Stefan Millar
@stefanmillar.bsky.social
🇮🇪 🍉 Anthropologist with interest in #migration the #state and #colonialism in East African refugee camps.
Apparently, my blog recent post blog has already upset some people at the Kakuma UNHCR office (mission accomplished). Essentially, I point out how their work, lives, and policies are devoid of any refugee voices, and their outlook is very colonial.
Read it here:
blogs.helsinki.fi/vital-infras...
Read it here:
blogs.helsinki.fi/vital-infras...
Humanitarian Infrastructures at the End of Aid – Stefan Millar – Vital Infrastructures
blogs.helsinki.fi
December 16, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Apparently, my blog recent post blog has already upset some people at the Kakuma UNHCR office (mission accomplished). Essentially, I point out how their work, lives, and policies are devoid of any refugee voices, and their outlook is very colonial.
Read it here:
blogs.helsinki.fi/vital-infras...
Read it here:
blogs.helsinki.fi/vital-infras...
Reposted by Stefan Millar
Everyday State & Democracy in Africa, ed. Wale Adebanwi, now open access. Includes my chapter 'Disputing Democracy & Challenging the State in Mozambique' based on fieldwork around the 2013-16 insurgency.
(Bluesky crops the pic as per 'bottom-up case studies'.)
ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/39/
(Bluesky crops the pic as per 'bottom-up case studies'.)
ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/39/
Everyday State and Democracy in Africa : Ethnographic Encounters
Bottom-up case studies, drawn from the perspective of ordinary Africans’ experiences with state bureaucracies, structures, and services, reveal how citizens and states define each other.This volume ex...
ohioopen.library.ohio.edu
October 15, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Everyday State & Democracy in Africa, ed. Wale Adebanwi, now open access. Includes my chapter 'Disputing Democracy & Challenging the State in Mozambique' based on fieldwork around the 2013-16 insurgency.
(Bluesky crops the pic as per 'bottom-up case studies'.)
ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/39/
(Bluesky crops the pic as per 'bottom-up case studies'.)
ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/39/
Ready-to-assemble humanitarianism, will they serve meat balls at food distribution? Unlikely, but let get business tycoons in who will retain a top-down neocolonial strategy. What happened to letting "refugees lead"? www.ft.com/content/915a...
Sweden backs Ikea boss to lead UN refugee agency
Jesper Brodin nominated by centre-right government after eight years in charge of furniture giant
www.ft.com
October 14, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Ready-to-assemble humanitarianism, will they serve meat balls at food distribution? Unlikely, but let get business tycoons in who will retain a top-down neocolonial strategy. What happened to letting "refugees lead"? www.ft.com/content/915a...
The paper forms a part of a wider paper cluster with Tabea Scharrer @tabeascharrer.bsky.social, Laura Lambert, Mert Peksen, and Ville Laakkonen @vvlaakkonen.bsky.social where we explore the dynamics of future-making in containment.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Contested future-making in containment: temporalities, infrastructures and agency - Comparative Migration Studies
Containment, as a way of restricting mobilities, ranges from physical infrastructures to diffused control practices in everyday life. Alongside their physical, social, and political dimensions, such r...
link.springer.com
August 13, 2025 at 2:25 PM
The paper forms a part of a wider paper cluster with Tabea Scharrer @tabeascharrer.bsky.social, Laura Lambert, Mert Peksen, and Ville Laakkonen @vvlaakkonen.bsky.social where we explore the dynamics of future-making in containment.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
My article on communal future-makibg and their corresponding logics of containment is finally out! The paper explores the various logics of containment at play in Kakuma Refugee Camp during the covid pandemic. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Coronavirus containment: communal future-making and the logics of containment in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya - Comparative Migration Studies
Anthropological literature on future-making has highlighted the diversity of practices migrants’ can enact to realise their possible future or future-orientated projects. While such an approach has be...
