Dr Arshad Isakjee BA (hons), MA, PhD

Personal Statement

I am a political geographer at the University of Liverpool with specialisms in informal migration into Europe and the UK and the governance of minorities in the UK. Currently my research focusses on the often violent governance of the EU border, designed principally to repel people on the move seeking asylum. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in Calais in France, and also along the borders of Croatia, in Serbia and Bosnia. Presently that research is funded by the Antipode Foundation through an Activist-Scholar grant which I hold alongside collaborators and friends, Thom Davies, Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik and Bruno Alvares Contreras of the activist group No Name Kitchen.

I grew up in Birmingham and Walsall and completed my academic training at the University of Birmingham. My undergraduate degree was in human geography with urban planning. After working in regional government, I received ESRC funding to do research on the governance of Muslim communities in the UK in the context of emerging counter-radicalisation policies.

Thematically my work explores how and why liberal forms of governance perpetuates violence on racialised groups.