CAPRS Affiliated Scholars

Ayan Said is a public health researcher, refugee policy advisor, and PhD candidate at Auckland University of Technology. Her doctoral research explores culturally grounded digital sexual and reproductive health (SRH) promotion for Somali refugee women in Aotearoa New Zealand, using Somali Dhaqan Inquiry and Ubuntu-informed methodologies. With a background in refugee health promotion, Ayan has led and contributed to national initiatives aimed at improving service responsiveness for refugee communities. She serves on the New Zealand Refugee Advisory Panel (NZRAP) 2022-2025. Ayan is passionate about embedding meaningful refugee participation in policy and research. Her work spans health equity, participatory governance, and refugee-led policy innovation. In addition to her academic work, Ayan is actively involved in community-based advocacy and governance across health and refugee sectors.

Email: ayan.s3000@gmail.com

Key/Recent publications: 

Conn, C., Sharma, S., Foster, M., Neufeld, M., Nayar, S., Trafford, J., Sisodia, R., Charania, N., Said, A., Nikolai, J., Water, T., Fernandez, D., Whitehead, L., O’Sullivan, T., Hill, J., & Morelius, E. (2024). Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences Research Roadshow 2024. Pacific Health, 7. https://doi.org/10.24135/pacifichealth.v7i.91

Nair, B., Sriamporn, K. T., Said, A., Li, W., Nnabugwu, A., Sousa, D., Bhatia, A., Conn, C., & Cammock, R. (2021). 7th Interscholastic Student HIV & Sexual Health Research Symposium 2021. Pacific Health, 4. https://doi.org/10.24135/pacifichealth.v4i.60

Said, A., Conn, C., & Nayar, S. (2018). New Zealand should intensify efforts to eliminate female genital mutilation by 2030: the views of women from communities that practice FGM/C. Pacific Health, 1. https://doi.org/10.24135/pacifichealth.v1i1.10

Chris Ogden is Associate Professor in Global Studies specialising in the interplay between identity, culture, security and domestic politics in India, China, South Asia, East Asia and the Indo-Pacific.  Based at the University of Auckland, his expert knowledge concerns – shifting world orders; global authoritarianism; the Asian Century; great power politics; Hindu nationalism; and the global rise of India and China. 

Email: chris.ogden@auckland.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications:

Ogden, C., & Hagen, O. (Eds.). (2023). Digital repression: Causes, consequences and policy responses [E-book]. Global Policy. https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/projects/gp-e-books/digital-repression

Ogden, C. (Ed.). (2023). Global India: The pursuit of influence and status (Europa Country Perspectives). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305132

Ogden, C. (2022). The authoritarian century: China’s rise and the demise of the liberal international order. Bristol University Press. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/the-authoritarian-century

Dr Christopher Henderson is an Education in Emergencies Specialist for the NORRAG Global Education Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He holds a doctorate in International Educational Development from Columbia University and a Master of Education from the University of Sydney. With 15 years of international experience, Dr Henderson’s endeavours focus primarily on the work and well-being of teachers working in contexts affected by conflict and forced displacement. In this area, he has most recently conducted research, shaped policies, and designed programs in Bangladesh, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Palestine for UNHCR, Plan International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Sesame Workshop, among others. 

Email: chris.henderson@graduateinstitute.ch

Key/Recent publications: 

Henderson, C., Faul, M. V., & Joyner, A. (2025). Prioritising the ‘right to education’ in emergencies: Reducing the distance between human rights mechanisms and rights holders. Frontiers in Education, 10, Article 1621082. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1621082 frontiersin.orgresearchgate.net

Henderson, C. (2025). Teacher wellbeing and the shaping of teacher shortages in crisis-affected contexts (Background Paper Series, International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030). International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030. https://www.teachertaskforce.org/knowledge-hub/teacher-wellbeing-and-shaping-teacher-shortages-crisis-affected-contexts

Henderson, C., & Hough, W. (2024). On the precipice of progress: Policy openings that improve forcibly displaced adolescent and youth enrollment and retention in secondary education. Plan International & UNHCR.

