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Dr Rachel Humphris , BA (Durham), MPhil (Oxford), DPhil (Oxford), PGCertHE (Birmingham)

Rachel

Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Politics

Email: r.humphris@qmul.ac.uk
Room Number: Arts One, Room 2.34A
Twitter: @rachel_humphris
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00-12:00 and Wednesdays 15:00-16:00 (in person or online, please email to book an appointment)

Profile

Dr Rachel Humphris is a political sociologist whose research and teaching focuses on migration and citizenship, governance and policy-making, gender and race. Prior to joining the School of Politics and International Relations in September 2019, Rachel was a Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Birmingham (2017 – 2019) and a Research Fellow at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford (2014-2017). Rachel has been a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, University of California - Berkeley, York University Toronto and the University of Sheffield.

Rachel’s research programme is methodologically diverse, theoretically grounded and empirically driven. She employs qualitative research methods that engage with theories and debates in critical migration and border studies, anthropology of the state and critical urbanism. Much of her work is inherently interdisciplinary, cutting across research in anthropology, geography, politics, public policy and sociology. Her published research can be found in Antipode, Geopolitics, Sociology, the Sociological Review, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, among others. Her first monograph, Home-land: Romanian Roma, domestic spaces and the state is published with the University of Bristol/University of Chicago Press and won the British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Runner-Up Prize in 2020. Her second monograph, Making Sanctuary Cities: Migration, Citizenship and Urban Governance is published with Stanford University Press. 

Rachel is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Human Welfare Prize, University of Oxford (2014), the Aston Webb Award for Outstanding Early Career Academic, University of Birmingham (2019), Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2018 – 2021) and the Queen Mary University of London IHSS Strategic Research Fellowship (2019-2022).

Rachel is an Associate Editor for the journal Sociology and co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Migration, Transnationalism and Diaspora Group.

Rachel is the Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration and leads the University of Sanctuary Working Group at QMUL. 

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