Nira Yuval-Davis

Professor Nira Yuval-Davis

Emeritus Professor

Migration, refugees

Department of Social Sciences , School of Childhood and Social Care

Nira Yuval-Davis is Professor Emeritus, Honorary Director of the Research Centre on Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB) at the University of East London.

Qualifications

  • BA, MA, PhD

Areas Of Interest

  • Intersectionality
  • Politics of belonging
  • Identities and social action
  • Racism
  • Nationalism
  • Gender relations
  • Citizenship
  • Fundamentalism
  • Borders and bordering
Nira Yuval-Davis

OVERVIEW

Nira Yuval-Davis is Professor Emeritus and Honorary Director of the Research Centre on Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB) at the University of East London. She has been the President of the Research Committee 05 (on Racism, Nationalism, Indigeneity and Ethnic Relations) of the International Sociological Association, a founder member of Women Against Fundamentalism and the international research network on Women In Militarized Conflict Zones and has acted as a consultant for various UN and human rights organisations. Nira Yuval-Davis has won the 2018 International Sociological Association Distinguished Award for Excellence in Research and Practice. She has written widely on intersected gendered nationalisms, racisms, fundamentalisms, citizenships, identities, belonging/and everyday bordering as well as on situated intersectionality and dialogical epistemology. Among her books are Woman-Nation-State, 1989, Racialized Boundaries,1992, Unsettling Settler Societies, 1995, Gender and Nation, 1997, The Warning Signs of Fundamentalism, 2004, The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations, 2011, Women Against Fundamentalism, 2014 and Bordering (Forthcoming). Her works have been translated into more than ten languages.

Previous posts held

October 1974 - January 2003 Full‑time member of staff in the Sociology Division at Thames Polytechnic (later to be renamed the University of Greenwich), London; Since June 1995 - Professor in Gender and Ethnic Studies

1995 - 2003 Professor in Gender and Ethnic Studies, University of Greenwich

2003 - 2009 Professor and Director of the Postgraduate Studies Programme in Gender, Sexualities and Ethnic Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of East London (UEL)

2009 - 2017 Professor and Director and the Research Centre on Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB) at the School of Social Sciences, University of East London

2009 - 2016 - P/T Guest Professor at the Research Centre for Gender Studies, University of Umea, Sweden

Since September 2014, an Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Aalborg, Denmark

Former President and permanent board member of the International Sociological Association Committee 05 on Racism, Nationalism, Indigeneity and Ethnic Relations; 

Member of the Sociology sub-panel of the 2008 RAE (UK National Research Assessment Exercise) and of the 2014 REF (UK national Research Excellence Framework) 2008 RAE (UK National Research Assessment Exercise) and of the 2014 REF (UK national Research Excellence Framework);

Editor of the book series Politics of Intersectionality for Palgrave Macmillan, a member of the editorial collective of the journal Feminist Dissent and on the editorial board of the journals: 

Das Argument (Germany), Ethnicities, (UK),  the Journal of Inter-cultural Studies (Australia), the International Feminist Journal of Politics (Routledge), Signs: Journal on women and culture and society (USA), New Formations (the UK), Social Inclusion (Switzerland), Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (American Sociological Association), Soundings (the UK).

CURRENT RESEARCH

CMRB

Professor Nira Yuval-Davis is the Director of the Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB), which brings together the interdisciplinary work carried out within the School, in the related areas of migration and refugee studies; diasporas and social cohesion; racism, nationalism and political religions; as well as citizenship, identity and belonging. CMRB also collaborates with individuals, academic institutions and organisations outside UEL on research, conferences and seminars, to build knowledge on these crucial issues and provide a space for debate and creative thinking.

EUBorderscapes

Financed through the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, EUBorderscapes is an international research project that tracks and interprets conceptual change in the study of borders. It is a large-scale project with a consortium that includes 22 partner institutions from 17 different states, including several non-EU countries. The EUBorderscapes project studies conceptual change in relation to fundamental social, economic, cultural and geopolitical transformations that have taken place in the past decades. Nira Yuval-Davis is leading the research work package 09 which compares intersectional situated everyday bordering in different kinds of European borders as well as in different European metropolitan cities. In particular, she has led the UEL team studying the Calais-Dover border, every day bordering in Metropolitan London and Roma and bordering.

Further information about the project is available at UEL's Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging.

Identity, Performance and Social Action: Community Theatre Among Refugees

This ESRC research project brought together theatre and social sciences in the study of the lives and identities of Refugees. The research explored constructions and politics of identity and belonging among refugee communities in London - Kosovan, Kurdish, Somali and a mixed refugee course. These Identity constructions were narrated and performed during interactive community theatre events and consequent reflections in several community centres in London.

Further information about the project is available on the IPSA page.

