Exploring Sanctuary through Research and Perspectives is an online panel discussion bringing together doctoral candidates from across UK universities to share their research on sanctuary.

Building on last year's success led by Jonathan Birtwell (Sanctuary Hub Postdoctoral Research Associate, King’s College London), the panel will provide a platform for PhD students to present their insights on sanctuary, its impact on communities, and the role of research in addressing migration and displacement.

The event aims to foster collaboration and exchange between researchers while showcasing diverse perspectives on how sanctuary can empower individuals and communities. The panel will also encourage further participation from students across the UK, enriching the dialogue on sanctuary in academia.

Speakers: 

Dr Jonathan Birtwell, Sanctuary Hub Postdoctoral Research Associate, King’s College London

Jonathan completed his PhD in Education Studies exploring how learner identity shapes the way that students with refugee backgrounds approach admissions to higher education in Malaysia. At the King's Sanctuary Hub his work focuses on higher-education-led safe pathways to sanctuary in the UK. He recently completed a research project funded by the Policy Institute at King's College London that brought together civil society organisations, government policymakers, UNHCR, and communities with lived experience to explore potential expansion of community sponsorship in the UK to facilitate more safe pathways to sanctuary.

Alessia Dalceggio: PhD in Sociology and awardee of the Vice Chancellor Scholarship at London Metropolitan University.

Alessia’s doctoral research, provisionally titled “Navigating borders in higher education” aims at better understanding the experience of forced migrant students in British universities. Her interest in forced migration and higher education stems from her prior personal and professional experiences in casework, advocacy and DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). Her focus is on how asylum, migration and intersectional identities impact people’s experience of education, social life and access to public services. Currently, Alessia is also working as a research assistant on a longitudinal, evaluation project on Syrian and Afghan resettlement in London.

Enioluwada Rhoda Oluwajoba: PhD at the University of Hull

The focus of Enioluwada’s research is to explore the experiences of asylum seekers with physical disabilities when accessing health care services in the UK. She works as an Engagement Lead for Children's and Young people's services at her local NHS Trust as well as being a Trustee for City of Sanctuary and a member of the steering group for University of Sanctuary. She is an expert by experience and was a research associate on the Reimagining Higher Education Borders project. Her research project stems from her personal experiences and has a reflexivity perspective.

Walaa Mouma: PhD in Applied Linguistics, Swansea University

Walaa’s MSc dissertation was titled: A Qualitative Study of ESOL Provision for Refugees in Wales: Teachers' Perspectives on Challenges Faced by ESOL Refugee Learners. She currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Linguistics, focusing on ESOL for refugees and asylum seekers in Wales. As I only started in October 2024, I’m still in the early stages, so I have chosen to share my MSc findings for this event.

Rebecca Hayes Laughton PhD in Medical Humanities, King’s Faculty of Life Sciences, Centre for Education

Rebecca’s thesis is titled A Theatre of Welcome: Hospitality, Human Rights, and the Cultural Power of Women Seeking Asylum in the UK and it explores how her eight year drama project at the Southbank Centre in London has supported asylum seeking women's wellbeing, alongside their campaigning performances for social change. Her research frames the drama facilitator's role as an act of hospitality, and at this event Rebecca will discuss how welcome and safety can be theorised via the lens of agonism, and how creative practice can offer a verbal syntax, and embodied process, that centres the lived experience of women seeking sanctuary.