Maritime Refugee Lab

Gerhard Hoffstaedter is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Queensland, specialising in forced migration, refugee studies, and Southeast Asian ethnography. As Chief Investigator of the Maritime Refugee Lab, he co-leads research documenting Rohingya maritime journeys and refugee experiences. His publications include Modern Muslim Identities (NIAS Press, 2011), Urban Refugees (Routledge, 2015), and 80+ peer-reviewed articles and chapters.He directs the World101x anthropology MOOC, teaching tens of thousands to think anthropologically globally, and was a 2024 Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Fellow.

Antje Missbach is Professor at Bielefeld University, Germany, and a former Senior Research Fellow at the Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg. Her research focuses on Southeast Asia, and she has held visiting appointments at Stanford University, the National University of Singapore, and CSIS Jakarta. She is the author of Troubled Transit: Asylum Seekers Stuck in Indonesia (ISEAS Yusof, 2015) and The Criminalisation of People Smuggling in Indonesia and Australia (Routledge, 2022), and co-author of Indonesia: State and Society in Transition (Lynne Rienner, 2020).

Her latest co-edited, open-access volume is Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia (Berghahn, 2024). Besides her current work on the facilitation of maritime refugee movements in Southeast Asia; and beyond, her research interests include broader socio-legal dimensions of irregular(ised) and forced migration; diaspora politics and long-distance nationalism; underage migrants and the role of religion during different phases of migration.

Dr Isabel Arce Zelada is a European Research Council (ERC) Postdoctoral Fellow working on the project "Solidarity, Sovereignty, and Sanctuary on the Seas: A Global History of Boat Refugees since the 1940s" focusing specifically on Cuban and Haitian refugees in the 1980s and 90s. Their first book "Art, Asylum and Alienhood: Narrative Inequality in the UK Asylum Process" is forthcoming with Routledge for their Studies in Migration and Diaspora series.

Robin Bush, PhD, is a Kuala Lumpur–based development practitioner and volunteer advocate for refugees in Southeast Asia. She co-founded JAPPSI, the Indonesian Refugee Advocacy Network; is a member of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN); and served on the board of Yayasan HELP for Refugees (2017–2023). Professionally, she has led regional initiatives supporting refugees and host communities and builds partnerships across government, civil society, and philanthropy. Robin has published academic work on migration, displacement, and civil society in the region.

At this conference, she serves as a discussant, linking policy and lived realities while highlighting pragmatic pathways to protection.

Ishak Jacues Cavin, SJ, is a Jesuit Scholastic at Sanata Dharma University and Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Indonesia. He has a philosophy and theology of migration background. He served as a Project Coordinator at JRS Jakarta (2021-2023) and an Advocacy Officer at JRS Aceh (2023).

His research, "Navigating Deterrence," examines Rohingya refugee sea migration to Aceh, focusing on the reasons for destination choice and the critical roles of young Rohingya men (age 18-35) on board their maritime journeys. The study explores how Indonesian deterrence tactics and social dynamics condition on boat, highlighting moments of agency and vulnerability amidst adversity.

Dr Alistair D. B. Cook is Coordinator of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Programme and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests focus on humanitarian affairs, disaster governance, foreign policy and regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific.

His most recent publications include ‘Disasters and Humanitarian Action: Dynamic Shifts, Reflections and Anticipating Future Directions’ (Editor. Singapore: World Scientific, 2025), and co-editor with Mely Caballero-Anthony Climate Security in the Indo-Pacific (Routledge, 2025).

Jose da Costa is an author, actor and filmmaker who was born in Timor-Leste during the Indonesian occupation of the former Portuguese territory. He is a survivor of political violence and has lived experience as an asylum seeker in Australia, arriving by boat in 1995. Da Costa co-founded Dili Film Works, which made Timor-Leste’s first feature film, A Guerra da Beatriz. His writings have been published in Inside Indonesia, conference proceedings and anthologies. He was a recipient of the Next Chapter award from the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. He is completing his autobiography, The Boy from the East.

Maria is a historian who is researching the journeys of Vietnamese boat refugees across the South China Sea from the 1970s to 1990s. She is a postdoctoral research associate on the European Research Council project Solidarity, Sovereignty, and Sanctuary on the Seas: A Global History of Boat Refugees since the 1940s in UCD, Ireland. Her forthcoming monograph with Manchester University Press is entitled ‘Cold War Humanitarians: NGOs as National Political Actors in the Global South’.

Daniela DeBono is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropological Sciences at the University of Malta. A graduate of the University of Sussex, she has held fellowships at the European University Institute, the Malmo Institute for Migration Studies and Malmö University. Driven by a commitment to challenging injustice, her work explores unauthorised migration and refugee journeys across the Mediterranean, border control, and deportation practices, and is shaped by an interdisciplinary background in anthropology, human rights, and migration studies.