Henderson, C. (2023). Refugee teachers: The heart of the global refugee response (Policy Insights No. 02). NORRAG Global Education Centre. https://resources.norrag.org/resource/827/policy-insights-refugee-teachers-the-heart-of-the-global-refugee-response

Research Fellow, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University 

Emily Miller is interested in all aspects of migration and settlement for people from refugee and migrant backgrounds. She is engaged with several research projects investigating the experiences of adults and young people in relation to overall settlement, feelings of belonging or discrimination, cultural change and adaptation, health and wellbeing, family relationships and challenges, education and employment. Emily has a background working with high school students in a range of roles, including as a teacher. She has built on these experiences in her research with young people, their families, and educators working with them in high school and university settings, providing evidence to inform education policy and practice. 

Email: Emily.miller@flinders.edu.au

Key/Recent publications: 

Miller, E., Ziaian, T., de Anstiss, H., & Baak, M. (2022). Ecologies of Resilience for Australian High School Students from Refugee Backgrounds: Quantitative Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(2), 748. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/748 

Miller, E., Ziaian, T., de Anstiss, H., & Baak, M. (2021). Practices for inclusion, structures of marginalisation: experiences of refugee background students in Australian secondary schools. The Australian Educational Researcher. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00475-3 

Miller, E., Ziaian, T., Baak, M., & de Anstiss, H. (2021). Recognition of refugee students’ cultural wealth and social capital in resettlement. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28(5), 611–628. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2021.1946723

Professor Eleanor Anne Holroyd, RN, Ph.D. (Medical Anthropology, University of Hong Kong) is a current Professor of Nursing and Associate Dean (International and Engagement) within the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) with 30 years of international academic experience across Asia, Australia, East Africa, and Aotearoa, New Zealand. 

She serves as Co‑Director of the AUT Centre for Migrant and Refugee Health Research, collaborating in interdisciplinary research focused on refugee and migrant health, social justice, and equity in health access. 

Her research with academic colleagues and community partners draws on co‑design for culturally responsive interventions, and translates findings into policy advice, advancing health access and equity and human rights for refugees and migrants across contexts 

She also holds a board chair and board member role with the New Settlers Family and Community Trust (NFACT)—a refugee resettlement NGO—and contributes to other NGO board and trustee roles, such as the Ethnic Health Collective and the Asian Caucus of the Public Health Association, oriented towards refugee community outreach and migrant‑health steering committees. She is also involved with community research organisations such as Community Research and the Ethnic Health Collective, where she participates in governing strategy groups advising on policy and practice in refugee and migrant health in Aotearoa. 

Email: eleanor.holroyd@aut.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications: 

Kanengoni-Nyatara, B., Holroyd, E., et al. (2024). Barriers to and recommendations for equitable access to healthcare for migrants and refugees in Aotearoa, New Zealand: An integrative review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 26(1), 164–180. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37665540/

Brannelly, T., Bhatia, A., Malihi, A. Z., Vanderpyl, L., Brennan, B., Gonzalez Perez, L., Saeid, F., Holroyd, E., & Charania, N. (2024). Refugees and mental wellbeing: A call for community approaches in Aotearoa New Zealand. Mental Health and Social Inclusion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-04-2024-0049

Wong, W. C. W., Cheung, S., Miu, H. Y. H., Chen, J., Loper, K. A., & Holroyd, E. (2017). Mental health of African asylum-seekers and refugees in Hong Kong: Using the social determinants of health framework. BMC Public Health, 17(1), 153. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-3953-5

Farhana’s first book, After the Exodus: Gender and Belonging in Bangladesh’s Rohingya Refugee Camps (Cambridge University Press, 2024), won the 2025 L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize from the British International Studies Association. Her peer-reviewed articles and chapters have been published in various journals and edited volumes, including Journal of Refugee Studies, Feminist Review, and Journal of International Women’s Studies. She has received competitive scholarships/grants for her research from several international funding bodies, including the Cambridge International Trust, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the UNESCO Silk Roads Programme. 

Farhana also co-founded Silkpath Relief Organization – a non-profit providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities in Afghanistan, and to refugee populations in Bangladesh and Malaysia. In 2015, she helped establish the first academic program in gender studies in Afghanistan, based at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where she was Adjunct Professor of Gender Studies. Since 2012, Farhana has worked as a consultant for organizations such as UNDP and UN Women, providing technical expertise and trainings on gender equality, social policy, and human rights for various projects across the Global South. In recognition of her contributions to the field of gender and development, she received the 2021 Paula Kantor Award from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). 

