MSc Teaching and Faculty

Teaching on the degree is provided by leading scholars in the field, who draw on their research to illustrate theoretical, ethical, methodological and practical issues. It is problem-focused and aims to give students critical analytical skills.

The degree is taught through lectures, seminars and tutorials; a critical discussion class and student-led presentations; essays and library work leading to a dissertation. The course admits around c.26-30 students each year, and students have individual supervision.

Core Staff

  • Dr Dace Dzenovska, Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Migration, COMPAS: Migration, postsocialist democratisation and liberalisation, sovereignty, statehood, bordering, nationalism, political imaginaries, Eastern Europe, former Soviet Union
  • Dr Loren Landau, Course Director and Professor of Migration and Development, ODID: Methods of Social Research, Governance of Migration; migration and urbanisation in the global south; spatial regulations; belonging and political transformation
  • Dr Helidah Ogude-Chambert, Departmental Lecturer, ODID: migration, mobilities, borders; political and news discourse; immigration policy; decolonial feminist thought; affect theory, critical race theory; critical masculinity studies; critical visuality; Black studies; UK/Europe/Africa
  • Dr Carlos Vargas-Silva, COMPAS: Migration and the economy; social impacts of refugee resettlement; labour markets; interaction of migration, including forced migration, with labour markets and public services in migrant-sending and receiving countries
  • Dr Peter William Walsh, Senior Researcher, The Migratory Observatory: Migration and Policy, research focuses on UK immigration policy
  • Dr Di Wu, Departmental Lecturer, MSc in Migration Studies, COMPAS: Anthropology of migration; everyday life of Chinese migrants in Zambia, particularly looking at issues of labour disputes, cross-cultural communication and moral interaction, and process of community building

Staff on Research Leave

  • Professor Ruben Andersson, MSc in Migration Studies: migration, borders and security with a focus on West Africa and Southern Europe; irregular migration; humanitarianism; globalisation; conflict and displacements
  • Dr Madeleine Reeves, Professor of Anthropology, COMPAS: Migration, Time and Temporality, Labour migration in the post-Soviet space; migration, ethics and debt; borders and border regimes; reproductive mobilities; anthropology of Central Asia

Other Senior Teaching Staff

  • Professor Michael Keith, COMPAS: sociology and geography, cities, social integration, Europe and China
  • Dr Sarah Spencer, COMPAS: public policy, migration and human rights, UK and Europe
  • Dr Nicholas Van Hear, COMPAS: anthropology and development studies, forced migration, diaspora, conflict, development, South Asia and Africa

Staff contributing to the degree each year is subject to change.

Teaching Excellence Awards

The degree has received four University Awards for its innovative and effective teaching (two in 2012, one in 2013, and one in 2014) and one shortlisted nomination for the Student Union Teaching Award (2014).