Experts Database

Paddy is a Zambian national with over 16 years of professional experience as a Development Economist and Migration governance expert. Her work covers regional integration and governance. Her experience includes supporting NGOs, governments, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as well as UN agencies in programme formulation, implementation, undertaking research as well as monitoring and evaluation. She has worked with the European Commission, UN agencies (UNICEF, IOM, UNESCO), bilateral donors as well as consultancy firms as programme manager, coordinator and consultant. She holds a Master in Financial Economics from SOAS and BSC Development & Economics from LSE. She is fluent in English, French and Swahili. She has lived and worked in Zambia, Tanzania, China, Malaysia, and with missions to Ethiopia, Senegal, The Gambia, Kenya, South Africa among others. She is an advisory member of the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT) .

Dr Dimitris Skleparis is a Senior Lecturer in the Politics of Security at Newcastle University. His research is at the intersection between critical security studies and migration/refugee studies. Dimitris is interested in the ways in which migration is governed, perceived, portrayed and experienced amid increasing insecurities. He focuses particularly on the dynamics between security discourse and practice and their human impact. He approaches these issues from an interdisciplinary, and mixed methods standpoint. He also has considerable media and consultancy experience.

Dimitris received his PhD in Political Science from Queen Mary University of London (2015) with a specialisation in the securitisation of migration and the politics of migrant activism. He also holds a MSc (Distinction) in Social Science Research Methods from the University of Bristol (2009), and a BA in Communication and Media from the University of Athens (2008). He has published in a range of international peer-reviewed journals, and has contributed to a number of edited volumes, research project reports, and policy briefs.

Dimitris has previously worked as a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Glasgow, and as a Lecturer and Internship Programme Coordinator at the University of California (Edinburgh Study Centre). He has also worked as a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow, and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).

The SmartMove2UK is a specialist immigration law firm with branches in India (Mumbai | Delhi | Bengaluru) led by a specialist Solicitor. Evolving from practicing exclusively in the areas of UK nationality and immigration law.
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Kevin Smets is research professor in film studies and cultural media studies. He studied cultural history (KU Leuven) and obtained a PhD in Film Studies and Visual Culture (University of Antwerp). His research focuses primarily on the intersections between migration, media and conflict, with a long research interest in Turkey. Kevin is co-director of the ECHO research group and since 2021 he leads the Reel Borders project, funded by an ERC Starting Grant. He also teaches the course ‘Film history’.

I am Senior Research Fellow in Asylum and Migration at the University of Huddersfield. With extensive experience in the field of forced migration, my expertise has developed through long-term research and direct professional practice, service delivery and management with migrant and refugee organisations. My research focuses broadly on migration, asylum and refugee studies, with a particular focus on feminist narrative research and ethical dilemmas in feminist research. Often using creative, visual and participatory methodologies, I am particularly interested in how migration is understood and experienced by women. I have published and presented widely on these topics, including co-editing “Feminist Narrative Research: Opportunities and Challenges” (Palgrave Macmillan 2017). Contributing to many invited presentations at national and international workshops and conferences, my more recent work includes critical engagement with narratives of vulnerability and resistance.

I am one of the Research Leads, shared and alongside Dr. Anna Davidson and Dr. Grainne McMahon, on Feminist Spaces. This project brings together feminist, anti-racist, embodied practices of creating safe(r) spaces and arts activism to resignify space and to perform everyday acts of resistance with voice and action. This research has built a collaborative, capacity-releasing network by pairing up UK and European-based projects of resistance with a range of allied projects in less economically developed countries. Please see our website. We are currently working on Making Spaces which explores feminist responses and survival strategies in the Covid-19 pandemic. Our projects partners include the Racial Justice Network (West Yorkshire) and RAPAR (Manchester).