Laura Jeffery

Professor of Anthropology of Migration; Dean of Research

laura.jeffery@ed.ac.uk

+44 (0)131 651 3860

Edinburgh Research Explorer

https://twitter.com/@ProfJeffery/

5.20 Chrystal Macmillan Building

15a George Square

Edinburgh UK

EH8 9LD

Research interests

Cultural Heritage Health & Well-being International development Migration and experiences of displacement

I am a social anthropologist specialising in:

Healthcare at the intersection of gender and protracted displacement.
Participatory arts methods and creative engagement with migration and displacement.
Intangible cultural heritage and human–environment relations in protracted displacement contexts.
Indian Ocean islands (particularly Chagos, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Maldives).

Background

I am Dean of Research in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) and Professor of Anthropology of Migration in the School of Social and Political Science (SSPS), where:

I lead an ESRC project on improving healthcare at the intersection of gender and protracted displacement amongst Somali and Congolese IDPs and refugees in Somalia, Eastern DRC, Kenya, and South Africa.
My ongoing work on participatory arts methods and creative engagement with migration and displacement includes co-direction of an AHRC Network Plus MADAR: Maghreb action on displacement and rights. MADAR builds upon an AHRC project MARAM: mobilising access to rights for artists in Morocco, which generated a virtual exhibition and downloadable guide for artists in Morocco. MARAM built upon an ESRC/AHRC project on arts for advocacy: creative engagement with forced displacement in Morocco, which generated a series of exhibitions and a downloadable creative arts, migration, and advocacy toolkit.
My long-term ethnographic engagement with the displaced Chagossian community culminated in the inscription of Chagossian sega tambour music on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The nomination file drew on my AHRC project CHAGOS: cultural heritage across generations. Visit chagos.online to browse virtual exhibits, download recipes, and listen to the Chagos Tambour Group album. This work built upon: my ESRC project on debates about sustainable resettlement and environmental conservation in the context of the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA) and the UK government's policy review on resettlement of the Chagos Archipelago, my Leverhulme project on Chagossian onward migration to the UK, and my ESRC project on the politics of victimhood amongst forcibly displaced Chagos islanders in Mauritius.
I have a longstanding ethnographic interest in Indian Ocean islands, particularly Chagos, Mauritius, and Seychelles. I also led a work package on labour migration and connective infrastructure in Maldives as part of an ERC Consolidator Grant on roads and the politics of thought: ethnographic approaches to infrastructure development in South Asia.

Research supervision

I welcome PhD in Social Anthropology supervision enquiries relating to my current research interests.

Works within

Social Anthropology

If you would like to book an appointment with me, please email the College Research Office Administrator, Yvonne Chau, on cchau@ed.ac.uk

