Biography
Supervisor: Carlos Vargas-Silva and Ruben Andersson
College Affiliation: Green Templeton College
Ruta is an experienced humanitarian and migration professional. She has held regional and country senior management positions and has consulted for donors, UN agencies and NGOs. Ruta was Country Director for the Danish Refugee Council in Iran from 2016 to 2017; in this role, she engaged extensively with government counterparts and collaborated with UN and INGO partners. In addition to her DPhil, she serves as the Director of Meraki Labs. This consulting company aims to ensure refugees, migrants, and people from conflict-affected communities co-author all work. Ruta has conducted field and desk-based research on mixed migration routes and smuggling networks in Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and West Africa. Ruta specialises in qualitative data analysis and participatory and mixed-methods research. She focuses on ensuring that research is linked to programming, which stems from her long experience working directly with communities to develop new approaches to humanitarian and migration challenges. Ruta's thesis focuses on smuggling ecosystems and their engagement with national and international political dynamics.
Select Publications
The Vulnerability Gap: How people affected by climate change perceive their circumstances and make (risky) migration decisions
Article | Anti-Trafficking Review | October 2025
An evaluation of progress of the inclusion of refugees in national education systems in the IGAD member States
Report | UNHCR | November 2024
A Widening Moral Rift: The Complex Interactions between EU Externalization and Afghan Border Ecosystems
Article | ANNALS, AAPSS, 709 | June 2024
Principled humanitarian assistance and non-state armed groups
Article | Forced Migration Review, 61 | June 2019
“We are the ones they come to when nobody can help” Afghan smugglers' perceptions of themselves and their communities
Article | IOM Migration Research Series, 56 | 2019
From Bosnia to Baghdad: the Case for Regulating Private Military and Security Companies
Article | Journal of Public & International Affairs, 20 | 2009