Experts Database

Sayed Mahdi Mosawi is a research fellow at Kulturwissenschaftliche Institut Essen (KWI) / Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities. His work draws on forced migration, refugees, and gender issues. In his current project, Mosawi deals with the notions of masculinities among male immigrants living in Germany.

Barbara Moser-Mercer, professor emerita and founder of InZone (University of Geneva), is visiting professor at University of Nairobi, engaged in strengthening African solutions that advance Higher Education in Emergencies (HEiE) and has been coordinating the launch phase of the African Higher Education in Emergencies Network (AHEEN); she is currently also a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Center. Following her initial training as conference interpreter she pursued her studies and research in cognitive psychology, focusing on the development of expertise in complex cognitive skills of bilinguals, both from a cognitive psychology and a cognitive neuro-science perspective. These findings have been instrumental in informing the design and the development of student-centered multilingual digital learning environments and social-emotional learning programs in different fragile contexts. Building on insights and experience in a variety of displacement contexts she has studied, as well as further developed, a viable interface between humanitarian and academic actors conducive to scaling higher education opportunities for displaced youth that benefit both students and their communities and inform education policy in refugee-hosting countries. She has contributed to several of INEE’s working groups including co-chairing the Standards and Practice WG, PSS-SEL WG, Distance Education-WG, and the Minimum Standards Update Reference Group.

Marta Moskal has an interdisciplinary background in sociology, human geography, and public policy. She is currently an associate professor (senior lecturer) at the University of Glasgow, UK in the Department of Education. Her current research on the processes of international migration and education has been funded by grants from the UK research councils - AHRC and ESRC, the British Academy and supplemented by the EU Erasmus+ programme. Her recent work in this area has been published in Social and Cultural Geography, International Migration, International Migration Review, Globalisation, Societies and Education, Global Networks, Compare. Journal of Comparative and International Education and other outlets.

Head of Research Group on Migration and Psychosocial Health (www.uke.de/miph) at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf at the Department of Medical Psychology; Professor for Clinical Psychology at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences; research focuses is on migration and health and multilingualism in health care. Psychotherapist and honorary CEO of a NGO for Mental Health and Migration.

Mahgol Motalebi is a doctorate student holding DAAD scholarship within the study program IPP-EU at the Institute for European Urban Studies.

Born in 1991, she studied Bachelor of Architecture in Iran; following the Cum Laude graduation in 2016 from the “Architecture and Sustainability” program at Katholieke University (KU) Leuven, Belgium. During the master studies, she joined “Media Architecture” program at Bauhaus University Weimar as a guest student where she had worked with Refugees in Weimar on art and research projects that also shaped her Master thesis and future research direction, with the focus on the social and spatial dimension of urban segregation and its influence on the integration of immigrants and refugees. SS

Since 2018, She is working on the doctorate project under the title “Immigrant’s home in the making through spatial practice: The case of Iranian immigrants in Berlin” In this research, she attempts to illustrate the current integration processes and challenges of Iranian immigrants based on their spatial practices to make Berlin their new home.

Currently, I work as a researcher and lecturer in International Migration and Ethnic Relations at Malmö University. I am involved in an international research project on care, inequalities & wellbeing among different generations of transnational families in the UK, Spain, France and Sweden. I am also a Research Associate at the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) where I work on a research project about support and integration of Ukrainian refugees in Germany.

ALICE MPOFU-COLES
Alice is currently writing her thesis as PhD candidate and Research Assistant Human Geography at the University of Reading in the School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science. Alice is also working on a Professional Specialist Role on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the university to address race equality. Her research is on Identity and Transnational activities Among Young Zimbabwean Diaspora in the UK.
For over 15 years she volunteered at the Reading Refugee Support Group (RRSG) both as vice-chair and chair including being involved in the Gruntivig Women’s Project – Women Refugees Learning together in Europe. She is currently a trustee of the Reading City of Sanctuary and Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality (ACRE) and a specialist Ambassador for Global Female Wave of Change. She is also involved in Universities of Sanctuaries in the UK – leading Universities to give scholarships to refugees and be a safe space for sanctuary seekers. She also advocates and portrays a more positive image of refugees, black people, women, young people by participating in numerous projects. She has done BBC television documentary and interviews on refugees' plight, poverty, women and speaks at events and conferences. She furthers her activism by writing, actively involved with different human rights organisations, democracy, education and poverty.
Alice was given the most inspirational refugee women Driver award in 2020. She nominated the Reading Refugee Support Group for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, and this was awarded in 2019 receiving it from the Queen’s representative, Sheriff of Berkshire. She was given an Honorary Masters of Universities by the Open University in 2013 at Poole's ceremony for her services to refugees, communities, education, and civil services. She was presented with an award by the then President Chissano of Mozambique in 1996 for her writing on working with culturally diverse communities. This was achieved while working as a diplomat in Mozambique and preceded a posting to the former Yugoslavia, Belgrade. She worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Zimbabwe, was posted to Belgrade and then Maputo. She also worked in the office of the Vice President of Zimbabwe.
She has a BA in Social Work, MA in International Relations and Forced Migration Summer School course at Oxford University. In the UK, she started working in a sandwich factory, army barracks, care homes and then decided to train as a social worker. She worked in the local authority social care from 2004 until 2017 when she decided to do her PhD.
Despite her adversity of losing seven family members in 13 years, Alice wrote a book DEAR GOD FROM YOUR POACHED EGG BREAST about her breast cancer experience in 2007, chemotherapy and mastectomy while studying. She continues to advocate for breast cancer awareness in women with interviews on BBC and grassroots community group. She is standing as a Councillor Candidate in Reading in the UK May 2021 elections.
“You can lose everything, but nobody can take your education away.” part of the speech of Alice speaking to OU graduates when she was receiving the Masters Honorary Award from Open University https://youtu.be/9TsHg2dVGHY