Melanie is a DPhil candidate at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Her research explores how asylum seekers living in Oxford and detained at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre negotiate discourses of identification and criminalisation, and manage the uncertain - and sometimes irrational – liminality of the asylum system. She examines the tension between understanding asylum seekers as passive victims or opportunistic cheats to examine questions of truth and lies.
Melanie has a degree in Anthropology and Archaeology from Oxford University, a masters in the Anthropology of Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies and has worked as a consultant for the Department of International Development.