Staff Profile

I joined Newcastle University in July 2020 as a Lecturer in International Politics of Gender, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2024. I am a researcher of humanitarianism in 'the Middle East.' My research focuses on questions of gender (particularly men and masculinities) refugee recognition, vulnerability, labour market integration, and race and racism in humanitarianism. My work sits at the intersections of feminist international politics, Middle East politics, and refugee and humanitarian studies.

My research has been published in numerous peer review journals including Development and Change, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Middle East Critique, and Review of International Studies, and has been awarded prizes by multiple professional associations, including the British International Studies Association, the Political Studies Association, and the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section of the International Studies Association.

I am the Co-Vice President (2024-2027) of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) and Chair of the Society's Committee on Academic Freedom. I am also an Independent Fellow at the Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration, and an Affiliated Researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute.

Between 2018 and 2020, I was a Senior Researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute at the University of Freiburg and a Teaching Fellow at University College Freiburg. I received my PhD in Politics and International Relations from SOAS University of London in 2018.

Follow the links for my Google Scholar profile and Academia.edu page. I tweet at @lewiseturner. My pronouns are he/him.

My research focuses on humanitarianism in 'the Middle East.' It explores questions of gender (particularly men and masculinities), vulnerability, encampment, refugee recognition, labour market integration, and race and racism within humanitarian work. I aim to offer critical, feminist perspectives on underexplored aspects of humanitarianism,

My work has been published in multiple leading peer review journals within the fields of Middle East politics, International Relations, and feminist international politics. I have published articles on refugee encampment in Mediterranean Politics, the Jordan Compact in Development and Change and Middle East Critique, the Jordanian refugee recognition regime in Journal of Refugee Studies, refugee men's position in humanitarianism in International Feminist Journal of Politics, the politics of vulnerability in humanitarian work in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, the racial politics of portrayals of refugee entrepreneurs in Review of International Studies, and sexual violence against men in Journal of Humanitarian Affairs. I have written in-depth reports on asylum governance in Jordan, and my work has also appeared in multiple edited volumes, in which I have written about encampment as a tool of migration governance, and EU policy towards Jordan in the context of its Pact on Migration and Asylum.

I have also written shorter articles in Forced Migration Review and Civil Society Review, published in both English and Arabic, on refugee resettlement (English Arabic), the Jordan Compact (English Arabic) and humanitarianism and masculinities (English and Arabic). I have furthermore written numerous shorter essays, blog posts, and media pieces, including for The Middle East Institute, The LSE Middle East Centre, and Al Jazeera.

My PhD thesis, which was completed at SOAS University of London, was awarded the 2019 Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize by the British International Studies Association, the Shirin M Rai Prize in International Relations by the Political Studies Association, and was joint runner-up in the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies' Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize. It gave an ethnographic account of the governance of refugee men in Za'tari Refugee Camp in Jordan, and was funded by an ESRC Doctoral Studentship.

I am currently working on a book manuscript on the masculinities of humanitarianism, and from 2019-2024 have been undertaking work as part of EU Horizon2020 Project ASILE, which studies the interactions between emerging international protection systems and the United Nations Global Compact for Refugees (UN GCR).

At Newcastle Politics I am the Module Leader for the third-year module POL3128: Gender and Sexuality Politics in the Middle East. This year (24/25) I will also be contributing to the undergraduate module Politics of Race (POL2114) and to postgraduate modules Thinking About Politics (POL8041) and Global Sex Global Race (SOC8070), and will be supervising undergraduate dissertations (POL3046). In previous years at Newcastle I have taught Middle East politics and international politics (POL1032, POL2012, and POL2078), as well as supervised undergraduate projects (POL3119).

I am very happy to hear from prospective PhD students who may be interested in undertaking a PhD under my supervision, particularly in the fields of humanitarianism, gender, sexuality, race, and refugee studies, and/or projects with a relevant focus on the Middle East (especially Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon).

Prior to arriving at Newcastle, at SOAS University of London I taught on courses including International Politics of Human Rights, Introduction to International Relations, and Government and Politics of the Middle East. At the University of Freiburg, I designed and convened a new course entitled Critical International Relations: Feminist, Postcolonial and Indigenous Perspectives. I have also supervised undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on diverse topics including volunteer humanitarianism in Calais, human rights work in Palestine, decolonial approaches to development, authoritarianism in Turkey, and refugee politics in Lebanon.

In November 2023, I was awarded a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

