Rebecca Murray is the Project Manager for MIGREC and the University of Sheffield’s Migration Research Group (MRG). Rebecca is based in the Department of Sociological Studies where she is also a Research Associate on the ESRC project ‘Understanding the role of faith based organisations in anti-trafficking’. Both these roles build on Rebecca’s academic research and practice across the statutory and non-statutory sector focused on the marginalisation and precarity encountered by forced migrants. January 2019, Rebecca graduated from the University of Sheffield upon the successful completion of her ESRC-funded PhD in the field of Human Geography. Rebecca’s doctoral thesis entitled ‘Navigating the Higher Education Border: Routes to Belonging for Forced Migrant Students in the UK & Sweden’, is a comparative study exploring the role of universities in creating ‘routes to belonging’ for forced migrant students in the UK and Sweden. Rebecca continues her work in the field of forced migration and higher education as an honorary Research Associate at the University of Exeter. In 2016, Rebecca was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Winchester, and in 2019 an honorary doctorate from Keele University. From 2008 – 2018, Rebecca founded and acted as the Director of the Article 26 project, which worked in partnership with UK universities to create scholarships for forced migrant students. In addition to research and academic pursuits Rebecca has extensive experience of working in the statutory and third sector; she is a qualified Welfare Rights Office and spent over 10 years working with Save the Children where she specialised in research and advocacy initiatives with young people experiencing forced displacement and severe and persistent poverty.

Migration-related publications

• Lim, M., Murray, R., &Laera, A. (2019, Sep). Removing barriers for displaced academics. Angle Journal. Retrieved from http://anglejournal.com/article/2019-09-removing-barriers-for-displaced-academics/
• Murray, R. (2019). Mapping opportunities available for forced migrant students at UK universities: Sanctuary Scholarships, Article 26.
• Kobel, A., Adoniou, M., Murray, R. &Lyytinen, E. (2019). Between Camp and Campus: From access to completion of higher education as a form of refugee protection (Siirtolaisuus Migration).
• Murray, R. (2017). Widening access and the participation of forced migrants in Higher Education: translating practitioner experience into a theoretical framework. In “Being on the Margins” Exploring Intersections, eds. Corcoran, S. &Kavena, D., Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.