My research focuses on the intersections between gender, generation and religion in experiences of and responses to conflict-induced displacement, with a particular regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. I have conducted extensive research in camps and urban areas including in Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, France, Lebanon, South Africa, Syria, Sweden, and the UK. I am the Co-Director of UCL's Migration Research Unit, and the coordinator of the Refuge in a Moving World research network across UCL (@RefugeMvingWrld). I am the PI of an AHRC-ESRC funded project, 'Local Community Experiences of and Responses to Displacement from Syria' (see www.refugeehosts.org). In 2016 I was also awarded a further major European Research Council award for my 5-year project, South-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

My recent publications include The Ideal Refugees: Gender, Islam and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival (Syracuse University Press, 2014), South-South Educational Migration, Humanitarianism and Development: Views from the Caribbean, North Africa and the Middle East, (Routledge, 2015, paperback 2017), The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, (co-editor, Oxford University Press, 2014, paperback 2017), Intersections of Religion and Migration: Issues at the Global Crossroads (co-editor, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Handbook of South-South Relations (co-editor, Routledge, 2018) and Refuge in a Moving World: Refugee and migrant journeys across disciplines (UCL Press, 2020).

In 2015, I was awarded a 2015 Philip Leverhulme Prize in recognition of 'the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising.' In 2013, I wwas awarded the Lisa Gilad Prize by the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) for 'the most innovative and thoughtful contribution to the advancement of refugee studies' in 2011 and 2012 (in recognition of my article 'The pragmatics of performance: putting 'faith' in aid in the Sahrawi refugee camps').

I am one of the co-founding Editors of the new journal, Migration and Society and, until recently, was one of the Series Editors of the Palgrave Religion and Global Migrations book series. I was Reviews Editor of the Journal of Refugee Studies between 2011-2017.