Kirsten McConnachie is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of East Anglia and Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research in the Faculty of Social Science. She is a Research Associate at the University of Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre. 

I joined UEA as a Senior Lecturer in Law in April 2018, having previously held posts at the University of Warwick (Assistant Professor, 2015- 2018), University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre (Junior Research Fellow, 2012-2015), and the University of Edinburgh (Research Fellow 2011-2012). I studied at Queen's University Belfast (PhD in Law), University of Nottingham (LLM in the Law of Armed Conflict) and the University of Glasgow (LLB in Scots Law).

My research is socio-legal and interdisciplinary. A central concern in my work has been to acknowledge the role of non-state actors in governance and more broadly to understand the meaning of community – in refugee camps and contexts of displacement and in the UK. I have carried out extensive fieldwork in southeast Asia, including with Karen refugees living in camps in Thailand and with ethnic Chin refugees in Malaysia and India.

My first book, Governing Refugees (Routledge 2014), analysed governance and justice in refugee camps in Thailand and was awarded the Socio-Legal Studies Association early career book prize. I have also published on topics including governance by armed groups; the history and management of refugee camps; legal pluralism and non-state justice systems; legal anthropology and informal governance; forced migration in southeast Asia; the role of victims in transitional justice; and constitutional reform.

In addition to my work in refugee and forced migration studies, I am also currently working on a Leverhulme-funded socio-legal study of community land ownership in Scotland. My research has been funded by major funders including the Leverhulme Trust, AHRC, John Fell Fund, Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Emslie Horniman Trust.

I am a series editor for Berghahn's series in Forced Migration and an editorial board member of the Journal of Human Rights Practice, International Journal of Refugee Law and Social and Legal Studies. I am a member of the UKRI Talent Panel College (for early career fellowships).

I regularly present my work at invited seminars in the UK and internationally, and in 2022 delivered the annual Elizabeth Colson lecture at the University of Oxford. I have been interviewed by media as an expert on refugee issues and on Burma/Myanmar (including BBC World Service, BBC Asian News Service, Channel News Asia, France News 24 and Al-Jazeera) and have written for online media including The Conversation, openDemocracy, The Diplomat, Lacuna, and The Muslim Debate.

Current PhD students: Moe Suzuki;  Connie Hodgkinson Lahiff; Bo Bottomley

Refugee studies and international refugee law; Burma/Myanmar politics, with a particular focus on displacement; socio-legal studies; criminology, legal anthropology, particularly informal/non-state justice systems and legal pluralism; transitional justice; research methods and ethnography.  

Associate Dean of Postgraduate Research, Social Sciences Faculty