Refereeing publications and editorial work

Currently on the Editorial Collective of Feminist Dissent as well as on the Advisory Boards of Das Argument (Germany), Ethnicities, (UK), the Journal of Inter-cultural Studies (Australia), the International Feminist Journal of Politics (Routledge), Signs: Journal on women and culture and society (USA), New Formations (the UK), Social Inclusion (Switzerland), Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (American Sociological Association), Soundings (the UK)

Reviewed articles, refereed articles, monographs and proposals for book series as well as endorsed books among others for the American Sociological Review, Capital and Class; Ethnic and Racial Studies; Ethnicities; Feminist Review; International Feminist Journal of Politics; Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Signs, Sociology; International Sociology; Sociological Review; Theory, Culture & Society; Citizenship Studies; Journal of Middle East Studies; Ashgate Press, Blackwell Publications, Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Polity Press, Routledge and Sage Publications.

Reviewed research proposals for the ESRC, the ESF, the SSRC, the Australian Social Sciences Research Council, the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the European Science Foundation, the Icelandic Research Fund, the Nuffield Foundation, the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, the Viennese Social Sciences and Humanities Council, Newcastle University in Australia, University of Vienna, Danish Agency for Science, UN Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva.
Subject editor of Politics and the State of the Routledge Encyclopaedia of Women, Routledge, New York, 2001

Currently on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Das Argument (Germany), Ethnicities, (UK), Hagar (Israel), the Journal of Inter-cultural Studies (Australia), the International Feminist Journal of Politics (Routledge), Signs: Journal on Women and Culture and Society (USA), Social Inclusion (Switzerland), Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (American Sociological Association).

Other scholarly activities

  • 2002 - 2006 - elected President of the Research Committee 05 on Nationalism, Racism and Ethnic Relations of the International Sociological Association (after being elected to serve on the board since 1994 and as Vice President from 1998-2002; since 2006 a permanent board member).
  • Since January 2003, on the Advisory Board of ASEN (the Association of Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism), LSE, London.
  • Appointed member of the 2008 RAE (UK National Research Assessment Exercise) and of the 2014 REF (UK National Research Excellence Framework) Sociology sub-panels.
  • Since August 2009, an editor of the book series on the Politics of Intersectionality, Palgrave Macmillan.
  • A Founder Member of the International Research Network on Women in Militarised Conflict Zones (1998) and of Women Against Fundamentalism (1989).
  • December 2002 - A member of the investigative international women's delegation to India, International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat.
  • February 2003 - A member of an international assessment team that reviewed the sociology degrees at York University, Toronto.
  • May 2004 and June 2005 - A member of the expert consultation team on the gender initiative of Amnesty International.
  • June 2006 - A member of the expert advisory team of the UNDP evaluation of its work in post-conflict societies.
  • 2007-09 - A member of the panel of experts of the European Include-Ed Project, CREA, Barcelona.
  • Since 2008 - a member of the Academic Forum of Runnymede Trust
  • June 2009 - expert consultation, The International Council on Human Rights Policy, Geneva
  • Since 2016 - a member of the Migration, Refugees and Settlement group of the Academy of Social Sciences
  • Membership of the British Sociological Association, International Sociological Association, Women's Studies Network, ASEN (Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism), AWID (Association of Women In Development).
  • Subject editor of Politics and the State of the Routledge Encyclopaedia of Women, Routledge, New York, 2001

Recent conference organising

  • July 2006, on the organising committee of the congress of the International Sociological Association, Durban, South Africa; co-organised the semi-plenary symposia as well as the eighteen panels of the RC05.
  • September 2007, co-organised an international workshop on "Feminisms and Activism: Transversal Politics in Contemporary Europe and Across the Globe", funded by the European Science Foundation and the Global Fund for Women which took place at the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, Inter-College, Cyprus.
  • March 2008, co-organised a multi-disciplinary national conference on the 'Methodological, Theoretical and Political Aspects of Participatory Research among Refugees', ESRC Identities and Social Action research Programme & UEL.
  • February 2010, CMRB and Runnymede conference on Migration, Racism and Religion, UEL.
  • March 2010, CMRB and the European Network on Migration and Immigration on Migration, the media and 'the message', UEL.
  • February 2011, CMRB and Runnymede conference on Secularism, Racism and the Politics of Belonging, UEL.
  • April 2012, CMRB and associated Consortium, conference on 2012 London: City of Paradox, UEL.
  • December 2013, CMRB, Runnymede and LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights, Anti-Jewish, Anti-Muslims Racism and the Palestine/Israel issue.
  • February 2015, CMRB, Runnymede, LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights and the Institute of Middle East Studies, SOAS, conferences on Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim Racisms and the Question of Palestine/Israel.
  • November 2015, CMRB and the EUBorderscapes Project, UEL, conference on Policy and Impact, Borders and Bordering in Contemporary Europe.