link.springer.com
August 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
My article on communal future-makibg and their corresponding logics of containment is finally out! The paper explores the various logics of containment at play in Kakuma Refugee Camp during the covid pandemic. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
This is a truly remarkable outcome - a rare act of collective action within our workplace. Considering that the petition was only live for two weeks, and that it has faced repeated suppression when circulated via university mailing lists:
June 26, 2025 at 4:28 PM
This is a truly remarkable outcome - a rare act of collective action within our workplace. Considering that the petition was only live for two weeks, and that it has faced repeated suppression when circulated via university mailing lists:
We also symbolically delivered the petition in person at Porthania. Each of your signatures was delivered as a slip of (reused) green, red, black and white paper - 740 in total. Here is a short video documenting the delivery of the petition slips: blogs.helsinki.fi/researchersf...
VIDEO – Delivering the 700+ Petition – Researchers for Palestine
blogs.helsinki.fi
June 26, 2025 at 4:26 PM
We also symbolically delivered the petition in person at Porthania. Each of your signatures was delivered as a slip of (reused) green, red, black and white paper - 740 in total. Here is a short video documenting the delivery of the petition slips: blogs.helsinki.fi/researchersf...
On Tuesday, we at the University of Helsinki group "Researchers for Palestine" emailed the Rector, Board and Chancellor with the signed petition. A physical copy was also delivered to and registered with Kirjaamoo.
www.hs.fi/helsinki/art...
www.hs.fi/helsinki/art...
Gazan sota | Yli 700 työntekijää vaatii Helsingin yliopistoa lopettamaan yhteistyön Israelin yliopistojen kanssa
740:n allekirjoittajan joukossa on myös julkisuudesta tunnettuja asiantuntijoita.
www.hs.fi
June 26, 2025 at 4:25 PM
On Tuesday, we at the University of Helsinki group "Researchers for Palestine" emailed the Rector, Board and Chancellor with the signed petition. A physical copy was also delivered to and registered with Kirjaamoo.
www.hs.fi/helsinki/art...
www.hs.fi/helsinki/art...
Reposted by Stefan Millar
Out now!
'Hard Work' by @tutam.bsky.social explores human-environmental relations, value production, and state formation in the context of large-scale natural resource extraction in #PapuaNewGuinea.
The book is available in #openaccess at: doi.org/10.33134/HUP-29
#anthropology #ethnography🏺
'Hard Work' by @tutam.bsky.social explores human-environmental relations, value production, and state formation in the context of large-scale natural resource extraction in #PapuaNewGuinea.
The book is available in #openaccess at: doi.org/10.33134/HUP-29
#anthropology #ethnography🏺
December 23, 2024 at 11:00 AM
Out now!
'Hard Work' by @tutam.bsky.social explores human-environmental relations, value production, and state formation in the context of large-scale natural resource extraction in #PapuaNewGuinea.
The book is available in #openaccess at: doi.org/10.33134/HUP-29
#anthropology #ethnography🏺
'Hard Work' by @tutam.bsky.social explores human-environmental relations, value production, and state formation in the context of large-scale natural resource extraction in #PapuaNewGuinea.
The book is available in #openaccess at: doi.org/10.33134/HUP-29
#anthropology #ethnography🏺
Reposted by Stefan Millar
New article 'Resettlement as a temporal border: infrastructural promises and future-making among migrants and officials in Niger' by Laura Lambert in our paper cluster 'Future-making in Situations of Containment' edited by Laura, @stefanmillar.bsky.social, Mert Pekşen, @vvlaakkonen.bsky.social & me
Resettlement as a temporal border: infrastructural promises and future-making among migrants and officials in Niger - Comparative Migration Studies
Resettlement is a safe pathway to the Global North, but only few refugees in the Global South receive it. This article argues that beyond being a highly selective durable solution, resettlement can al...
comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com
March 14, 2025 at 7:25 AM
New article 'Resettlement as a temporal border: infrastructural promises and future-making among migrants and officials in Niger' by Laura Lambert in our paper cluster 'Future-making in Situations of Containment' edited by Laura, @stefanmillar.bsky.social, Mert Pekşen, @vvlaakkonen.bsky.social & me
Unfortunately, the techniques established by Kitson are still at use by many former British colonies today to target political dissidents. In Kenya, the Brits continued to train Kenyan security after independence. If you’re interested, I wrote a paper on it: www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/Op...
www.berghahnbooks.com
March 13, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Unfortunately, the techniques established by Kitson are still at use by many former British colonies today to target political dissidents. In Kenya, the Brits continued to train Kenyan security after independence. If you’re interested, I wrote a paper on it: www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/Op...
Reposted by Stefan Millar
Kenya: "Following recent aid freezes and budget cuts for humanitarian assistance... the impact on our country's ability to host refugees and asylum seekers which number over 800,000 people, has been sudden and severe," the CS [Cabinet Sec] noted."
www.kenyans.co.ke/news/109572-...
www.kenyans.co.ke/news/109572-...
CS Murkomen Speaks After Refugee Protests in Kakuma
On Monday, the protests turned chaotic as police officers tried to disperse the refugees leaving others nursing injuries.
www.kenyans.co.ke
March 4, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Kenya: "Following recent aid freezes and budget cuts for humanitarian assistance... the impact on our country's ability to host refugees and asylum seekers which number over 800,000 people, has been sudden and severe," the CS [Cabinet Sec] noted."
www.kenyans.co.ke/news/109572-...
www.kenyans.co.ke/news/109572-...
Looks great. I'm gonna give it a read today!
March 4, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Looks great. I'm gonna give it a read today!
Reposted by Stefan Millar
We've got 5 days before paper abstracts are due for the Finnish Anthropological Society's Conference in June 2025 - Check out our and others' call for papers: blogs.helsinki.fi/fasconferenc...
January 10, 2025 at 6:17 PM
We've got 5 days before paper abstracts are due for the Finnish Anthropological Society's Conference in June 2025 - Check out our and others' call for papers: blogs.helsinki.fi/fasconferenc...
Reposted by Stefan Millar
The new edited volume “Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949”, co-edited by @andrekosvarnava.bsky.social, @yiannicart.bsky.social and myself, is out in April and now has a website/cover. Pre-order available soon!
brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com/display/titl...
Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949
"Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949" published on 24 Apr 2025 by Brill.
brill.com
January 6, 2025 at 9:49 AM
The new edited volume “Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949”, co-edited by @andrekosvarnava.bsky.social, @yiannicart.bsky.social and myself, is out in April and now has a website/cover. Pre-order available soon!
brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com/display/titl...
Reposted by Stefan Millar
Deadline for paper submissions extended to 20th Dec. Please consider submitting to our panel 'The flipside of disinformation in the Afropean: Information suppression in African autocracies and their diasporas' in the 'Politics and International Relations' stream.
guarant.eu/ecasconferen...
guarant.eu/ecasconferen...
Call for Papers - ECAS 2025
guarant.eu
December 13, 2024 at 2:36 PM
Deadline for paper submissions extended to 20th Dec. Please consider submitting to our panel 'The flipside of disinformation in the Afropean: Information suppression in African autocracies and their diasporas' in the 'Politics and International Relations' stream.
guarant.eu/ecasconferen...
guarant.eu/ecasconferen...
