Student Spotlight: Ankushi Mitra on Studying the Regulation of Refugees

Ankushi Mitra (G’27), a Ph.D. candidate in government, was recently named the inaugural Predoctoral Fellow of the John Parke Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy at Occidental College.

The Young Initiative Fellowship is a one-year, competitive fellowship awarded to a Ph.D. student from any university in the field of political science, whose dissertation contributes to the study of the global political economy.

Urgency of Refugee Regulations

In her research, Mitra explores the determinants of migration and refugee policy in the Global South, collective action and political mobilization among migrant and refugee communities, and the ethics and methods of research with politically vulnerable populations.

Her dissertation focuses on the political and institutional conditions that migrants and refugees face, and the opportunities and constraints involved in securing both immediate protections and long-term solutions for them. Mitra is turning her attention to governance in Global South settings, she explains, because “while Western countries receive most of the attention in discussions of migration, most international migration does not actually involve them.”

That is why the Young Initiative Fellowship will support her field research in Kenya and Tanzania – two of the biggest refugee-hosting countries in the world. In the course of her data collection, Mitra will seek answers to complex political questions like: What shapes the rights and protections available to some refugees but not to others? And what are the possibilities of transformation in these systems of governance?

Mitra describes her work as increasingly urgent.

“Today, hundreds of millions of people worldwide are on the move due to intersecting economic, social, environmental and political crises,” she notes. “In the coming decades, global challenges like climate change, growing inequality and democratic erosion will displace hundreds of millions more. For these reasons, it is essential to secure both immediate protections and long-term solutions for these vulnerable populations.”

The products of this project, Mitra hopes, will inform researchers, policymakers, civil society actors and others who seek to understand and improve the circumstances of people on the move.

Academic Achievements

Mitra’s scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in journals like the International Migration Review, Politics, Groups, and Identities; PS: Political Science and Politics; the Third World Quarterly; and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. She has received funding from the Department of Government, the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and GradGov at Georgetown University, as well as the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Russell Sage Foundation, among others.

In addition to the Young Fellowship, she has served as a graduate fellow in the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, received the Dr. Karen Gale Exceptional Ph.D. Student Award at Georgetown University (2024) and was a Fellow of APSA’s Institute for Civically Engaged Research (2023-24). Through her research, teaching and service at Georgetown and beyond, Mitra is committed to advancing justice, equity and inclusion.

Connect with Ankushi on Bluesky at @ankushimitra.bsky.social .