Background

Robin is a critical human geographer with interests that span social, cultural, urban, and political geographies.  To date, his research has four core strands:

1) Diaspora and its intersections with the urban.

2) Migration, asylum, and refuge.

3) Everyday urban multiculturalism, racism, and Islamophobia

4) Geographies of marginalised youth.

Robin is currently working on two projects about the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. He is Co-I on an ESRC funded project that is examining the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on asylum seekers and refugees, and he is the lead postdoc researcher on the project  ‘Refugee youth and Public Space’, which is funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA). This project is researching the personal urban geographies of young refugees and asylum seekers in four European cities, mapping their migration histories, exploring their post-arrival experiences, and asking how their place-making and artistic practices contribute to the transformation of urban public space.

Robin completed his PhD in early 2016, which was an examination of Moroccan diaspora formations in the city of Granada in southern Spain. He has worked as a researcher at LSE Cities on the ‘Super-diverse streets: Economies and spaces of urban migration in UK Cities’ project and as the lead researcher on the projects ‘Muslim Youth and Political Participation in Scotland’ and ‘Young People, Diversity and Belonging in a Brexit-Age’ at Newcastle University. He also has government and policy research experience, working as a quantitative researcher at the Migration and Borders Analysis team at the Home Office in London.

Qualifications

PhD Human Geography, Newcastle University, Passed May 2016 

MA Human Geography Research, Distinction, Newcastle University, 2012

MSc Cultural Tourism Development, Merit, Sunderland University, 2008

BA (Hons) Spanish and Tourism Studies, First Class Honours, Northumbria University, 2007

• Finlay R, Hopkins P, Kirndörfer E, Kox M, Huizinga R, De Backer M, Benwell MC, van Liempt I, Hörschelmann K, Felten P, Bastian JM, Bousetta H. Young refugees and public space. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2022.
• Finlay R, Hopkins P, Benwell MC. “It’s like rubbing salt on the wound”: the impacts of Covid-19 and lockdown on asylum seekers and refugees. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Newcastle University, 2021.
• Finlay R. Entangled histories of place and reconfigurations of diasporic home: Al-Andalus history and the Moroccan diaspora in Granada, Spain. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2021, epub ahead of print.
• Najib K, Finlay R. Religion. In: Authored by the The Newcastle Social Geographies Collective and edited by Rachel Pain and Peter Hopkins, ed. Social Geographies: An Introduction. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
• Hopkins P, Newcastle Social Geographies Collective, Pain R, Shaw R, Gao Q, Bonnett A, Jones C, Richardson M, Rzedzian S, Benwell MC, Lin W, McAreavey R, Stenning A, Blazek M, Pande R, Najib K, Finlay R, Nayak A, Ridley G, Mearns G, Bonner-Thompson C, McLaughlin J, Boussalem A, Iqbal N, Heslop J, Jarvis H, Burrows R, Bambra C, Copeland A, Tate S, Campbell E, Thompson M, James A, Raynor R, Cunningham N, Powells G, Herbert J, Hocknell S, ed. Social Geographies: An Introduction. London, UK: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021.
• Finlay R, Benwell MC, Hopkins P. Covid-19: Responding to the needs of asylum seekers in challenging and dangerous times. Discover Society, 2020. Available at: https://discoversociety.org/2020/04/24/covid-19-uk-responding-to-the-needs-of-asylum-seekers-in-challenging-and-dangerous-times/.
• Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell M, Hopkins P, Pande R, Richardson M. Growing up in Sunderland: young people, politics and place. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2020.
• Thompson M, Finlay R. Migration and Diaspora. In: Hopkins, P; Newcastle Social Geographies Collective, ed. Social Geographies: An introduction. London, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
• Finlay R, Hopkins P. Resistance and Marginalisation: Islamophobia and the Political Participation of Young Muslims in Scotland. Social and Cultural Geography 2020, 21(4), 546-568.
• Finlay R. A diasporic right to the city: the production of a Moroccan diaspora space in Granada, Spain. Social and Cultural Geography 2019, 20(6), 785-805.
• Burrell K, Hopkins P, Isakjee A, Lorne C, Nagel C, Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell MC, Pande R, Richardson M, Botterill K, Rogaly B. Brexit, race and migration. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 2019, 37(1), 3-40.
• Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell MC, Hopkins P, Pande R, and Richardson M. Race, place and young people in the age of Brexit. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 2019, 37(1), 17-23.
• Finlay R, Hopkins P. Young Muslim women's political participation in Scotland: Exploring the intersections of gender, religion, class and place. Political Geography 2019, 74, 102046.
• Finlay R, Hopkins P, Sanghera G. Muslim Youth and Political Participation in Scotland. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University and University of St Andrews, 2017.
• Bos D, Finlay R, Hopkins P, Lloyd J, Richardson M. Reflections on the ESRC internship scheme for postgraduates. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 2017, 41(1), 106-118.
• Hall S, Finlay R, Kng J. The Migrant Street. In: Burdett, R; Hall, S, ed. The SAGE Handbook of the 21st Century City. London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd, 2017, pp.464-477.
• Finlay R, Hopkins P, Sanghera G. Young Muslims’ political interests and political participations in Scotland. In: Hopkins, P, ed. Scotland's Muslims: Society, Politics and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, pp.78-97.
• Hall S, King J, Finlay R. Migrant infrastructure: Transaction economies in Birmingham and Leicester, UK. Urban Studies 2016, 54(6), 1311-1327.
• Hall S, King J, Finlay R. City Street Data Profile on Ethnicity, Economy and Migration. Rookery Road, Birmingham. London: LSE, 2015. ESRC Report.
• Hall S, King J, Finlay R. City street data profile on ethnicity, economy and migration: Stapleton Road, Bristol. London: LSE, 2015. ESRC Report.
• Hall S, King J, Finlay R. Envisioning Migration: Drawing the Infrastructure of Stapleton Road, Bristol. New Diversities 2015, 17(2), 59-72.
• Finlay R. Narratives of Belonging: The Moroccan Diaspora in Granada, Spain. In: Christou, A; Mavroudi, E, ed. Dismantling Diasporas: Rethinking the geographies of diasporic identity, connection and development. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2015.