorization) and 'push-backs' (forced returns over a border with the use of violence). In this context, I also seek how international border controls overlap with local histories and domestic armed conflicts, and how these impact people on the move and residents equally. My research is also critical of how race and gender intervene into border controls, and how diverse people challenge racialized and gendered inequalities and create mechanisms to resist violence when crossing borders and smuggling people. My most recent work also considers climatic conditions and their intervention to violence in migration transit.
My research is based on years-long collaboration with activist-led groups (BVMN, No Name Kitchen), people on the move, people smugglers, and residents in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Kurdish region in Turkey. I also worked with members of the EU Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Czech Ministry of Interior, and think tanks (Istanbul Policy Centre and Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung Afghanistan). My media articles and commentaries can be found in the Guardian, Aljazeera, Politico, VICE News, Open Democracy, the New Humanitarian, and other platforms.
Research groups
- Social Anthropology & Migration
Grants
- British Sociological Association Early Career Event Fund 2022
- UK Economic and Social Science Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship 2021/2022
- Mercator-Stiftung Fellowship 2020/2021
- Aston Prize PhD Studentship 2017/2020
Teaching
My teaching areas are in migration, borders and violence, and general introduction to Sociology. I also enjoy teaching qualitative methods, namely ethnographic, participatory, and activist-led research methods.
