Jill Alpes is a senior researcher within the Human Rights Centre at Ghent University. Her research focuses on the work of international human rights lawyers in brokering evidence on pushbacks from European borders. Her current research is part of a of the larger ERC-funded project “DISSECT: Evidence in International Human Rights Adjudication”, under the supervision of Professor Marie-Bénédicte Dembour.
Jill holds a Ph.D. in political anthropology from the University of Amsterdam, an MA in development studies from Sciences Po Paris and a BA in international history and politics from the University of Sheffield. Since the completion of her Ph.D., Jill has worked at research institutes in the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Germany, as well as for and in collaboration with foundations and migrants and refugee rights organizations, such as Amnesty, Oxfam, DRC and Picum. Her book “Abroad at any cost: Brokering High-risk migration and illegality in West Africa” (Routledge) challenges narratives of smuggling and trafficking and considers the governance of migration from the perspective of individuals and families in a country of departure in West Africa (Cameroon).
Jill’s interest in access barriers to asylum and post-return risks have brought her to carry out field research in Europe (France, Netherlands, Greece, Italy), rural and urban Africa (Cameroon, DRC, Mali, Nigeria, Niger) and the Middle East (Turkey, Lebanon). Her particular fields of expertise are readmissions, border procedures, post-deportation risks, access to legal assistance, smuggling and trafficking. Jill Alpes is also an (advisory) board member of the Post-Return Monitoring network and of the UN Working Group on Returns of the UN Migration Network.
• Lead Researcher, SAWA for Development and Aid, Lebanon (March – October 2020)
• Researcher, University of Utrecht, Netherlands (May 2017- November 2017)
• Senior Policy Officer, Amnesty International, Netherlands (June 2015 – October 2017)
• Post-doctoral researcher, VU University Amsterdam, Migration Law Section, Netherlands (Nov. 2011- March 2017)
University Degrees
• Doctor in political anthropology, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2011
• MA in Development Studies, Sciences Po Paris, France, 2005
• BA in International History and International Politics, University of Sheffield, 2003
• MA in Humanitarian Action (University of Malta)
• BA Minor in Human Rights and Migration Law (VU Amsterdam)
• BA course on Human Trafficking and Exploitative Labour Migration (Sciences Po Paris)
• BA course on Africa in Development (Sciences Po Paris)
• BA course on Human Trafficking (University of Amsterdam)
• Associate Researcher, Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Radboud University, Netherlands (February 2019 – ongoing)
• Invited guest lecturer, University of Meiji Gakuin, Yokohama, Japan (May 2018)
• Visiting Fellow, Centre des Etudes des Relations Internationales, Sciences Po Paris, France (Oct. 2012 – March 2016)
• Visiting Fellow, Danish Institute of International Studies, Denmark (Sept. – Oct. 2012)
• Post-doctoral Researcher, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany (Sept. – Nov. 2011)
• Ph.D. Dissertation shortlisted for the IMISCOE Maria Ioannis Baganha Dissertation Award, July 2012.
• Research grant awarded by the Mairie de la Ville de Paris, Oct. 2012 – Sept. 2013
• Ph.D. scholarship awarded by the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, Sept. 2006 – December 2010
• Member of UN Working Group on Return and Sustainable Reintegration, UN Migration Network
• Member of the advisory board of the Post-deportation Monitoring Network
• Member of the advisory board of the research project “Family Separation, Migration Status, and Everyday Security: Experiences and Strategies of Vulnerable Migrants”, PI Marja Tiilikainen
• Affiliated member of the research project “Managing Citizenship, Security, and Rights: Regulating Marriage Migration in Europe and North America”, PI Anne Marie D’Aoust
• Member of ANTHROPIK – le réseau professionnel des socio-anthropologues
• Occasional peer review for international publishing houses/ academic journals (2011 – ongoing)
