Brussels School of International Studies
Life in Brussels
Dr Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels
Reader in Migration and Politics
a.k.von-koppenfels@kent.ac.uk
ORCID iD:
Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels received her PhD in Government and MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She received an AB from Harvard University. She has been Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Center for European Studies 2012-13 and Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna, in the Research Group Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion, in Autumn 2009. Selected recent publications include "Federal Structure and Party Politics as Simultaneous Opportunity and Constraint: Transnational Political Engagement of overseas Americans" (2020), in Kernalegenn and van Haute, eds. Political Parties Abroad: A New Arena for Party Politics (Routledge); Highly-Skilled Migration: Between Settlement and Mobility (2020; IMISCOE short reader series), (with Agnieszka Weinar) and "Modeling American Migration Aspirations: How Capital, Race, and National Identity Shape Americans' Ideas about Living Abroad" (2020) International Migration Review (with Helen Marrow).
Dr. Klekowski von Koppenfels' current research interests focus on citizenship, both formal and substantive, and on the engagement of migrants with their home country and their host country. She examines the interaction of identity, transnational engagement and integration. She focuses on Global North migrants, in particular US citizens, looking at migration aspiration, transnational engagement and integration trajectories. She asks what the difference between a "migrant" and "expatriate" is, arguing that the distinction is an arbitrary one, based upon host country perception of the migrants and their countries of origin   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYaPrrKXwL0 (see also Migrants or Expatriates: Americans in Europe). She has conducted both qualitative and quantitative research.
Dr. Klekowski von Koppenfels supervises broadly in the area of migration, and is particularly interested in supervising projects examining migration aspiration; citizenship (formal and substantive); political engagement, whether in the home country (transnationalism) or country of residence; diaspora engagement; and migration from the Global North.
Current supervisions include:
Octavius Pinkard, "Transportation in Diaspora Space: Lebanese Communities in Senegal and the United States"
Azize Sargin, "Political and Transnational Engagement of the Turkish Diaspora in Belgium"
Caitlin Marshall, "Role of Social Media in Protecting Hidden Stigmatized Populations: Case of the U.S. LGBT Military"
Zdena Mtetwa-Middernacht, "Diaspora and Development: A Study of the Zimbabwean Diaspora in Britain"
Rosario Rizzo Lara (ESR on EU-funded EJD MOVES project)
Carmen Tasser (ESR on EU-funded EJD MOVES project)
Naiara Rodríguez Peña (ESR on EU-funded EJD MOVES project)
Completed supervisions include:
Karim Hegazy, "Beyond Rituals and National Models of Integration: Muslim Migrants' Religiosity in a Western Context"
Maria Schiller, "The Implementation of Diversity Policy in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Leeds"
Stephanie Wolfe, "The Differential Application of Restorative Justice: Germany, Japan and the United States"
Nadja Dumann, "Navigating between Structure and Agency: Moroccan Independent Youth Migration