Lecturer and Programme Leader
Division: Institute for Global Health and Development
Dr Arek Dakessian is a Lecturer and Programme Leader in the Institute for Global Health and Development (IGHD).
- Overview
- Research Interests
- Research Publications
- Funded Projects
Arek Dakessian is the Programme Lead of the IGHD’s in-person MSc programmes. He is a Research Fellow with a background in Sociology and research interests revolving around political alterity, such as refugeedom, and the entwining of the aesthetic and the political. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and convenes the postgraduate module “Forced Displacement and Integration".
Research Overview: Arek’s research at the IGHD revolves around refugeedom and integration. Specifically, he is part of a team that investigates the role of social relationships and social connectedness in enabling integration, both from the perspective of host and displaced communities.
Active research interests:Â Refugeedom; displacement; race and racialization; cultural production; material culture; social network analysis.
Research Methods: Ethnography; Social Network Analytic techniques; arts-based research.
Current projects
Refugee health care, integration and resilience
This project is examining evidence from global evidence and six country case studies to draw lessons on whether and how to integrate refugee health care into national health systems. This work was commissioned by UNHCR and feeds into important global debates on management of forcibly displaced populations.
More about The Health System Resilience, Enhancement and Refugee Response Project.
Past projects
Family Reunion Integration Service
This research project focusses on the reunion of 900 families who have come to the UK as refugees. This national project will work in eight locations across all four countries within the UK to see how this group of people can be supported to access health, education, housing and welfare services.
The research carried out at Queen Margaret University will develop an innovative app to study how the social connections within, between and outside this group affect integration into the host country.
This project is a partnership with the British Red Cross and Barnardo’s. This project is part funded by the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. Making management of migration flows more efficient across the European Union.
