Personal profile
Curriculum
Laura Lambert is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC project "Doing Digital Identities" (DigID) with a focus on Sierra Leone. In her dissertation, Laura examined the EU's externalization of refugee protection in Niger on the basis of a comprehensive ethnography. Among her main research interests are the remaking of European migration control and asylum policies in the cooperating African third states, asylum and migration bureaucracies, migrant struggles, future-making, infrastructures, and international organizations.
Academic CV
10/2023- Postdoctoral researcher, ERC project Doing Digital Identities
07/2022-09/2023 Deputy head of the research cluster "Flight and Migration", Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute, Freiburg
12/2022: PhD in Social Anthropology, dissertation topic: "Everyday Externalization. The Transformations of Individual Asylum in Niger", Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
11/2017-01/2022 PhD student, Department of Law and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany
08/2017 M.A. Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin
Education/Academic qualification
PhD Social Anthropology, Doctorate , Everyday Externalization. The Transformations of Individual Asylum in Niger, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
25.01.2018 → 19.12.2022
Award Date: 19.12.2022
M.A. Social Sciences, Master, Studium gestattet? Nationale Klassifikationen und symbolische Gewalt beim Hochschulzugang für Geflüchtete, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
01.10.2012 → 28.08.2017
Award Date: 11.08.2017
B.A. Social Sciences, Bachelor, Kämpfe um die "Regierung der Zirkulation", Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
01.10.2008 → 30.09.2012
External positions
Head of Research Cluster "Patterns of (Forced) Migration", Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut für Kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung
01.07.2022 → 30.09.2023
Doctoral Candidate, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
01.11.2017 → 31.01.2022
Keywords
- Sociology
- migration
- bureaucracy
- externalization
- infrastructures
- ethnography
- asylum determination
- refugees
- future-making
- political struggles
- citizenship
- state-making
- West Africa
- Niger
- Sierra Leone
- European Union
- biometrics
- digital identification
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities -
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions -
SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
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DigID: Doing Digital Identities
Scheel, S. (Project manager, academic), El-Kahil, S. (Project staff), O'Brien, O. (Project staff), Lambert, L. (Project staff) & Hargyono, S. (Project staff)
European Research Council (ERC)
01.02.23 → 31.01.28
Project: Research
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Everyday Externalization. The Transformations of Individual Asylum in Niger
Lambert, L. (Project manager, academic)
Project: Dissertation project
Research output
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Brokers of Citizenship. Justices of the Peace as Intermediaries in Sierra Leone’s Digital Identification Project
Lambert, L., 09.02.2026, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Citizenship Studies. 16 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Open Access -
Between morality and the law: negotiating protection for queer asylum seekers in Niger’s asylum administration
Lambert, L., 2025, In: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 51, 10, p. 2529-2546 18 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Open Access5 Citations (Scopus) -
Resettlement as a temporal border: infrastructural promises and future-making among migrants and officials in Niger
Lambert, L., 12.2025, In: Comparative Migration Studies. 13, 1, 17 p., 14.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Open Access5 Citations (Scopus) -
Contested future-making in containment: temporalities, infrastructures and agency
Scharrer, T., Lambert, L., Millar, S., Pekşen, M. & Laakkonen, V., 12.2024, In: Comparative Migration Studies. 12, 1, 16 p., 54.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Open Access5 Citations (Scopus) -
Contested Promises: Migrants’ Material Politics vis-à-vis the Humanitarian Border in Niger
Lambert, L., 08.06.2023, In: Science as Culture. 32, 3, p. 363-386 24 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Open Access8 Citations (Scopus)
Activities
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Rethinking Forced Displacement in Africa : MIASA Workshop
Aubry, A. (Organiser), Garba, F. (Organiser), Hamani, O. (Organiser), Kane, I. (Organiser), Lambert, L. (Organiser), Scholze, M. (Organiser) & Setrana, M. B. (Organiser)
26.03.2026 → 28.03.2026Activity: Participating in or organising an academic or articstic event › Conferences › Research
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3rd AMMODI Keynote
Lambert, L. (Organiser), Bjarnesen, J. (Organiser), Kandilige, L. (Organiser), Zanker, F. (Organiser) & Hammar, A. (Speaker)
18.03.2026Activity: Participating in or organising an academic or articstic event › External workshops, courses, seminars › Research
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Subjects in Motion: Mediators of Citizenship and Circulatory Subjectivities in the Context of Free Movement in West Africa
Djolar, K. (Speaker) & Lambert, L. (Speaker)
09.03.2026Activity: Talk or presentation › Guest lectures › Research
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Brokers of Citizenship. Justices of the Peace as Intermediaries in Sierra Leone’s Digital Identification Project
Lambert, L. (Speaker)
02.03.2026Activity: Talk or presentation › talk or presentation in privat or public events › Research
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Between ‘Two-SIM Citizens’ and ‘the Commoners’. Doing Digital and Social Identities to Navigate the Borders between Sierra Leone and Guinea
Lambert, L. (Speaker)
28.01.2026Activity: Talk or presentation › Conference Presentations › Research
Prizes
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Humboldt Research Track Scholarship
Lambert, L. (Recipient), 2017
Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research
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Klaus J. Bade Award for Junior Migration Researchers
Lambert, L. (Recipient), 15.11.2024
Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research
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Menschen mit Hintergrund
Lambert, L. (Recipient), 2016
Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Education
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Study Stipendium
Lambert, L. (Recipient), 2013
Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research
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Study Stipendium
Lambert, L. (Recipient), 2010
Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research
Press/Media
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Sierra Leone’s ‘brokers of citizenship’ recognized in digital identification project
18.03.26
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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Sierra Leone’s digital ID push: how local brokers help citizens gain legal identity
17.03.26
1 Media contribution
Press/Media
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Protecting Queer Refugees in Muslim-majority Niger? How Organizational Designs of Refugee Status Determination May Helpe Solve Moral Conflicts
16.08.25
1 Media contribution
Press/Media
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Keine Lösung für Foltergefängnisse. Antirassistischer Widerstand zu Notfallevakuierungen in den Niger
20.06.24
1 Media contribution
Press/Media