Email: far25@cam.ac.uk

Key/Recent publications: 

Rahman, F. A. (2024). After the Exodus: Gender and Belonging in Bangladesh’s Rohingya Refugee Camps. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/after-the-exodus/2DD28018FD5AAB92A1B5B7DD6A03F16E

Rahman, F. A. (2021). ‘I Find Comfort Here’: Rohingya Women and Taleems in Bangladesh’s Refugee Camps. Journal of Refugee Studies, 34(1), 874-889. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez054

Rahman, F. A. (2018). Narratives of Agency: Women, Islam, and the Politics of Economic Participation in Afghanistan. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 19(3), 60-70. https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol19/iss3/6

Royo-Grasa, P. (2021). Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend But the Mountains: A literary call for dignity and justice. The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms, 26(7–8), 750–763. https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2021.1958518

Royo-Grasa, P. (2020). Gail Jones’s The Ocean (2013) and A Guide to Berlin (2015): A literary challenge to precarity. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 56(4), 532–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2020.1771913

Dr Charles Martin-Shields is a Senior Researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) in Bonn, Germany. His research focuses on migration and forced displacement through the lenses of digital technological change, urbanization, and climate change. He is currently the co-principal investigator of the Social Cohesion in Displacement Contexts project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). In this project he has led research on climate change and urban displacement in Accra, Ghana, cooperating with the University of Ghana’s Centre for Migration Studies on the research conceptualization and data collection. Through his affiliation with CAPRS, Dr. Martin-Shields is developing research projects on climate relocation and social cohesion the Oceania region. Dr. Martin-Shields’s book Urban Refugees and Digital Technology was released through McGill-Queens University Press in 2024, drawing together research on urban refugees and digitalization in Bogota, Nairobi, and Kuala Lumpur. Along with his academic work, he provides policy advice to organizations including the World Bank, UNHCR, and BMZ. He holds a PhD from George Mason University’s Carter School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. 

Email: Charles.Martin-Shields@idos-research.de

Key/Recent publications: 

Martin‑Shields, C. P. (2024). Urban refugees and digital technology: Reshaping social, political, and economic networks (First ed.). McGill‑Queen’s University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780228020530

Ekoh, S. S., Martin‑Shields, C., Kitzmann, C., Küssau, N., Pfeffer, M., Platen, M., Reinel, T., Setrana, M. B., Kubi, J. W. A., & Effah, S. (2025). Social cohesion in the context of environmental/climate-related internal displacement in Ghana (IDOS Discussion Paper No. 15/2025). German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). https://doi.org/10.23661/idp15.2025

Barrios, A., Camacho, S., & Martin‑Shields, C. (2025). Institutional voids, misalignments and workarounds: The role of intermediaries for forced migrant entrepreneurship. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02662426251346734

Evan is a PhD candidate and seasoned practitioner in international development, specialising in refugee protection and displacement across the Asia-Pacific for over a decade. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in European Studies and a Master of International Development Studies from the University of New South Wales. His work includes roles with the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) in Thailand, Asylum Access in Malaysia, and field programs in Bangladesh and Afghanistan. He has led advocacy, policy, and capacity-building initiatives, and worked within multilateral forums such as the Regional Support Office of the Bali Process.  

Evan has also held policy positions with the Australian Government in Canberra, focusing on international social security and the portability of government payments. He is widely published in regional and international media on refugee rights, migration governance, and protection frameworks. Since 2018, he has served on the Board of the International Detention Coalition. His work and research are grounded in a commitment to advancing rights-based, sustainable solutions for displaced communities through both frontline engagement and strategic policy reform.

Email: evanjo1986@gmail.com

Key/Recent Publications:

Jamie Gillen is an associate professor in Global Studies at Waipapa Taumata Rau. Jamie’s research is centred on societal transformation in Southeast Asia, and primarily in Vietnam. He writes about tourism, urban-rural relations, and other social science topics from a human geographical perspective. Jamie teaches about refugee issues and forced displacement across the Global Studies curriculum.  

