PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR (PI)
Dr. Nick Gill
Dr. Gill is a political geographer, teaching Human Geography at the University of Exeter. He has conducted ground-breaking research on asylum adjudication in the UK. His previous research and methodology forms the foundation of ASYFAIR.
Email: N.M.Gill@exeter.ac.uk
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr. Nicole Hoellerer (Lead Researcher)
Dr. Hoellerer is an anthropologist, with extensive research experience in migration and refugee studies. Her ethnography on refugee resettlement in the UK laid bare the practice-policy gap in the UK’s migration service provision. She is the lead researcher for the ASYFAIR research project. As a native German speaker, she is responsible for research conducted in Germany and Austria.
Email: N.Hoellerer@exeter.ac.uk
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Dr. Daniel Fisher
Dr. Fisher is a human geographer concerned with the increasing mobility of state borders and their creep into the spaces of everyday life. His previous research, conducted while a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, consisted of multi-sited ethnographic work in the UK, Poland, mainland Spain and Ceuta. His work has focused on the ‘messiness’ of border enforcement in these diverse spaces, despite the availability of high-tech border control technologies and near real-time communication systems. His main responsibility in the ASYFAIR project was to analyse UK data, and publish on asylum adjudication. He has also conducted research for ASYFAIR in Belgium and the UK.
Since leaving ASYFAIR, Daniel was working as a social scientist at The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, and is currently a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow (School of Education)
RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr. Jessica Hambly
Dr. Hambly has a background in law. Her PhD was a socio-legal study of UK asylum appeals, with a specific focus on the work of lawyers. Alongside her PhD, Dr Hambly worked as a research associate on the Citizenship and Law Project at Bristol University and taught constitutional and administrative law. She has volunteered for a number of years with local refugee advocacy and solidarity groups, and prior to starting work with the ASYFAIR team she worked as an adviser with Legal Centre Lesbos. As a French speaker, she was responsible for research conducted in France. She also conducted research interviews for ASYFAIR in Greece.
Since leaving ASYFAIR, Jessica is working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the College of Law at the Australian National University (ANU).
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Dr. Lorenzo Vianelli
Dr. Vianelli holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies, and he has an extensive experience in the field of asylum reception and procedure, which he acquired through scientific research, work experiences and voluntary work. His research cuts across political geography, politics and anthropology, and focuses on the failure of the EU attempts to govern asylum seekers through the Common European Asylum System. In the ASYFAIR research project, he was responsible for research conducted in Italy.
Since leaving ASYFAIR Lorenzo is working as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning of the University of Luxembourg. He is the principal investigator of the CONDISOBS project, funded by a H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship
Research Collaborators:
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Amanda Schmid-Scott
Amanda is a PhD candidate in Human Geography at the University of Exeter, researching the seemingly banal administrative systems that govern daily life for those seeking asylum in Britain. Her work focuses on those geospatial controls imposed on asylum seekers, in the form of immigration detention and reporting practices, inhered within many people’s experiences of seeking asylum. Prior to her PhD studies, Amanda worked with Somali refugees in Ethiopia, and with Praxis, a charity working with vulnerable migrants in east London. Amanda’s role in the ASYFAIR team included the analysis and coding of UK data.
Email: as862@exeter.ac.uk
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Laura Scheinert
Laura is a PhD candidate in Human Geography at the University of Exeter. Her project aims to investigate the training of judges who work in refugee status determination. Before joining the University of Exeter in September 2018, Laura worked as an evaluator at the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) in Bonn, Germany. She is a sociologist by training (BA University of Mannheim, MA Newcastle University). Laura’s role in the ASYFAIR team includes statistical analysis of the UK data, as well as discourse analysis of asylum determination decisions.
Email: l.scheinert@exeter.ac.uk
ASYFAIR 