Halleh Ghorashi is Full Professor of Diversity and Integration in the Department of Sociology at the VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She studied Cultural Anthropolgoy and Philosophy at the VU Amsterdam. In 1994, she completed her MA degree (cum laude) in Anthropology and in 2001, she defended her Ph.D. dissertation at the Radboud University in Nijmegen (Center for Women studies and Anthropology department). Between 2005 and 2012 she held the prestigious position of PaVEM-chair in Management of Diversity and Integration in the Department of Organization Science at VU Amsterdam. In 2016 she co-initiated the Refugee Academy (as one of the expertise labs at the Institute for Societal Resilience) at the VU together with Elena Ponzoni. Ghorashi’s work is situated within Critical/reflexive Sociology (intersected with the previous mentioned disciplines), focusing on narrative and engaged methodology. In 2018, she was awarded the VICI Grant to carry out the Engaged Scholarship and Narratives of Change research project.

What is your scientific background and expertise?

I studied Antropology and Philosophy. Later during my PhD I got acquainted with Gender Studies and after my PhD I worked for 12 years in the field of Organization Studies. At present, my work is mainly situated within Critical Sociology (intersected with the previous disciplines), focusing on narrative and engaged methodology.

What role do you have within the Refugee Academy, and what keeps you busy in this role?

Supervising research, facilitating meetings, networking and writing research proposals.

What do you feel is the most important about/central to the Refugee Academy, and why?

Connecting various forms of knowledge (academic, professional, personal) to stipulate conditions necessary for refugees’ full participation and inclusion in society.

What is your personal ambition within the Refugee Academy, and how would you connect this to your work and/or life outside the Refugee Academy? 

To make a real change in lives of refugees and increase the impact of refugee initiatives and policies by bringing them closer to refugees’ lifeworld.