Email: jamie.gillen@auckland.ac.nz

Professor Jane McAdam AO is Scientia Professor of Law and the Founding Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney, where she leads the Evacuations Research Hub. She holds a prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship; is a Fellow of both the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Law; and is an Honorary Associate of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. Professor McAdam publishes widely in international refugee law and forced migration, with a particular focus on mobility in the context of climate change and disasters. Her current research focuses on evacuations in international law – both as a form of displacement and as a protection tool. Professor McAdam serves on multiple international committees and for a decade was the joint Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Refugee Law, the leading journal in the field. In 2021, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) ‘for distinguished service to international refugee law, particularly to climate change and the displacement of people.

Email: j.mcadam@unsw.edu.au 

Key/Recent publications: 

Jastram, K., McAdam, J., Gilbert, G., Wood, T., & Navarro, F. (2025). International protection for people displaced across borders in the context of climate change and disasters: A practical toolkit. Center for Gender & Refugee Studies; Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law; Essex Law School and Human Rights Centre.

McAdam, J. (2024). Preserving statehood through population and government: Safeguarding nationality and franchise in the context of sea-level rise and mobility. New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, 20, 3–39. https://brill.com/display/book/9789004699663/BP000002.xml

McAdam, J., & Wood, T. (2023, November). Kaldor Centre principles on climate mobility. Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/unsw-adobe-websites/kaldor-centre/2023-11-others/2023-11-Principles-on-Climate-Mobility_v-4_DIGITAL_Singles.pdf

Professor Jay Marlowe is a co-founder and former Co-Director (2020–2024) of the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies (CAPRS), and currently serves as Head of the School of Social Practice at the University of Auckland. Jay’s research focuses on refugee studies and settlement futures as it relates to migration policy, transnationalism, role of communication technologies and disaster risk reduction. He has secured multiple prestigious research grants and is a former Rutherford Discovery Fellow, publishing over 100 academic works, including his book Belonging and Transnational Refugee Settlement: Unsettling the Everyday and the Extraordinary with Routledge. 

Email: jm.marlowe@auckland.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications: 

Stephens, M., Ferns, M., Zandbergen, O., Law, E., & Marlowe, J. (2025). Reuniting families: A path forward for Aotearoa New Zealand [Open access report]. New Zealand Red Cross & Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies, University of Auckland. https://www.redcross.org.nz/assets/Uploads/Files/About-Us/News/Reports-and-publications/Reuniting-Families-report-2025.pdf

Marlowe, J., Stephens, M., & Jones, E. (2024). The politics of refugee resettlement in the Asia Pacific: Belonging and ICT‑enabled transnational settlement. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 44(1), 37–51. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdae019

Marlowe, J., Malihi, A. Z., Milne, B., McLay, J., & Chiang, A. (2023). Settlement trajectories of nearly 25,000 forced migrants in New Zealand: longitudinal insights from administrative data. Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 19(1), 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/1177083X.2023.2214606 

Email: j.grayman@auckland.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications: 

Grayman, Jesse Hession. 2016. “Official and Unrecognized Narratives of Recovery in Post-Conflict Aceh, Indonesia” Critical Asian Studies 48(4), 528-555. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2016.1224125

Good, Byron J., Jesse Hession Grayman, and Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good. 2015. “Humanitarianism in Strong State Settings:  The Case of Post-Tsunami and Post-Conflict Aceh, Indonesia” In: Sharon Abramowitz and Catherine Panter-Brick (eds.) Medical Humanitarianism: Ethnographies of Practice. pp.155-175. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16xwb48

Grayman, Jesse Hession. 2014. “Rapid Response:  Email, Immediacy, and Medical Humanitarianism in Aceh, Indonesia” Social Science and Medicine 120 (November 2014), 334-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.04.024

I was born in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) to a Thai-Chinese mother and a Chinese-Cambodian-refugee father. I started school in the mid-1990s when New Zealand was gripped by growing anxieties about Asian im/migration (the “Asian Invasion”). Further complicating my sense of belonging was the fact that Asians were (and still are) often framed outside of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and national belonging. These lived experiences are the impetus for my work.  

I’m currently a lecturer in Te Kura Mātauranga, the School of Education, at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). My current teaching and research centre around Te Tiriti (particularly as it pertains to Asian and refugee communities), Asian diaspora/identity in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and multiculturalism/multicultural education. Prior to joining AUT, I taught in Te Puna Wānanga, the School of Māori and Indigenous Education, at Waipapa Taumata Rau (UoA) for over 10 years. 