Publication	Research Explorer link
Jeffery L. How Chagos Islanders are fighting to keep their culture alive in exile. The Conversation. 2022 Mar 17.	View
Jeffery L (Artist). Transmitting, safeguarding, and promoting ICH in protracted displacement contexts 2022.	View
Heslop L, Jeffery L. Encountering Chinese development in the Maldives: Gifts, hospitality, and rumours. In Heslop L, Murton G, editors, Highways and Hierarchies: Ethnographies of Mobility from the Himalaya to the Indian Ocean. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 2021. p. 175-196. (New Mobilities in Asia). doi: 10.1017/9789048552511.008	View
Rotter R, Jeffery L, Heslop L. Navigating interdisciplinarity: Negotiating discipline, embodiment, and materiality on a field methods training course. Teaching Anthropology. 2021 Jan 8;10(3):1-13. Epub 2021 Jan 8. doi: 10.22582/ta.v10i3.578	View
Heslop L, Jeffery L. Roadwork: Expertise at work building roads in the Maldives. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2020 Jun 30;26(2):284-301. Epub 2020 Mar 23. doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.13236	View
Jeffery L, Rotter R. Safeguarding sega: Transmission, inscription, and appropriation of Chagossian intangible cultural heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies. 2019 Oct 31;25(10):1020-1033. Epub 2018 Dec 16. doi: 10.1080/13527258.2018.1555671	View
Jeffery L. Sustainable Mauritius? Environmental change, energy efficiency, and sustainable development in a small island state in the Indian Ocean. In Halterman I, Tischler J, editors, Environmental Change and African Societies. Brill. 2019. p. 177-198. (Climate and Culture). Epub 2019 Oct 7. doi: 10.1163/9789004410848_009	View
Jeffery L. The International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Chagos Archipelago. Anthropology Today (AT). 2019 Jun;35(3):24-27. Epub 2019 Jun 2. doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12508	View
Jeffery L, Palladino M, Rotter R, Woolley A. Creative engagement with migration. Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture. 2019 Apr 1;10(1):3-17. doi: 10.1386/cjmc.10.1.3_1	View
Bachelet S, Jeffery L. Creative engagement with migration in Morocco: An ethnographic exploration of photographic encounters. Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture. 2019 Apr 1;10(1):25-42. doi: 10.1386/cjmc.10.1.25_1	View
Jeffery L, (ed.), Palladino M, (ed.), Rotter R, (ed.), Woolley A, (ed.). Creative Engagement with Migration. Bristol: Intellect Ltd., 2019. 155 p. (Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture; 1).	View
Rotter R (Author), Jeffery L (Author). Transmitting, safeguarding and promoting Chagossian cultural heritage in the context of protracted displacement Online: Heritage-Research.org. 2019.	View
Jeffery L. Development and forced displacement. In Callan H, editor, International Encyclopaedia of Anthropology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 2018 doi: 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1698	View
Jeffery L. ‘For Mauritians, joy; for Chagossians, sadness’: Mauritian independence, the sacrifice of the Chagos Archipelago, and the suffering of the Chagos islanders. In Ramtohul R, Eriksen TH, editors, The Mauritian Paradox: Fifty years of development, diversity and democracy. Reduit: University of Mauritius Press. 2018. p. 245-259	View
Jeffery L. “We don’t want to be sent back and forth all the time”: ethnographic encounters with displacement, migration, and Britain beyond the British Isles. Sociological Review Monographs. 2017 Mar 27;65(1):71-87. doi: 10.1177/0081176917693526	View
Rotter R, Jeffery L. ‘We no longer have faith and trust in anyone’: Misadventures in community consultation on the future of the Chagos Archipelago . International Development Planning Review (IDPR). 2016 Oct 1;38(4):383-403. doi: 10.3828/idpr.2016.22	View
Jeffery L, Rotter R. Sustenance, nourishment, and cultivation: Plants as living cultural heritage for dispersed Chagossians in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the UK. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2016 Jun 30;22(2):296-313. Epub 2016 Mar 28. doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.12402	View
Jeffery LR. Erratum: Ecological restoration in a cultural landscape: Conservationist and Chagossian approaches to controlling the 'coconut chaos' on the Chagos Archipelago (Human Ecology DOI: 10.1007/s10745-014-9696-y). Human Ecology. 2015 Mar 7;43(1):185–185. doi: 10.1007/s10745-014-9716-y	View
Jeffery LR. Ecological restoration in a cultural landscape: conservationist and Chagossian approaches to controlling the 'coconut chaos' on the Chagos Archipelago. Human Ecology. 2014 Aug 23. doi: 10.1007/s10745-014-9696-y	View
