PhD Thesis
Title: Reimagining Human Mobility: Queering International Migration Law
PhD Supervisor and Co-Supervisor: Vincent Chetail and Janna Wessels
Expected completion date: 2025
The aim of this research is to apply Dianne Otto's concept of "queer curiosity" to one of the most disputed branches of international law, the international migration one, in order to “reimagine radical possibilities” of changing it. Concretely, this research aims to analyse in law and in practice the encounter of queer migrants with international migration law across two different case studies: family reunification and asylum law. The aim of this analysis is twofold: first, it aims to assess whether there is any space for queer migrants within such framework and/or which ones could be the best legal avenues for them to navigate the system, and second, by comparing the findings, it aims to offer a reflection on what this space or lack thereof could say of the system itself from a queer perspective.
Profile
Irene Manganini (she/they) is a PhD candidate in International Law at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Their research focuses broadly speaking on the encounter of queer migrants with the international migration law framework. Irene also works as UNHCR-designated asylum adjudicator in the Territorial Asylum Commission of Milan. Prior to that, she worked in different capacities with IOM in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bangladesh and with UNHCR in Italy, as well as with human rights NGOs and grassroot activist groups working on migration issues.
Research Interests
- Queer and Feminist Legal Studies
- Global South Approaches to International Law
- Critical Political Theory
- International Migration Law
- International Human Rights Law
- International Law of the Sea
Relevant Publications and Works
- “Refugee law between resistance and compliance: a reparative reading of a classic feminist struggle”, RLI blog, 15/10/2024.
- Srovin Coralli, Ana, Manganini, Irene; Abebe, Fekade: A Duty to Rescue: A Criminal Law Perspective on the Failure to Assist Migrants in Distress At Sea, VerfBlog, 2023/12/20.
- Fixed Categories vs. Fluid Identities: How Are Queer Voices Silenced in the Theory and Practice of Asylum Law?; Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 20 - 28 (2023)
- "The Refugee Status Determination of Transgender Asylum-Seekers: a Queer Critique", Global Migration Centre (GMC) Research Paper n°24 (2020)
- "International Legal Obligations of States Concerning the Search for Missing Migrants: a Possible Way Forward", International Law Blog (2019)
- "El derecho a un recurso efectivo; el caso de Máxima Acuña", Franciscans International & GRUFIDES (2017)
Fellowships, Grants and Awards
- Doc.Mobility, UNIGE and Graduate Institute (2024)
- Graduate Institute Scholarship (2021 - 2025)
- UN|DESA Italian Fellowship Programme (2020)
- Prix Ladislas Mysyrowicz, Graduate Institute (2019)
- European Voluntary Service Programme (2015)
- Erasmus University Exchange Scholarship (2013 - 2014)
AFFILIATIONS
- Visiting PhD Candidate, University of Milan Bicocca, School of Law (October 2024, June 2025)
- Global Migration Centre (IHEID)
- Gender Centre (IHEID)
- Visiting researcher, Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (VU Amsterdam, 2024)
- Refugee Law Initiative (University of London)