Email: lincoln.dam@aut.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications:

Dam, L. (2024). Be(com)ing ethically responsible relations: Asian communities and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Doctoral thesis, University of Auckland). University of Auckland. https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/items/54b401fc-6b0c-40ff-9d71-663aef900bd9

Dam, L. (2022). Be(com)ing an Asian tangata Tiriti. Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 18(3), 213–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/1177083X.2022.2129078

Dam, L. (2021). Learning to live with the Killing Fields: Ethics, politics, relationality. Genealogy, 5(2), 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy5020033

Madiha Ali Changezi is a solicitor at Dixon and Co Lawyers, specialising in refugee and human rights law. A former Judges’ Clerk at the High Court in Auckland, Madiha brings both legal expertise and lived experience as a former refugee to her advocacy and legal practice. She is a member of Youthwise, the OECD’s global youth advisory group, and of the UNESCO Aotearoa Youth Leaders with the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO.

Madiha previously served on the UNHCR Refugee Advisory Group to the CRCP, the New Zealand Refugee Advisory Panel, and the New Zealand National Refugee Youth Council, where she engaged in advancing refugee inclusion and leadership.

She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Waikato. Madiha has worked extensively as a youth worker and community advocate, supporting ethnic and refugee-background youth across Aotearoa New Zealand. In recognition of her service, she received a Civic Award from the Hamilton City Council in 2024.

Her academic contributions include a co-authored peer-reviewed article in Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online (2021), examining refugee Muslim women’s experiences in accessing healthcare in Aotearoa.

Madiha has spoken at global forums such as the UNHCR Executive Committee Meeting, the Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways and the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, where she advocated for refugee self-reliance and the importance of lived experience leadership. Her work reflects an intersectional, community-led approach grounded in justice, inclusion, and systemic transformation.

Email: mahamchangezi@gmail.com

Key/Recent publications: 

Cassim, S., Ali, M., Kidd, J., Keenan, R., Begum, F., Jamil, D., Abdul Hamid, N., & Lawrenson, R. (2021). The experiences of refugee Muslim women in the Aotearoa New Zealand healthcare system. Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 17(1), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/1177083X.2021.1947330

With a deep passion for education, equity, and social justice, Maria is researcher, educator, and community advocate with lived experience of forced displacement. She works at the intersection of academia, policy, and grassroots engagement.  

Over the past several years, she has contributed to research projects that amplify the voices of marginalized youth, including refugee and ethnic migrant communities in Aotearoa, New Zealand. She has collaborated with government agencies, non-profits, and academic institutions to drive impactful policy discussions and community-based solutions. Beyond research, she has rich teaching experience in higher education, and also works as an interpreter and adviser for refugee communities that has further strengthened her ability to engage with diverse populations and advocate for inclusive policies.

Email: maria.ahmad@auckland.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications: 

Deane, K., Fenaughty, J., Bullen, P., Ahmad, M., Chuah, A., Joseph, D., Marlowe, J. & Tang-Taylor, (2025). Innovating to Amplify the Voices of Young Migrants from Marginalized Ethnic Backgrounds. American Journal of Community Psychology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajcp.12779

Mullen, M., Walls, A., Ahmad, M., & O’Connor, P. (2021). Resourcing the arts for youth well-being: challenges in Aotearoa New Zealand. Arts & Health, 15(1), 71–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2021.2017306   

Ahmad, M. (2025). Postcolonial Affective Governmentality of Higher Education Through Problematisation of Quality. Knowledge and Culture (accepted and under print).   

Deane, K., Ahmad, M., Bullen, P., Chuah, Y., Fenaughty, J., Joseph, D., Kalsi, K., Marlowe, J., Paky, V., Tang-Taylor, J. (2023). Connect & Kōrero: Innovating to amplify refugee and ethnic migrant youth voice in Aotearoa New Zealand policy. Ministry of Youth Development Te Manatū Whakahiato Taiohi. Wellington. https://www.myd.govt.nz/documents/resources-and-reports/publications/connect-korero-report/connect-korero-report-final-.pdf 

Dr Murdoch Stephens founded the successful campaign to double New Zealand’s refugee quota in 2013. Subsequently he has remained involved in refugee advocacy, working with a number of organisations and working with other campaigners to remove restrictions on African and Middle Eastern refugees in New Zealand’s annual quota. He has written extensively for mainstream media in New Zealand, published numerous academic articles on migration advocacy and has been quotes in stories on this work in the New York Times, The Guardian and The Economist. 

