I am a social anthropologist specialising in:

1. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and human–environment relations in protracted displacement contexts
2. Indian Ocean islands (particularly Chagos, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Maldives)
3. Participatory arts methods and creative engagement with displacement and migration
4. Healthcare at the intersection of gender and protracted displacement

I am Professor of Anthropology of Migration in the School of Social and Political Science (SSPS), where:

1. My long-term ethnographic engagement with the displaced Chagossian community culminated in the inscription of Chagossian sega tambour music on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The nomination file drew on my AHRC Impact and Engagement project CHAGOS: cultural heritage across generations. Visit chagos.online to browse virtual exhibits, download recipes, and listen to the Chagos Tambour Group album. This work built upon: my ESRC Research Fellowship on debates about sustainable resettlement and environmental conservation in the context of the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA) and the UK government's policy review on resettlement of the Chagos Archipelago, my Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship on Chagossian onward migration to the UK, and my ESRC Postgraduate Studentship on the politics of victimhood amongst forcibly displaced Chagos islanders in Mauritius. My Inaugural Lecture focused on the challenges of reclaiming Chagos after displacement.
2. I have a longstanding ethnographic interest in Indian Ocean islands, particularly Chagos, Mauritius, and Seychelles. I also led a work package on labour migration and connective infrastructure in Maldives as part of an ERC Consolidator Grant on roads and the politics of thought: ethnographic approaches to infrastructure development in South Asia.
3. My ongoing work on participatory arts methods and creative engagement with migration and displacement includes co-direction of an AHRC GCRF Network Plus MADAR: Maghreb action on displacement and rights. Our website is at MADAR-network.org. MADAR builds upon an AHRC Impact and Engagement project MARAM: mobilising access to rights for artists in Morocco, which generated a virtual exhibition and downloadable guide for artists in Morocco. MARAM followed an ESRC/AHRC Forced Displacement project on Arts for Advocacy: creative engagement with forced displacement in Morocco, which generated a series of exhibitions and a downloadable creative arts, migration, and advocacy toolkit.
4. I led an ESRC GCRF Protracted Displacement project on Improving healthcare at the intersection of gender and protracted displacement amongst Somali and Congolese IDPs and refugees in Somalia, Eastern DRC, Kenya, and South Africa. Our website is at displacement.sps.ed.ac.uk.

I have published articles about my Chagos research in The Conversation: What the UK-Mauritius agreement means for displaced Chagossians and Chagossians in exile are fighting to keep their culture alive.

CHAGOS: Cultural Heritage Across Generations was showcased in films by Mauritian Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Indian Ocean Network (ION) and in articles in the Mauritian broadsheet newspapers L'express and Le Mauricien.

I have been interviewed about my Chagos research live on BBC radio and BBC television news, for MBC television and ION news, and by L'express, Le Mauricien, New Internationalist, Courthouse News Service, Al Jazeera, PoliticsJOE, and Borgen Magazine.