Scholar in Residence 2025

Emily Channell-Justiсe's project was to complete her second book manuscript, “Displacement, Emplacement, and Self-Organisation: Ukraine 2014–2021.” The project builds on her previous research into self-organisation during the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests and examines how Ukrainians mobilised in response to Russia’s first invasion in 2014 to support internally displaced people (IDPs). It also investigates how the absence of an unified state policy and the presence of international and non-governmental actors shaped Ukraine’s humanitarian response.

Drawing on perspectives from anthropology, sociology, and geography, the project explores the long-term nature of internal displacement in Ukraine, challenging the concept of temporary humanitarian aid and the conventional camp model. It also introduces the idea of “emplacement” — how both displaced people and host communities renegotiate local and national belonging through everyday practices of adaptation and support.

The research combines three main data sets: interviews with experts from international and non-governmental organisations, 80 interviews with IDPs from Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea collected between 2014 and 2016, and analysis of shifting Ukrainian government policies toward IDPs between 2014 and 2021.