Stephens was awarded a PhD in 2018 and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2023. For CAPRS he has been a key contributor to three reports on (1) increasing the rights of asylum seekers and convention refugees, (2) the creation of a rainbow refugee sub-quota in the annual UNHCR resettlement intake and (3) on improving the refugee family reunification system. In 2025 he released his second book on refugee policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on one-off emergency refugee intakes in the previous decade. 

He lives in Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington where he is also involved in the literary community as an editor of Lawrence & Gibson publishing, and the author of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlisted novel Down from Upland. For more details, see his personal website murdochstephens.com 

Email: murdochstephens@gmail.com

Key/Recent publications: 

Stephens, M. (2025). Visas Now! Aotearoa’s Response to Global Refugee Emergencies . Left of the Equator: Wellington. https://leftequator.github.io/VisasNow.html 

Stephens, M. (2018). Rethinking Frameworks for Refugee Advocacy: An Analysis Grounded in Political and Democratic Institutions. Journal of Refugee Studies, 31(4), 528-543.  https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fex041  

Stephens, M. (2018). Doing Our Bit: the campaign to double the refugee quota. BWB Texts: Wellington. https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/doing-our-bit 

Nadia’s research aims to reduce inequities in health care access among marginalised populations and inform improvements to health systems. She has expertise in critical qualitative, quantitative, and participatory methodologies, and engaging with Indigenous communities and communities with migrant and refugee backgrounds. She is leading research related to access and experiences of maternal and childhood health services; vaccine attitudes and behaviours; and community-based pandemic planning.  

Email: nadia.charania@aut.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications: 

Charania, N.A., Bhatia, A., Brown, S., Leaumoana, T., Qi, H., Sreenivasan, D., Tautolo E.S., & Clark, T. (2023). “I haven’t even taken them to the doctors, because I have that fear of what to expect”: a qualitative description study exploring perceptions and experiences of early childhood healthcare among ethnically diverse caregivers in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Lancet Regional Health. Western Pacific, 40(100882), 1-12.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(23)00200-6/fulltext

Charania, N.A. (2023). “She vaccinated my baby and that’s all…” Immunisation decision-making and experiences among refugee mothers resettled in Aotearoa New Zealand. BMC Public Health, 23(1).

doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16266-7

Charania, N.A., Paynter, J., & Turner, N. (2023). MMR vaccine coverage and associated factors among overseas-born refugee children resettled in Aotearoa New Zealand: A national retrospective cohort study. The Lancet Regional Health. Western Pacific, 33.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(23)00027-5/fulltext

Email: rabi.talal66@gmail.com

Dr Rodrigo Ramalho is the Academic Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Health Sciences in Alcohol and Drug Studies, Associate Director of the Centre for Addiction Research (CFAR), and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social and Community Health at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. He is a psychiatrist and population health scientist whose work takes a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach. Rama’s teaching and research focus on person- and community-centred, ground-up, and culturally and contextually responsive health policy and practice. He is particularly interested in how healthcare, health systems and policies can meaningfully include the voices of marginalised communities and people with lived experience. Rama has collaborated with national and international partners, including the World Health Organization, to strengthen health workforce competencies and support equity-focused practice. He is committed to nurturing the next generation of researchers and practitioners through innovative teaching, supervision, and capacity building. 

Email: r.ramalho@auckland.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications:

Ruiz-Cosignani, D., Chen, Y., Cheung, G., Lawrence, M., Lyndon, M. P., Ma’u, E., & Ramalho, R. (2024). Adaptation models, barriers, and facilitators for cultural safety in telepsychiatry: A systematic scoping review. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 30(3), 466-474.   https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X211069664

Yalcin, N., Bayraktar, I., Karabulut, E., de Filippis, R., Jaguga, F., Karaliuniene, R., … & Ramalho, R. (2022). Is everyone invited to the discussion table? A bibliometric analysis COVID-19-related mental health literature. Global Mental Health, 9, 366- 374.   https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2022.37

Ramalho, R., Groot, S., & Adams, P.J. (2022). Community mental health care in Aotearoa New Zealand: past, present, and the road ahead. Consortium Psychiatricum, 3(4), 53-62.  https://doi.org/10.17816/CP202

Susan Elliott’s career interest in refugee issues began in 1979 when she became a teacher at the Thorney Island Refugee Reception Centre in Hampshire, UK, which was established that year after a UNHCR convened conference in Geneva earlier that year in response to the exodus of “boat people” from Vietnam. 