• Articles

  • Lenner K, Turner L. The Jordan Compact, Refugee Labour and the Limits of Indicator-oriented Formalization. Development and Change 2024, 55(2), 302-330.
  • Turner L. Defining, operationalising and translating 'vulnerability' in humanitarian work in Jordan. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2025, 51(7), 1647-1666.
  • Lenner K, Turner L. Beyond indicators: Lessons from financing the Jordan Compact. Forced Migration Review 2024, 74, 27-30.
  • Turner L. Who is a Refugee in Jordan? Hierarchies and Exclusions in the Refugee Recognition Regime. Journal of Refugee Studies 2023, 36(4), 877-896.
  • Hagen JJ, Michelis I, Eggert JP, Turner L. Learning to say ‘no’: privilege, entitlement and refusal in peace, (post)conflict and security research. Critical Studies on Security 2023, 11(2), 126-144.
  • Turner L. The Politics of Labeling Refugee Men as “Vulnerable”. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 2021, 28(1), 1-23.
  • Turner L. Syrian Refugee Men in Za‘tari Camp: Humanitarianism, Masculinities, and “Vulnerabilities”. Civil Society Review 2020, 1(4), 48-59.
  • Touquet H, Chynoweth S, Martin S, Reis C, Myrttinen H, Schulz P, Turner L, Duriesmith D. From “It rarely happens” to “It’s worse for men”: Dispelling misconceptions about sexual violence against men and boys in conflict and displacement. Journal of Humanitarian Affairs 2020, 2(3), 25-34.
  • Turner L. '#Refugees can be entrepreneurs too!’ Humanitarianism, race, and the marketing of Syrian refugees. Review of International Studies 2020, 46(1), 137-155.
  • Turner L. Syrian Refugee Men as Objects of Humanitarian Care. International Feminist Journal of Politics 2019, 21(4), 595-616.
  • Lenner K, Turner L. Making Refugees Work? The Politics of Integrating Syrian Refugees into the Labor Market in Jordan. Middle East Critique 2019, 28(1), 65-95.
  • Lenner K, Turner L. Learning from the Jordan Compact. Forced Migration Review 2018, 57, 48-51.
  • Turner L. Who will resettle single Syrian men?. Forced Migration Review 2017, 54, 29-31.
  • Turner L. On encampment and gendered vulnerabilities: A critical analysis of the UK’s vulnerable persons relocation scheme for Syrian refugees. Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration 2015, 5(2), 21-25.
  • Turner L. Explaining the (Non-)Encampment of Syrian Refugees: Security, Class and the Labour Market in Lebanon and Jordan. Mediterranean Politics 2015, 20(3), 386-404.

• Book Chapters

  • Hossain S, Turner L. Precarious lives: Status, vulnerability and the right to work for protection seekers in Bangladesh and Jordan. In: Sergio Carrera, Eleni Karageorgiou, Gamze Ovacik and Nikolas Feith Tan, ed. Global Asylum Governance and the European Union's Role: Rights and Responsibility in the Implementation of the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees. Cham: Springer, 2024, pp.81-96.
  • Pallister-Wilkins P, Brankamp H, Pascucci E, Richey LA, Smith J, Turner L, Aloudat T, Plowright W. Humanitarian Futures. In: Mitchell, K; Pallister-Wilkins, P, ed. The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Philanthropy and Humanitarianism. London: Routledge, 2023, pp.292-304.
  • Turner L. Internal Solidarity, External Migration Management: The EU Pact and Migration Policy Towards Jordan. In: Carrera, S; Geddes, A, ed. The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum in Light of the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees: International Experiences on Containment and Mobility and their Impacts on Trust and Rights. Florence: European University Institute, 2021, pp.195-204.
  • Turner L. Governing, Experiencing and Contesting Camps and Encampment. In: Carmel, E; Lenner, K; Paul, R, ed. Handbook of Governance and Politics of Migration. Edward Elgar, 2021, pp.279-290.

• Online Publications

  • Fawaz A, Lenner K, Sadder I, Shehada R, Turner L. Sky-high fees with few benefits: What’s wrong with social security for Syrians in Jordan. Geneva: The New Humanitarian, 2024. Available at: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2024/09/05/sky-high-fees-few-benefits-whats-wrong-social-security-syrians-jordan.
  • Gordon N, Turner L. Academics have a duty to help stop the 'educide' in Gaza. University World News, 2024. Available at: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20240227095745252.
  • Janmyr M, Hossain MS, Turner L. Give Refugees Access to the Agreements that Govern Them. Border Criminologies Blog, 2023. Available at: https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/blog-post/2023/04/give-refugees-access-agreements-govern-them.
  • Lenner K, Turner L. Governing Displacement in the Middle East: From Vulnerability to Resilience?. Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution, 2021. Available at: https://soas.lau.edu.lb/files/Governing-Displacement-Middle-East.pdf.
  • Turner L. Are Syrian men vulnerable too? Gendering the Syria refugee response. Middle East Institute, 2016. Available at: https://www.mei.edu/publications/are-syrian-men-vulnerable-too-gendering-syria-refugee-response.

• Reports

  • Hossain MS, Turner L. Status, Vulnerability and the Right to Work in Bangladesh and Jordan. ASILE, 2023.
  • Turner L. Final Country Report: Jordan. Brussels, Belgium: ASILE Project, 2023. ASILE Project.
  • Turner L. Interim Country Report: Jordan. ASILE Project, 2022.

• Review

  • Turner L. The Clothesline Swing. By Danny Ramadan. Journal of Refugee Studies 2022, 35(1), 731-733.

• Working Papers

  • Qumri S, Turner L. Refugee Recognition Regime Country Profile: Jordan. RefMig Working Paper Series 2023, No. 4, 68.
  • Costello C, Hossain MS, Janmyr M, Johnsen M, Turner L. Refugee Recognition and Resettlement. ASILE Working Paper 2022, 73.