Dr Lucy Mayblin awarded prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize for asylum and migration research

We are delighted to announce that Dr Lucy Mayblin has been awarded a prestigious prize from The Leverhulme Trust in recognition of her research achievements in the area of asylum and migration.

Dr Lucy Mayblin

Lucy, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize, thanks both to the significant international impact of her research on asylum, human rights, policy-making and the legacies of colonialism and Lucy鈥檚 exceptionally promising future trajectory. 

Lucy commented: 鈥淥bviously, I am absolutely delighted to be awarded this prize in support of my work.

"I will be using the Prize to support two new projects starting in 2021: an archival project on the 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees, which will explore the relationship between decolonisation and the expansion of the right to asylum; and the beginnings of a contemporary exploration of the international spread of 鈥榗rimes of solidarity鈥 (where citizens are punished for helping irregular migrants).鈥

Dr Lucy Mayblin

Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Professor Sarah Neal, Director of Research for the Department of Sociological Studies, added: 鈥'Being awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize is a truly exceptional achievement and the Department is incredibly proud of Dr Mayblin. 

鈥淭he Prize will allow Lucy to further develop her ground-breaking sociological work on asylum and migration at a time when these issues could not be timelier and pressing.鈥

Philip Leverhulme Prizes have been awarded annually since 2001 in commemoration of the contribution to the work of the Trust made by Philip Leverhulme, the Third Viscount Leverhulme and grandson of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Trust. The prizes recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising.

Lucy is the author of Asylum After Empire: Postcolonial Legacies in the Politics of Asylum Seeking (2017) which won the British Sociological Association鈥檚 Philip Abrams Memorial Prize in 2018, Impoverishment and Asylum: Social Policy as Slow Violence (2019), and Migration Studies and Colonialism (with Joe Turner, 2020). Her work has also been published in a wide range of journals including Sociology, Migration Studies, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Economy and Society, and Citizenship Studies. In 2017 Lucy鈥檚 article with Aneta Piekut and Gill Valentine 鈥樷漁ther鈥 Posts from 鈥淥ther鈥 Places: Poland Through a Postcolonial Lens?鈥 won the SAGE Prize for Innovation and Excellence in the Journal Sociology.

Lucy is the Programme Leader for the MA Sociology programme and teaches on the programme鈥檚 modules 鈥楥urrent Sociology鈥 and 鈥楥ontemporary Challenges: Refugees and Asylum鈥.

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