Reposted by Stefan Millar
The gold rush at the heart of a civil war: Famine and ethnic cleansing stalk Sudan. Yet the gold trade is booming, enriching generals and propelling the fight, reports The New York Times. Uganda is a key player…”a country widely seen as a major hub for smuggled African gold”…/A
The Gold Rush at the Heart of a Civil War
Famine and ethnic cleansing stalk Sudan. Yet the gold trade is booming, enriching generals and propelling the fight.
www.nytimes.com
December 13, 2024 at 5:41 PM
The gold rush at the heart of a civil war: Famine and ethnic cleansing stalk Sudan. Yet the gold trade is booming, enriching generals and propelling the fight, reports The New York Times. Uganda is a key player…”a country widely seen as a major hub for smuggled African gold”…/A
Last month, Majok Lam Thoan and I presented our ongoing collaborative paper 'Mimicry in the Migration Regime' at MacEwan University. We explore how #resettlement creates a neo #colonial relationship between refugees and the governing agencies.
Mimicry in the Migration Regime Urbanization, Resistance and Resettlement from Kakuma to Edmonton 20
YouTube video by Stefan Millar
youtu.be
December 13, 2024 at 4:56 PM
Last month, Majok Lam Thoan and I presented our ongoing collaborative paper 'Mimicry in the Migration Regime' at MacEwan University. We explore how #resettlement creates a neo #colonial relationship between refugees and the governing agencies.
Reposted by Stefan Millar
Here at the African Studies meeting we stopped by the Indiana University Press booth. Always so great to see your book for sale and hear people say good things about it!
December 13, 2024 at 12:17 AM
Here at the African Studies meeting we stopped by the Indiana University Press booth. Always so great to see your book for sale and hear people say good things about it!
After suppressing the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (1952–1960) British Military tactics and officers were brought "home" to suppress Irish Republican Army (1960 - 1998) in Northern Ireland. But Sakai notes, the brutality was less severe, but made cladestine.
www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/Op...
www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/Op...
December 5, 2024 at 4:23 PM
After suppressing the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (1952–1960) British Military tactics and officers were brought "home" to suppress Irish Republican Army (1960 - 1998) in Northern Ireland. But Sakai notes, the brutality was less severe, but made cladestine.
www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/Op...
www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/Op...
We invite papers that critically engage with these dynamics, to tease apart the paradox of comparison: how idealized imaginaries and lived realities are constructed and contested.
December 5, 2024 at 4:07 PM
We invite papers that critically engage with these dynamics, to tease apart the paradox of comparison: how idealized imaginaries and lived realities are constructed and contested.
This panel seeks to engage in a critical dialogue on the role of comparison in shaping our understanding of resettlement and integration.
December 5, 2024 at 4:07 PM
This panel seeks to engage in a critical dialogue on the role of comparison in shaping our understanding of resettlement and integration.
We explore the gap between the fantasies of resettlment and the everyday struggles of being resettlement that expose
the paradox of diversity (Bannerji 2016) where non-White newcomers are positioned as peripheral contributors to the imagined community of white multiculturalism (Hage 2000).
the paradox of diversity (Bannerji 2016) where non-White newcomers are positioned as peripheral contributors to the imagined community of white multiculturalism (Hage 2000).
December 5, 2024 at 4:06 PM
We explore the gap between the fantasies of resettlment and the everyday struggles of being resettlement that expose
the paradox of diversity (Bannerji 2016) where non-White newcomers are positioned as peripheral contributors to the imagined community of white multiculturalism (Hage 2000).
the paradox of diversity (Bannerji 2016) where non-White newcomers are positioned as peripheral contributors to the imagined community of white multiculturalism (Hage 2000).
@jennlong3.bsky.social and I have a panel at the next Finnish Anthropological Society’s conference titled: Imagining Resettlement: Disillusionment and the Paradox of Comparison. The call for papers closes on 15th January 2025. blogs.helsinki.fi/fasconferenc...
Call for Papers – COMPARISONS – Helsinki 2025
blogs.helsinki.fi
December 5, 2024 at 4:03 PM
@jennlong3.bsky.social and I have a panel at the next Finnish Anthropological Society’s conference titled: Imagining Resettlement: Disillusionment and the Paradox of Comparison. The call for papers closes on 15th January 2025. blogs.helsinki.fi/fasconferenc...