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Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen - New PhD at the department of Anthropology

Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen will be part of the the international and interdisciplinary research project: “Temporary Protection as a durable solution? The “Return-Turn” in asylum policies in Europe”(TemPro)

My name is Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen and I am a new PhD student at the Department of Anthropology. Holding a MA in Anthropology from Aarhus University (2017), I am delighted to be back in the beautiful scenery around Moesgaard. For the last 2,5 years, I have worked as a project manager and fundraiser at the Resource Centre for Integration of Vejle Municipality (VIFIN), where I have coordinated several projects in collaboration with local departments and European partners.

For my master thesis, I conducted fieldwork among displaced people in the makeshift camp: “the Jungle” of Calais in France. I explored my interlocutors’ orientations, hopes and mobility during their temporary and precarious stay in the camp and throughout its eviction. I build on these experiences for my PhD project that sets out to explore how Somali and Syrian refugee families cope with the increased temporariness of protection in their daily life in Denmark. I am curious about how the post-2015 immigration policies, emphasising “return” instead of integration of refugees, influence Somali and Syrian refugees’ orientations, tactics and experiences of belonging, and how their different national and individual histories of immigration to Denmark may guide these experiences.

The PhD project is a part of the international and interdisciplinary research project: “Temporary Protection as a durable solution? The “Return-Turn” in asylum policies in Europe”(TemPro). By engaging joint methods, researchers within law and anthropology seek to explore the effects of temporary protection policies on refugee law and refugee lives in Norway, United Kingdom and Denmark. My supervisor is Professor MSO Mikkel Rytter who also participates in the overall research project. At Aarhus University, Professor at the Department of Law Jens Vedsted-Hansen also takes part in the project. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway.  

You can find more information about the TemPro project in a previous article of this newsletter: https://cas.au.dk/aktuel/nyheder/nyhed/artikel/mikkel-rytter-skal-indgaa-i-nyt-internationalt-forskningsprojekt-om-flygtninge/

I look forward to engage in the research environment at the institute and to meet my colleagues at Moesgaard!


Contact:

Sarah-Louise Japhetson Mortensen
Institut for Kultur og Samfund - Afdeling for Antropologi
Moesgård Allé 20
8270 Højbjerg

japhetson.mortensen@cas.au.dk