Jeffery L. Neither confirm nor deny: WikiLeaks evidence and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations in the judicial review of the Chagos Marine Protected Area. Anthropology Today (AT). 2014 Jun;30(3):9-13. Epub 2014 Jan 2. doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12109	View
Jeffery L. Reply to Simon Hughes. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute . 2013 Dec 1;19(4):879-881. Epub 2013 Nov 4. doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.12070	View
Jeffery L, Konopinski N. Planning your research project. In Konopinski N, editor, Doing Anthropological Research: A Practical Guide. London: Routledge. 2013. p. 21-35	View
Jeffery L. ‘We Are the True Guardians of the Environment’: Human-Environment Relations and Debates about the Future of the Chagos Archipelago. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2013 Jun;19(2):300-318. doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.12034	View
Jeffery L. Debates about the feasibility of human resettlement of the Chagos Archipelago. 2013.	View
Jeffery L. 'A lost people'? Chagossian onward migration and echoes of marginalisation in Crawley. In Evans SJTM, Kooy M, editors, Eviction from the Chagos Islands : displacement and struggle for identity against two world powers . Leiden, netherlands: Brill. 2011. p. 219-238. (African History). doi: 10.1163/ej.9789004202603.i-293	View
Jeffery L, (ed.), Murison J, (ed.). Return and Onward Migration - Special Issue. Population, Space and Place. 2011;17(2):131-192. doi: 10.1002/psp.669	View
Jeffery L. Chagos Islanders in Mauritius and the UK: Forced Displacement and Onward Migration. Manchester University Press, 2011. 224 p. (New Ethnographies).	View
Jeffery L. ‘Unusual Immigrants’, or, Chagos Islanders and their Confrontations with British Citizenship. Anthropology in Action: Journal for Applied Anthropology in Policy and Practice. 2011;18(2):33-44. doi: 10.3167/aia.2011.180205	View
Jeffery L, Johannessen S. Reflections on the Life and Art of the Chagossian Painter Clément Siatous. Wasafiri. 2011;66(2):72-77. doi: 10.1080/02690055.2011.557553	View
Jeffery L, Murison J. The temporal, social, spatial and legal dimensions of return and onward migration. Population, Space and Place. 2011;17(2):131-139. doi: 10.1002/psp.606	View
Jeffery L, Vine D. Sorrow, sadness, and impoverishment: The lives of Chagossians in Mauritius. In Evers S, Kooy M, editors, Eviction from the Chagos Islands. Leiden: Brill. 2011. p. 83-102 doi: 10.1163/ej.9789004202603.i-293.45	View
Jeffery L. Creole festivals and Afro-Creole cosmopolitanisms in Mauritius. Social Anthropology. 2010;18(4):425-432. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8676.2010.00126.x	View
Jeffery L. Forced Displacement, Onward Migration and Reformulations of 'Home' by Chagossians in Crawley, UK. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 2010;36(7):1099-1117. doi: 10.1080/13691830903517511	View
Jeffery L. Chagossians refused right to return home: A sequel to Vine (AT 24[4]). Anthropology Today (AT). 2009 Feb;25(1):24-26. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8322.2009.00644.x	View
Jeffery L, Vine D. "Give Us Back Diego Garcia": Unity and Division among Activists in the Indian Ocean. In Lutz C, editor, The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts. Pluto Press. 2008. p. 181-217	View
Jeffery L. How a plantation became paradise: Changing representations of the homeland among displaced Chagos islanders. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2007;13(4):951–968.	View
Jeffery L. ‘Our right is our land’: The Chagos Archipelago and discourses on rights to land in the Indian Ocean. In Bunwaree S, Kasenally R, editors, Rights and Development in Mauritius. Mauritius: OSSREA Mauritius Chapter and University of Mauritius. 2007. p. 31–58	View
Jeffery L, Candea M. The politics of victimhood. History and Anthropology. 2006 Dec 1;17(4):287-296. Epub 2006 Nov 29. doi: 10.1080/02757200600914037	View
Jeffery L. Historical narrative and legal evidence: Judging Chagossians’ High Court testimonies. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. 2006;29(2):228–253. doi: 10.1525/pol.2006.29.2.228	View
Jeffery L. Victims and patrons: Strategic alliances and the anti-politics of victimhood among displaced Chagossians and their supporters. History and Anthropology. 2006;17(4):297–312.	View
Jeffery L, Candea M. The politics of victimhood. History and Anthropology. 2006;17(4):287–296.	View
Jeffery L, (ed.), Candea M, (ed.). The Politics of Victimhood. History and Anthropology. 2006;17(4):287–395.	View

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