Research lunches

These events are primarily intended for REPI members, but anyone wishing to attend can write to corsci.repi@ulb.be for more information.

February 18, 2026 - 12:00-1:30 pm

"Organising the Ecological Transformation of the Humanitarian Sector. An Experts’ Governance in the Southern Mediterranean"
Description: This doctoral project examines how networks of experts in Europe are organising the “ecological transformation” of the humanitarian sector, particularly in the southern Mediterranean region. Grounded in critical think tank studies and postcolonial studies, along with methods from organisational ethnography, it analyses the institutionalisation and operationalisation of environmental commitments across multiple levels of humanitarian governance.
Speaker: Sonia CHABANE
Bio: Sonia Chabane (she/her) is a doctoral candidate at REPI and a teaching assistant in ULB's Department of Political Science. Between 2023 and 2025, she was a Global Fellow at Brown University’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. She has now joined the coordination group of JUSTES (JUSTice Ecologique et Sociale), an interdisciplinary research group at the FNRS working on social and ecological justice.
In previous years, Sonia gained experience working on issues related to the professional worlds of humanitarian aid, regional cooperation in civil protection and crisis management, and forced international mobility, mainly in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Morocco.
Room Kant- IEE

March 11, 2026 - 12:30-1:30 pm

Title: The 'migrantification' of asylum: the discursive de-legitimation of refugees and movement in the Italian political sphere
Speaker: Diana VOLPE
Bio: Diana Volpe is a postdoctoral Wiener-Anspach Fellow at REPI, Université libre de Bruxelles. Their research project focuses on the offshore administrative detention and border control. They gained their DPhil from the University of Oxford, where their research focused on the process of legitimation of outsourcing of migration control operations in the Mediterranean within the Italian political sphere, and the use of migration control discourse for national identity building. Their research has been supported by Graduate Women International, the Luigi Einaudi Foundation, and the Wiener-Anspach Foundation.
They have (co-)taught courses on International Relations, Migration and Development and the Politics of Forced Migration at the University of Oxford.

Abstract: In this paper, I discuss the process of othering of the figure of the ‘migrant’ as a criminal in the Italian public discourse. I argue that the ubiquitous use of the term ‘migrant’ in mainstream media and public discourse has flattened the conversation and public understanding of people on the move. The article emerges from my doctoral research, built on data arising from focus group discussions with politically engaged members of the Italian public. I argue that ‘migrantification’ has three consequences.
First, it blurs the lines in public understanding of human mobility and migration control policies. Unable to draw distinctions between terms, the figure of the migrant simultaneously refers to the refugee fleeing war, the economic migrant who must be repatriated, the criminal who must be controlled. Second, the discursive un-making of asylum leads to a de-legitimisation of the reasons for movement, where people arriving on Italian shores are envisioned in need to be ‘managed’ under annual quotas or work matching schemes. The erasure of asylum as a category, and therefore as a reality, means that questions about denied fundamental human rights, such as non-refoulement, are no longer part of the conversation. Third, this eventually feeds into public perception of the legitimacy of broader policies of migration control. The lack of nuanced discourse around terminology, combined with the discursive correlation of the ‘migrant’ with the ‘criminal’, made research participants more lenient towards harsher border control policies.
The use of migrant as a catch-all term allows governments and public discourse alike to move away from the international responsibilities attached to asylum, and into the realm of migration management and security. It has the effect of de-legitimising asylum applicants and erases nuance, creating a singular ‘mass’, a criminal, mono-causal movement.

Room: Spaak - IEE

April 8, 2026 -  12:30 - 1:30 pm

Title : The United Nations and the resolution of internal political conflicts in West Africa: the cases of Côte d'Ivoire and Mali
Speaker: Zoumana Koné (ED-DESSLA Mali) 
Discussant: Emmanuel Klimis (UCL, CReSPo)
Bio: Zoumana Koné est doctorant inscrit à ED-DESSLA Mali en Relations internationales et diplomatie (RID) et travaille sous la direction du Dr Lamine SAVANE, maître de conférences à l’Université de Ségou. Assistant en Relations Internationales et Diplomatie à la FSAP (Faculté des Sciences Administratives et Politiques) de Bamako et à la FDPU (Faculté de Droit Public) de Bamako, Zoumana Koné travaille sur le multilatéralisme dans un contexte de crise diplomatique et la gestion des conflits. Son sujet porte sur « Les Nations Unies et la résolution des conflits politiques internes en Afrique de l’Ouest : cas de la Côte d’Ivoire et du Mali ». Il est titulaire d’un Master en Relations Internationales et Diplomatie, Bamako.

Room: Spaak-IEE

May 20, 2026 -  12:30-14:00 pm

Title: Pre-fieldwork presentation. From counterinsurgency to counternarcotics: tracing the circulation of security expertise in Mexico
Speaker: Natalia TEJERO RIVAS
Bio: Natalia Rivas Tejero, Doctoral candidate in political and social sciences at ULB. Her research focuses on the categorization of criminal violence in Mexico and Colombia, the production and dissemination of security-related knowledge, and regional security practices. Her thesis maps the circulation of counterinsurgency knowledge transformed in responses to organized crime and how this is achieved through the mobilisation of experts in "hemispheric security", transforming the notions of security in Latin America, particularly Colombia and Mexico. She holds a master’s degree in international and security policy from the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL) at the Catholic University of Lille.

Room: MSH - Salle de Réception (3rd floor)

June 2, 2026 TBC