Returning to New Zealand in late 1981 she worked in community-based education for people from refugee backgrounds and other migrants in the Porirua area. In 1987 she was appointed as the Head of the Refugee Education Programme at the (then) Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre where she worked until late 1995. During this time, her interests broadened away from English language teaching; tiring of the (simplistic) and colonial mantra of the time that if refugees learned English, their lives would be successful, towards the more complex concept of refugeehood. Over the next ten years she was engaged in the establishment of Refugees as Survivors and the Auckland Refugee Council (now known as the Asylum Seekers Support Trust) and was an active member of Amnesty International and other human rights organisations. In 2012, she was a founding member of the Auckland Refugee Family Trust, a project initiated by the Auckland Resettled Community Coalition. 

She has played many roles in the refugee sector in New Zealand and internationally as a teacher, educator, consultant, independent practitioner and volunteer for civil society, governmental and intergovernmental organisations focusing on the social, economic, psychosocial, human rights and educational issues in the mesh of policy, organisational and policy responses to refugeehood. 

More recently she has provided mentoring and coaching support to staff working in refugee-based and focussed organisations and has provided advice and peer reviewer of recent CAPRS publications. 

In the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours she was awarded an ONZM for services to human rights advocacy, particularly refugees. 

Email: sjelliottnz@gmail.com

Key/Recent publications: 

Connor, H., Ayallo, I., & Elliott, S. (2017). African Mothers’ Experiences of Raising ‘Afro-Kiwi Kids’ in New Zealand. Australasian Review of African Studies, 87-107. https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2017-38-2/87-107 

Elliott, S. (2015). Toward equal participation: An auto-ethnography of facilitating consultations in the refugee sector. AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND SOCIAL WORK, 57-67. 

Elliott, S., & Yusuf, I. (2014). ‘Yes, we can; but together’: social capital and refugee resettlement. Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 9(2), 101– 110. https://doi.org/10.1080/1177083X.2014.951662 

Elliott, S., & Haigh, D. (2013). Advocacy in the New Zealand Not-for-profit Sector: ‘Nothing stands by itself’. Third Sector Review, 157-178.

Tim is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Senior Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute and Assistant Dean (Postgraduate Teaching) at the University of Auckland. He is originally from Massachusetts (USA) and has lived in Aotearoa New Zealand for much of the past 16 years. He is a lawyer and policy researcher by trade and has served as an Assistant Attorney General in American Samoa and a Special Assistant to Samoa’s Attorney General. He has also been a civil rights lawyer in the United States and in human rights for international organisations including the American Refugee Committee (DRC) and World Vision (Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya). He has advised Pacific island governments on policy and legal issues. His research considers cross-national movements of policies, laws and people. 

Email: timothy.fadgen@auckland.ac.nz

Key/Recent publications: 

Fadgen, T., & Oldfield, L. D. (2025). Immigration lawyers as para‑state actors: Deportation of non‑residents in Aotearoa New Zealand. Societies, 15(4), Article 108. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15040108

Fadgen, T., Malihi, A. Z., Manning, D., Mills, H., & Marlowe, J. (2025). ‘Fortress New Zealand’: Examining refugee status determination for 11,000 asylum claimants through integrated data. Policy Quarterly, 21(1), 84–93. https://doi.org/10.26686/pq.v21i1.9729

Fadgen, T. (2024). United States Deportation Policy and Its Effects on Samoan Deportees. Journal of Samoan Studies, 14(9). 

Fadgen, T. & Charlton, C. (2023). Neither Within nor Without: The Curious Case of U.S. Citizenship in American Samoa and the Insular Cases. University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy.

Charlton, G. C., & Fadgen, T. (2022). US Citizenship in American Samoa and the Insular Cases. UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal, 39, 25. 

