Staff Profile

I am currently an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in human geography. My research explores the intersections between bureaucracy and violence, focusing in particular on the sites and practices which constitute Britain's border control systems. 

Prior to this position, I was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Bristol (2021) working on an ESRC-funded project, "Hidden Narratives of Organised Crime in West Africa". I also spent 12 months living and working in Addis Ababa as a research consultant and communications manager for a research design consultancy, for which I conducted research in post-conflict and displaced communities across East Africa for government and non-government agencies (UNHCR, Mercy Corps, Samaritan's Purse). I have a background in documentary film and spent three years working for Mosaic Films, a leading documentary film company in London. 

I studied my PhD in human geography at the University of Exeter (2015-2020). I studied my MA in anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London (2010-2012). 

My current research project is called 'Reimagining Violence: bureaucracy, destitution and imminent force in the UK asylum system'. I examine the key bureaucratic sites and practices which constitute the UK asylum system, including the mandatory requirement of regularly reporting to the Home Office. I engage with feminist theories of violence and resistance to consider how these spaces operate, and the modes of resistance made possible within these sites. I am interested in participatory methodologies and in using creative, novel approaches to communicating research. 

• Dele-Adedeji I, Schmid-Scott A, Klantschnig G. ‘We have nothing left’ - the catastrophic consequences of criminalising livelihoods in west Africa. https://theconversation.com/we-have-nothing-left-the-catastrophic-consequences-of-criminalising-livelihoods-in-west-africa-157454: The Conversation, 2021. Available at: https://theconversation.com/we-have-nothing-left-the-catastrophic-consequences-of-criminalising-livelihoods-in-west-africa-157454.
• Schmid-Scott A, Marshall E, Gill N, Bagelman J. Rural Geographies of Refugee Activism: The expanding spaces of sanctuary in the UK. Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales 2020, 36(2&3), 137-160.
• Schmid-Scott A. Book Review: Victoria Canning, Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System. Theoretical Criminology 2018, 22(1), 138-141.
• Gill N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Hambly J, Hynes J, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R, Schmid-Scott A. Experiencing Asylum Appeal Hearings: 34 Ways to Improve Access to Justice at the First-tier Tribunal. London: Public Law Project, 2020. Public Law Project research paper.