Imogen specialises in the historical study of forced migration and humanitarian aid. She is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate on the European Research Council project Solidarity, Sovereignty, and Sanctuary on the Seas: A Global History of Boat Refugees since the 1940s where she examines refugees’ journeys across the Indian Ocean towards Australia from the 1990s to mid-2010s. Imogen’s first book, entitled Rocking the Boat: Maritime Rescue and the Politics of Humanitarian Assistance at Sea, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

Yogi Febriandi is a junior lecturer at IAIN Langsa and holds a master’s degree in Islamic Socio-Politics from UIN Sumatera Utara. His research focuses on political policy and vulnerable groups in Indonesia, religious movements, and refugee mobility. Currently, Yogi Febriandi is conducting research on Maritime Refugee in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia. Through this work, Yogi aims to deepen understanding of Rohingya refugees in Arakan Sea and their broader social and political implications in the region. Passionate about exploring the intersection of politics, religion, and human rights, his research brings critical perspective to refugee and maritime migration studies in the context of Southeast Asia.

Michael Gordon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Brock University. His research broadly surrounds irregularized migration and the externalization of European border controls, with a particular focus on the acts of solidarity through the work of civil society Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. These research interests coalesce around the theoretical intersections between sovereignty, solidarity, forced migration and borders at the supposed margins of the Global North. Michael holds a PhD in International Relations from McMaster University. Currently, he serves as a Co-Editor of Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees.

coming soon...

Vannessa Hearman is a historian of Southeast Asia based at Curtin University in Western Australia. Specialising in research on political violence, human rights, and historical memory in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, she is the author of the critically acclaimed Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (NUS Press, 2018). Her second monograph, The Good Sea: The Journey of the Tasi Diak and the Politics of Refugee Protection in Australia (Melbourne University Publishing, 2026), is a study of a unique group of East Timorese refugees in the 1990s. She also researches art in Timor-Leste.

Karina Horsti is University Lecturer in Cultural Policy at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research focuses on migration, media, memory politics and culture. She also collaborates with artists and museums, assisting with catalogues, exhibitions and artwork related to migration. She is the author of Survival and Witness at Europe’s Border: The Afterlives of a Disaster (Cornell University Press, 2023).

Mark has 13 years of experience working with displaced communities in settlement, research, and advocacy. As a PhD graduate and published author, he has a strong record of communicating complex topics to both scholarly and public audiences. His work has been cited in advocacy, media, and parliamentary contexts, and recognised through the UTS Community Alumni Award (2017). Mark works as a sessional academic with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, teaching in-person and online classes for undergraduate and masters subjects. He is working as a research assistant with the Australian National University investigating strategic litigation. His PhD on Australia’s anti–people smuggling regime was nominated for a faculty prize, and its book adaptation is under review with Routledge. He is currently working on a nonfiction book about immigration detention in Australia.

Aslam Abd Jalil is a senior lecturer at the International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA) at Universiti Malaya. He previously completed a Master of Public Policy (MPP) and now acts as the MPP programme coordinator at INPUMA. Aslam obtained a PhD in Anthropology and Public Policy from the University of Queensland, focusing on refugee studies and labour migration. He is interested in the issues of marginalised communities especially refugees, migrants and stateless persons.

Abu Faisal Md. Khaled is a Research Associate in Sociology of Transnationalisation and Social Anthropology at Bielefeld University, Germany. He previously worked as a Research Associate at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) at Ruhr University Bochum and as a faculty member in International Relations at the Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests include forced migration, diaspora formation, social cohesion, disability inclusion in humanitarian action, and policy transfer and lesson learning across institutional contexts.

Petra Molnar is a lawyer, anthropologist, and writer. She is the Associate Director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University, where she directs the Migration and Technology Monitor Project, and is a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Her first book, The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in The Age of Artificial Intelligence, was published by The New Press in 2024, and was a finalist for Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award Non-Fiction, received an honorable mention for the American Society of Legal Writer’s Scribes Award, and was the Nonfiction Book Awards 2024 Gold Winner.

Klaus Neumann is an independent writer and researcher and an Honorary Professor at Deakin University, who has written widely about (post)colonialism, historical justice, social and public memory, and migration. His most recent monographs are Blumen und Brandsätze (2024) and the award-winning Across the Seas (2015). He is currently working on books about the history of Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker policies since 1979 (for La Trobe University Press), and German local public and policy responses to irregularised migration since the 1980s (for University of Pennsylvania Press).

Neumann, K., & Taylor, S. (2025). Anxieties about a Porous Border: Australian Government Responses to Melanesian ‘Boat People.’ Australian Historical Studies, 56(3), 502–519.

Find the article here.

Neumann, K. (2020). The Appeal of Civil Disobedience in the Central Mediterranean: German Responses to the June 2019 Mission of the Sea-Watch 3. Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, 2(1), 53-61.

Find the article here.

Horsti, K., & Neumann, K. (2019). Memorializing mass deaths at the border: two cases from Canberra (Australia) and Lampedusa (Italy). Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(2), 141–158.

Find the article here.

