Dr Ala Sirriyeh

Research Overview

I joined Lancaster University in 2019 as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology. My research and teaching specialisms in migration, refugees, young people, and activism centre on questions of inequality, political power, and social justice. I used to work in a young people’s housing support and resource centre Before returning to university to complete my postgraduate studies. My initial research interests were informed through reflecting on some of the experiences faced by young people in the centre where I work and on my own family’s migration history. I completed my PhD in Sociology at the University of Leeds where I explored refugee young women’s understandings of home in the context of their journeys to the UK and transitions to adulthood. Since then I have worked on research projects on a range of topics including refugee children’s experiences in foster care, couples in transnational ‘living-apart-together’ relationships, the discourse of compassion in response to the refugee crisis, and undocumented youth activists in California. I have recently completed a BA/Leverhulme funded study with colleagues at the University of Warwick about racially minoritized students and their anti-racist activism in universities in England.

I am the co-convenor of the Lancaster University Sanctuary Network and Chair of the Lancaster University Sanctuary Scholarships Working Group. I am also the Race Equality Lead in the Department of Sociology.