17.11.2021 Welcome at the Center for Conflict Studies, Luisa Feline Freier!

Feline is joining us as a guest researcher from Lima, Peru, where she has spent the last 7 years at the Universidad del Pacífico (UP; currently on leave). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), an M.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a B.S. in Economics from Universität zu Köln.

Her research broadly focuses on migration and refugee policies in Latin America, south-south migration, and the Venezuelan displacement crisis. In previous work, she has asked what explains the remarkable policy liberalization in Latin America, on the one hand, and restrictive reactions to Venezuelan displacement, on the other. Her research also covers the application of regional and domestic immigration and refugee policies and laws, the securitization of immigration policies in the Global South, the (self-) categorization of migrants and refugees and its effects, and the socio-political implications of institutional racism and socio-racial hierarchies. Feline often adopts a mixed-methods approach to research, collaborating with academics across disciplines.

Currently, Feline is working with colleagues from UP and the University of Oxford to gain a better understating of what drives public opinion on immigration and immigration policies in Colombia and Peru, and on a project on institutional and inter-personal trust, social-racial hierarchies, and xenophobia in Peru. She is also involved in the creation and establishment of one of the IDRC research chairs on forced displacement at UP. The network of 8 IDRC chairs in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Middle East will empower institutions in these regions to define research agendas on forced displacement and will allow its members to foster comparative research projects.

Feline has published widely in both academic journals –such as International Migration Review (IMR), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS), and Third World Quarterly (TWQ)–, and has been cited on the Venezuelan displacement crisis in international media outlets, including the BBC, CBC, El País, La Presse, Liberation, and The Economist. She has also provided advice to various international institutions and organizations, such as the Amnesty International, the European Union (EU), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the World Bank. Feline is Associate Editor of the journal Migration Studies (Oxford Academic) and an IOM Migration Research and Publishing High-Level Adviser.

We welcome Feline at the Center!