Professor Karolina Follis SFHEA

Professor in Politics and Society

Research Overview

I am a political anthropologist interested in borders, citizenship and non-citizenship, human rights and new security technologies. I study the politics of borders in Europe, in particular the contestations over security, entitlements to public services and the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. My current project, the Wellcome Trust-funded Doctors within Borders is an international networking initative to bring together researchers, activists and healthcare professionals interested in the healtcare entitlements of migrants, asylum seekers and other patients who have unsettled legal or social status. My other recent projects include work on rejecting refugees in Poland and on border surveillance on the Mediterranean Sea. I developed my initial conceptualization of borders in my ethnography Building Fortress Europe. The Polish-Ukrainian Frontier published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2012. It was based ethnographic fieldwork in Poland and Ukraine to understand the human consequences of the transformation of the border between those two countries into an external border of the European Union. I remain interested in Eastern and Central European politics, particularly in the debates around liberal democracy, illiberalism, border and immigration politics, EU and the politics of memory.

Doctors within borders: caring for mobile populations in contemporary health systems
01/11/2019 → 30/09/2021
Research

Doctors within Borders: Networking Initiative on Mobile Populations in Contemporary Health Systems
01/10/2019 → 30/09/2021
Research

Trafficking: Study on the gender dimension of trafficking in human beings
31/12/2014 → 30/09/2015
Research

MUMBA: Multi-faceted Metrics for ICS Business Risk Analysis
01/10/2014 → 31/12/2017
Research

Security by Remote Control: Automation and Autonomy in Robot Weapon Systems
22/05/2014 → 23/05/2014
Research

Human rights and boundaries
01/03/2013 → …
Research

2023 ASEEES Convention
Participation in conference - Academic

European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) (External organisation)
Membership of network

American Society for Eastern European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) (External organisation)
Member of an organisation

Multidisciplinary Workshop on Contemporary Poland
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

24th International Conference of Europeanists "Sustainability and Transformation"
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Sea-Crossing: The Mediterranean and its ‘Others’
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Maritime Migration, Brexit and the Future of European Borders: Anthropological Previews
Invited talk

AHRC (External organisation)
Membership of committee

22nd International Conference of Europeanists
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Death at the Gates of Europe: Distance and Engagement
Invited talk

'Boat Refugees' and Migrants at Sea: A Comprehensive Approach Integrating Maritime Security with Human Rights
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

ABS 1st World Conference Post-Cold War Borders: Global Trends and Regional Responses
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Neither Secret Nor Exposed: The War on Terror and the CIA 'Black Site' in Poland
Invited talk

Borders of Responsibility: Migrant Deaths on the Mediterranean and the Politics of Human Rights Supervision
Invited talk

European Association of Social Anthropology 13th Biennial Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Ozum Dagdelen

Ozum Dagdelen

PhD student

Biobele Danagogo

Biobele Danagogo

PhD student, Associate Lecturer

  • CILHR Centre for International Law and Human Rights
  • Migrancy Research Group
  • Security Lancaster
  • Security Lancaster (Security Futures)
  • Security Lancaster (Societal Threats)