Dr Stauffer is formally trained in public health, internal medicine, pediatrics, pediatric emergency medicine, tropical medicine and infectious diseases. He recently served as Executive Site Director for the Consortium AMPATH-Kenya as the Stephanie and Craig Brater endowed Professor, Indiana University of Center for Global Health, Division of Infectious Diseases. He is an expert in refugee health, travel and tropical medicine working in clinical medicine, surveillance, and policy. His areas of expertise focus on how human mobility affects health (eg. refugee & immigrant health, travel and tropical medicine). He served as the Lead Medical Advisor (2005-2019) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (Immigrant, Refugee, Migrant Health Branch). He led the development and maintenance of the US/CDC refugee health screening guidelines and has contributed to the CDC Yellow Book as a section editor and authors of multiple chapters, including a new section on immigrant and refugee health over more than 20 years. He founded the UMN/CDC Global Health Course and other online courses as well as initiated UMN Global Medicine Program in 2005. He serves as the Director for the United Nations Migration Agency-UMN Collaborative (2013-2025). He is co-PI of the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM) and is Senior Advisor to the new Migration Health Initiative at the Task Force for Global Health in Atlanta (2020-present). He has also acted/acts as an advisor and consultant to intergovernmental organizations and governments such as the European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control, the World Health Organization and the governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He has published >150 peer-reviewed articles and his research areas include refugee/immigrant health issues, infectious disease surveillance, medical and infectious diseases screening and diagnostics, neglected tropical diseases, public health programs evaluations, health care access and drug costs. 

Email: stauf005@umn.edu

Quadri, N. S., Knowlton, G., Vazquez Benitez, G., Ehresman, K. R., LaFrance, A. B., DeFor, T. A., Smith, K., Mann, E. M., Alpern, J. D., & Stauffer, W. M. (2023). Evaluation of preferred language and timing of COVID-19 uptake and disease outcome. JAMA Network Open, 6(4), e237877. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.7877

Mitchell, T., Lee, D., Weinberg, M., Phares, C., James, N., Amornpaisarnloet, K., Aumpipat, L., Cooley, G., Davies, A., Tin Shwe, V. D., Gajdadziev, V., Gorbacheva, O., Khwan-Niam, C., Klosovsky, A., Madilokkowit, W., Martin, D., Htun Myint, N. Z., Yen Nguyen, T. N., Nutman, T. B., O’Connell, E. M., Ortega, L., Prayadsab, S., Srimanee, C., Supakunatom, W., Vesessmith, V., & Stauffer, W. M. (2018). Impact of Enhanced Health Interventions for United States–Bound Refugees: Evaluating Best Practices in Migration Health. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 98(3), 920-928. Retrieved Aug 5, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.17-0725

Kayla Boisvert, Ph.D., is an independent research consultant at the intersection of aid, philanthropy, and education within the US and globally. Her aim is to shift the ecosystems around young people affected by crises using a reparative justice lens. 

She recently completed her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her dissertation, entitled “COVID-19: A Global Education Crisis or a Crisis of Global Education? A Critical Analysis of the COVID-19 Education Response” questioned the colonial and racial logics of the global humanitarian and development architecture and how that impacts young people in emergency contexts. Her current research looks at the role of community organizing groups and direct-service nonprofits in catalyzing systems and policy change that better reflects the lived experiences of children and families in the US. Prior to that, she conducted research and developed tools and guidance on accelerated education programming to reach out-of-school children and youth in emergency contexts. 

In her research, she uses comics and other arts-based methods to generate data, share findings, and reach wider audiences. See some of her comics on reparations in the US, her reflections on being a reparative scholar-practitioner, and more on her Medium page! 

Email: kayla.boisvert@gmail.com 

Key/Recent publications: 

Boisvert, K. (2025). A scholar-practitioner’s reparative journey: Lessons from the global COVID-19 education response. https://medium.com/@kaylajustine/a-scholar-practitioners-reparative-journey-c6f749d40bee 

Shah, R., Boisvert, K., Restrepo Saenz, A. M., Egbujuo, C., & Nasrallah, M. (2023). Education in emergencies research partnerships through the looking glass. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 22(3), 505–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2190877 

Boisvert, K. (2022). Education for what? Human capital, human rights, and protection discourses in the COVID-19 response. Frontiers in Education, 7:1008260. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.1008260