People of MILE

Lilian Tsourdi is tenured Associate Professor and Jean Monnet Chair in EU Migration Law and Governance at Maastricht University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of EU Law, Public International Law, and public policy/administration with a focus on human rights, asylum, migration, and governance theories. Lilian combines legal analysis with empirical qualitative research methods. She has received a number of prestigious research grants as PI (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship by the European Commission; and VENI and Hestia grants by the Dutch Research Council) or co-PI (WP leader in Horizon Europe ENSURED project). In UM, Lilian (co-)designs, (co)-convenes, and teaches in undergraduate and postgraduate migration courses. Lilian is member of the Executive Board of the inter-faculty centre MACIMIDE (Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development), the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Refugee Law published by Oxford University Press, and Deputy Coordinator of the Academic Network for Legal Studies on Immigration and Asylum in Europe, the ‘Odysseus Network’. She also co-chairs with UNHCR the European Academic Refugee Interdisciplinary Network (EARIN), established in the framework of the UN Global Compact on Refugees. EARIN seeks to implement the Global Compact on Refugees through research, teaching, and solidarity with displaced scholars and students.

Sarah is an Assistant Professor of European and Comparative Administrative Law, in the Public Law Department at Maastricht University. She completed her PhD on the supervision of Europol at the European University Institute (Florence). Her research focuses on the fields of Administrative law, European law, Criminal and migration law, as well as fundamental rights protection, and particularly Data Protection.

Felix’ work is conducted in the fields of International and European Migration/Asylum Law. His PhD-research consist of a legal scrutiny of the so-called ‘instrumentalisation’ of migration. Aside from developing a comprehensive Public International Law-conceptualisation of this phenomenon, through three case studies, the project analyses its reported use against the EU — explaining how the EU legal framework concerning asylum, immigration and external borders is organised, in what way(s) it enables/constrains the Union and its Member States in responding to reported ‘instrumentalisation’ practices, as well as subjecting their (proposed) responses to a human rights law scrutiny.

Marianna is a recent graduate from the Master programme Globalisation and Law (specialisation in Human Rights) at Maastricht University. She is interested in climate-induced migration and its correlation with environmental justice. She has conducted two Master’s thesis projects on the topic. She is also engaged in EU-level projects concerning migration and diaspora. For instance, she has co-written a joint position paper on "Migration, integration, and political participation: The perspectives of young people with a migration background" as part of the ConsultingEUTH project.