Khadija Abbasi holds a BA in English Persian translation from Tehran’s Islamic Azad University and a MSc in Gender and Development from the London School of Economics. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Anthropology and Sociology department of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Khadija’s research is an auto-ethnographic account of her refugeehood as well as her community (Hazaras of Afghanistan) in Iran, Afghanistan and the UK. She has worked for various local and international NGOs in Iran, Afghanistan and Britain.
In a joint research project (the Graduate Institute, University of Zurich and Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology) on Uzbek communities in Central Asia, Khadija conducted field research among Uzbeks of Mazar-e Sharif (Northern Afghanistan), focusing on their interethnic relations. In collaboration with Alessandro Monsutti, she was involved in research for the University of Oxford on becoming an adult during migration, focusing on young Afghans and their experience of mobility and adulthood. Two papers are forthcoming based on the two previously mentioned research projects. Khadija has also published a chapter, Young Afghanistani Refugees in Iran: Professional Training, Work and Perspectives, in the volume Afghanistan: Identity, Society and Politics since 1980 edited by Micheline Centlivres-Demont.