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Transnational Topographies: Syrian Forced Migrants Encountering the Refugee RegimeMalene H. JacobsenThe seminar will take place at Ifpo at 10 am (the seminar is not opened to public)Abstract:Malene will present her research project. Her dissertation research examines the transnational dimensions of forced migration between Jordan and Denmark. The project focuses on the Danish state’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis and how Syrian forced migrants negotiate the complex array of actors and institutions they encounter along their journeys. This research seeks to re-situate the politics of migration management from a top-down disembodied conception to one informed by the everyday encounters, narratives, and struggles of forced migrants themselves. This project’s research sites (Jordan and Denmark) provide important insights into the actions of states spearheading efforts to manage migrants’ mobility through humanitarian assistance and development projects, and into the evolving connections between them. This research combines archival research and interviews with staff from state and non-state institutions, and participatory mapping with Syrian forced migrants living in Denmark. Malene’s research is funded by a number of US and European grants and fellowships, including a Danish Institute in Damascus Research Grant, a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, and a Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship.BiographyMalene H. Jacobsen is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky, USA. She completed her M.A. thesis in 2013 on the topic of asylum seekers’ everyday life within the Danish asylum system and has recently appeared as a chapter in the 2016 edited collection Intimate Economies of Immigration Detention published with Routledge. Her work has also appeared in the recently published Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Geography. Her research interests center broadly around issues of forced migration, subaltern geopolitics, and state practices within and across national borders. Malene has also numerous prices and awards for writing and teaching from the University of Kentucky and the American Association of Geographers.