FUNDING

Grants

  • February - May 2004, Rockefeller Fellow at the programme on Gender, Globalisation and Human Security at the Graduate School, City University of New York and the National Council for Research on Women.
  • Awarded a major ESRC award (£208k) in their programme on Identities and Social Action: Identity, Performance and Social Action: The Use of Community Theatre Among Refugees (April 2005 - March 2008) £3,000 from Runnymede Trust to organise a conference on Migration, Racism and Religion (February 2010)
  • EUBorderscapes (March 2013 - June 2016) (313k EUR) EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

TEACHING

  • Taught courses on both postgraduate and undergraduate levels, especially courses on gender relations, nationalism, racism, ethnic and gender divisions and qualitative research methods.
  • Most recently taught courses on:

'Intersectionality and Social Exclusions'
'Politics of belonging in the 'Glocal' Age'.

  • Fulfilled the role of an External Examiner, among others, of the MA in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Warwick (1994-97), the MPhil in Racism and Ethnicity at Trinity College, Dublin (1998-2000), the MA in Arts and Education at the Israeli extension of the Bretton College, University of Leeds (2001-2003); the MA in Race & Ethnic Studies at Birkbeck College, the University of London (2001-2004); the MA in Gender Studies, SOAS, the University of London (2004-2007).
  • PhD supervisor and examiner at the University of Greenwich, Queen's University Belfast, University of East London, University of Exeter, University of Hamburg, University of Kent, London School of Economics, Malmo University in Denmark, Manchester University, SOAS, Nottingham Trent, the University of Melbourne, Sydney Technological University, University of Tasmania, University of Utrecht and the Eritrean National University.
  • In recent years supervised nine PhD students at the University of East London, all of whom have successfully completed:
  • Amira Ahmed, "Underprivileged Hierarchies" Paid household workers in the migration context: migrant women domestic workers in contemporary Egypt
  • Mastoureh Fathi, Education & Social Mobility: The Subjective Experience of Iranian Women Doctors in the UK
  • Henriette Gunkel, 'The cultural politics of female same-sex intimacy in post-apartheid South Africa'
  • Rumana Hashem, Gender and armed conflict: the case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts
  • Nicola Samson, Narratives of Women's Belonging: Life Stories from an East London Street
  • Bahar Taseli, Representations of Collective 'Self and 'Other' in Turkish Cypriot Print Media Discourse
  • Micaela Told, 'A Gender Perspective on Transnationalism of the Sri Lankan Diaspora Communities in Germany - Influence on the Ethnic-Nationalist Conflict and Peace-Building in Sri Lanka'
  • Ulrike Vieten, Situating Cosmopolitanisms: Notions of the other in two Western academic discourses on Cosmopolitanism
  • Diana Yeh, Re-imagining (British)-Chineseness: Transnationalism, diaspora and cultural production

MODULES

Supervision of research students (PhD)

  • Amira Ahmed, "Underprivileged Hierarchies" Paid household workers in the migration context: migrant women domestic workers in contemporary Egypt (COMPLETED)
  • Henriette Gunkel, 'The cultural politics of female same-sex intimacy in post-apartheid South Africa' (COMPLETED)
  • Micaela Told, 'A Gender Perspective on Transnationalism of the Sri Lankan Diaspora Communities in Germany - Influence on the Ethnic-Nationalist Conflict and Peace-Building in Sri Lanka' (COMPLETED)
  • Ulrike Vieten, Situating Cosmopolitanisms: Notions of the other in two Western academic discourses on Cosmopolitanism (COMPLETED)
  • Diana Yeh, Re-imagining (British)-Chineseness: Transnationalism, diaspora and cultural production (COMPLETED)
  • Mastoureh Fathi, Education & Social Mobility: The Subjective Experience of Iranian Women Doctors in the UK (COMPLETED)
  • Nicola Samson, Narratives of Women's Belonging: Life Stories from an East London Street (COMPLETED)
  • Bahar Taseli, Representations of Collective 'Self and 'Other' in Turkish Cypriot Print Media Discourse (COMPLETED)
  • Michaela Told, A Gender Perspective on Transnationalism of the Sri Lankan Diaspora Communities in Germany (COMPLETED)
  • Rumana Hashem, Gender and armed conflict: the case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts

Publications

Browse past publications by year.

Full publications list

Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications

Research repository

  • Yuval-Davis, N. and Ryan, L. (2020)

    Talking about Bordering Central and Eastern European Migration Review. 9 (1), pp. 13-27. https://doi.org/10.17467/ceemr.2020.02

    Article