Biography
Kathrin Fischer is a PhD candidate in anthropology whose research focuses on international development and migration. She is based at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA) and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.
Her doctoral project on migration decision-making in Nepal compares different population groups' access to migration channels. The project is particularly concerned with labour broker networks and the mechanisms and interdependency of influencing factors related to class, caste, and kinship.
Before joining ISCA and COMPAS, Kathrin conducted ethnographic fieldwork on health decision-making in post-disaster Nepal and on gender aspects of decentralisation and pasture-management projects in Kyrgyzstan. Her thesis on political participation of Kyrgyz pastoral women was awarded the ‘Sustainability Award for Theses’ (University of Tübingen, Germany).
She is also a member of the WHO Emergency Medical Team ‘FAST’, an emergency response team of the German aid and welfare organisation Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund. Previous operations include disaster relief work in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew (2016) and project monitoring and training of trainers in water purification in Haiti (2017).
Research focus:
- Migration and mobility
- Intermediaries and brokering
- Global Health
- Care and kinship
- Community participation in humanitarian and development contexts
- Communication and cooperation between research, policy and implementation
Selected publications
Fischer, K. (2023) 'Care Functions within the Kinship Network: Explaining Care Arrangements and Female Health Choices in Post-Disaster Nepal', The Journal of Development Studies, 59:4, 552-569. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2022.2147828
Fischer, K. (2022) "Fluctuating 'Structures' of Protection: The Integration of Civil Society Actors in Government-Led Response at the Ukraine-Slovakian Border", MoLab Inventory of Mobilities and Socioeconomic Changes. Department ‘Anthropology of Economic Experimentation’. Halle/Saale: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.48509/MOLAB.6852