Andrianus Oetjoe is a filmmaker from Indonesia. He was the recipient of a documentary film scholarship from the Goethe-Institut Indonesien in 2017 and the Robert Bosch Stiftung in 2019. His films explore themes of minority and marginalized groups as well as issues of social exclusion and racism in Indonesia. Among his works are TRANSIT (2014), which addresses the criminalization of asylum seekers in Jakarta; RESPITE (2018), which portrays the friendship between refugees and local residents in Makassar; and DER GRENZGÄNGER (2018), which depicts a refugee emergency shelter in the small German village of Sumte. He is currently pursuing an M.F.A. degree at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg.

In the short documentary film he will be presenting, he employs a combination of mise-en-scène and direct cinema approach. The mise-en-scène is employed to translate the information athered during field research into a visually sensorial form, engaging the audience’s senses. In contrast, direct cinema captures the unfolding of events in Aceh as they occur unexpectedly, including the arrival of Rohingya refugee boats and the responses of the local Acehnese community. By the application of observational documentary mode captured in medium shots, the film adopts the Brechtian esthetic to create a reflective space that encourages the audience to engage intellectually with an asymetric social condition.

Agustia Rahmi is the Founder and Executive Director of Yayasan Solidaritas Aksi Peduli (YSAP) in Aceh, Indonesia. She has over nine years of experience in humanitarian protection, social cohesion, and peacebuilding, focusing on the inclusion and well-being of Rohingya refugees and host communities in Aceh. As an emerging researcher, she is developing her academic work on maritime displacement, particularly the social configurations and tensions aboard refugee boats arriving in Aceh. Agustia is keen to bridge her practical experience with scholarly inquiry to advance context-based protection approaches and foster peaceful coexistence between displaced and local communities.

Erik Ramadhanil is a practitioner in refugee protection and assistance in Indonesia. He is the Founder of Resiliensia Institute Indonesia, focusing on forced displacement issues in the country. He has over nine years of experience working with UNHCR Indonesia, where he has held various roles, including Registration, Refugee Status Determination (RSD), and Community-Based Protection. Erik holds a Master of International Relations from the University of Melbourne.

He is particularly interested in bridging academic research with practical field experience, drawing on his work in refugee protection to develop evidence-based and context-driven solutions to complex humanitarian challenges. His areas of interest include refugee protection, humanitarian assistance, migration management and border governance, refugee advocacy, and community-based protection.

Dr Maurice Stierl leads the German Research Foundation funded research project “The Production of Spaces of Migrant Disappearance” (SFB 1604) at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, Osnabrück University. From 2022 to 2025, he was also leading the research group “The Production of Knowledge on Migration”. Before, he was a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sheffield. He has also taught at the University of Warwick and the University of California, Davis. His research focuses on migration and refugee struggles in contemporary Europe and (northern) Africa and is broadly situated in the fields of International Political Sociology, Political Geography, and Migration, Citizenship and Border Studies.

Dr. Nino Viartasiwi teaches at the International Relations Study Program, President University, Indonesia. She is also a co-founder of the Urban Refugees Research Group (UREF) under an Indonesian think tank, the Resilience Development Initiative (RDI), where she serves as a senior research fellow. Her research interests are forced migration, conflict and violence, transnationalism, and diplomacy. Apart from teaching and research, Nino is also active in human rights activism. She supported various human rights organizations, not only as a member or partner, but also as a recommender and reference during the process of receiving awards such as the Gwangju Human Rights Awards and the Ashoka Fellowships.

Viartasiwi, N. (2026): Time for Indonesia to end constructive refoulement practice, In: The Jakarta Post, published 23.06.2026.

Find the blog post here. Full text available on request.

Dr Catrin Wyn Edwards is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University. She's interested in migration, sanctuary, and carcerality, and has two main research areas: i) notions of migrant carcerality and citizenship in Europe, specifically in search and rescue missions in the central Mediterranean, and ii) sanctuary beyond the state. Catrin has focussed on national sanctuary practices to encourage new thinking about alternative sites of sanctuary beyond the state to provide a new focus to scholarship on practices of rescaling migration, hospitality and sanctuary, notably in multinational and plurilingual states.

Catrin co-established and co-convenes the Migration Research Wales Network (WISERD), which has the aim of developing research capacity, and encouraging dialogue between academics at Welsh institutions and between academics and policy-makers and practitioners. Her recent publications include a co-edited volume, 'A Welcoming Nation? Intersectional approaches to migration and diversity in Wales' (University of Wales Press), ‘Translating sanctuary: Politics of solidarity in a bilingual and plurinational context’ (Geographical Journal), and ‘Reconceptualizing the Nation in Sanctuary Practices: Toward a Progressive, Relational National Politics?’ (International Political Sociology)

Tirsit Yetbarek is a researcher based in the Horn of Africa, specifically in the Somali-speaking regions, with an official affiliation to Jigjiga University, where the Institute of Migration Studies is located. She is also affiliated with the Red Sea Cultural Foundation in Somaliland, serving as Head of the Somaliland Centre for African Studies. Additionally, she is the Associate Editor of Dhxalreeb, an academic journal of SCAS. She runs an academic discussion platform called Academic Dialogue in Hargeysa (ADIH), which has been going for its 8th year, bringing discussions on research, including Migration and human security.