I am a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations Queen Mary, University of London. I am also a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow (2018 – 2021). Since completing an MPhil and DPhil at the University of Oxford, I was a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Ethnicity and Diversity. I have also held visiting fellowships at University of California, Berkeley; York University, Toronto and the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield.
My research agenda focuses on the rising role of cities in the global governance of migration. Specifically, I am exploring how migration is creating new urban dynamics requiring new methodologies and theoretical approaches to re-think the contemporary city. Presently, these challenges appear to be led by developers, political elites incentivized for short-term thinking, corporate visionaries and accidents in the ‘old globalism’, and a retreat into critique and conservation of political programs of 20th century. To counter these approaches my research agenda touches on several key themes:
- The urban governance of marginality;
- Radical positive programmes for urban futures;
- Rethinking and reintroduction of the concept of ‘progress’ into urban politics;
- The influence of various forms of mobility on urban political and moral economies.
I am also interested in new methodologies and mixed methods for exploring social problems through theoretically grounded and empirically driven research.
Rachel Humphris 