Experts Database

Dr Helen Forbes-Mewett is Senior Lecturer and Discipline Head of Sociology, School of Social Sciences. She is also Deputy Director of the Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre. Helen's interdisciplinary background includes Sociology, Psychology and International Business, degrees all awarded by Monash University. Her work focuses on human security, migration, cultural diversity, and social cohesion, with a particular focus on international students. Since 2018, Helen has supervised to completion six PhD theses. In addition, Helen is currently supervising a 12 Higher Degree Research students from 10 different countries - all undertaking work relating to migration, international education/students and social inclusion. Helen also sits on the following boards/committees:

Victorian Multiculltural Commission, Regional Advisory Council (Eastern Region)
Chinese Centre for Holistic Health Advisory Board
Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, Community Consultative Committee
Multicultural Settlement Committee
Communities’ Council on Ethnic Issues (Eastern Region) Inc.
Victorian Government Research Institute on Social Cohesion (RIOSC) (Member)
International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) Research Committee
Editorial Board Member and Associate Editor, Journal of International Students
Advisory Board, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education

I am an Arabist, a cultural mediator, and a cultural and educational operator. Graduated with a Master in Arabic Language and literature, I have worked with refugees and asylum seekers as a cultural mediator and Italian language teacher since 2012. I have dealt with cultural mediation in different contexts, including legal, medical, psychological mediation and job orientation. I also teach literacy in Italian. Over the last years, I have undertaken projects of cultural and artistic activities with forced migrants to boost "esigenze" (human requirements), as well as to promote cultural and social engagement in the new country or residence.
I hold a PhD in Civilisations of Africa and Asia from Sapienza - University of Rome. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh.

I am Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Social Anthropology and Social Psychology of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and in the Department of Social Anthropology and Spanish Philosophical Thought of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in Spain.
Since 2019 I have a PhD in Sociology and Anthropology with the thesis "Gender and Asylum Policies in the Spanish State: an anthropological perspective" directed by Dr. Almudena Cortés and evaluated by the tribunal with outstanding cum laude and international mention, in the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the Complutense University of Madrid.
I studied a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Anthropology from 2007-2012 at the Università degli Studi di Perugia (Italy).
I am a professional in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. I participate as a lecturer in the Specialist Degree in "Gender, Migrations and Human Rights (GEMIDE)" directed by Dr. Almudena Cortés (UCM) and Dr. Beatriz Moncó (UCM). In 2018 I played the role of Coordinator, as well as coordinating and teaching a module dedicated to the anthropology of migration and borders from a gender perspective in the academic years 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.
I am currently participating in the EU-funded Horizon2020 research project ITFLOWS as a member of the ITFLOWS User Board, representing the organisation Red Solidaria de Acogida de Madrid (RSA). The activities are framed within research on migration, asylum and refugee issues, specifically on the dimensions of reception in destination countries.
In 2016, 2017 and 2018 I participated in three research and cooperation projects in the State of Puebla (Mexico), led by Dr. Almudena Cortés (UCM) and Dr. Josefina Mnajzarrez (BUAP) doing fieldwork, seminars and classes in political and gender anthropology, specifically in the field of Human Rights of Central American migrant women in transit through Mexico.
I also collaborate in the Master in Governance and Human Rights at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
I am a professional and committed researcher in the field of asylum, refugee and migration in Social Sciences, specifically in Social Anthropology.

Juliana Fornasier is a PhD student at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra-Barcelona, where she has also finished her Master in Migration Studies. Her research focuses on the mobilisation of knowledge in European cities for policymaking on migrant integration. She is also a research assistant for MunMigra, a project on how Spanish cities responded to protecting precarious migrants in the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her professional background in the field of migration is complemented by experience working for European projects (she is currently working for the VISA RoC and UNITES projects), and international organisations, namely ICMPD and IOM's GMDAC.

I am a PhD candidate in Political Science and Sociology (Scuola Normale Superiore), specializing in the governance of migration in border zones, with a focus on the Balkan Route and the Italian-Slovenian border. My research interests encompass Migration, Public Policy, Formal and Informal Governance, Solidarity, and Qualitative Methodologies.

Eva Fortes is a PhD candidate in the program of Political and Social Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, under the supervision of Dr. Matthias vom Hau, and a member of the GRITIM research group. She is a ”la Caixa” Foundation fellow through the PhD fellowship programme INPhINIT, working as a predoctoral researcher at the Institut de Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI).

Her research focuses on integration, inclusion, quality of life, the capabilities approach, migration policy, and city-level policies.

Political science professor Aude-Claire Fourot is deeply interested in how a city’s public policies can impact immigration resettlement. She also works with local communities to explore how settlement issues relating to ethnic and religious diversity, in turn, shape local public policy.

Theodoros Fouskas, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Sociology with an emphasis on Migration and Public Health, Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica (Greece). He published extensively on migration, migrant health, precarious employment, access to healthcare, social integration and exclusion. Since 2005, he has participated in many research programmes on migrants, refugees and other vulnerable groups.