One of our first PhD students to graduate from the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law (CISRUL) in 2018, Dr Eve Hayes de Kalaf, recently began a new role as Lecturer in Humanities Training. She leads key aspects of Research Training across the School of Advanced Study with a focus on the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) and the School’s wider Short Course and Summer School portfolio.
This promotion follows numerous postdoctoral fellowships, research posts and prestigious awards, including the Principal’s Excellence Award (2015) and the Isabella Middleton Scholarship Fund (2016) from the University of Aberdeen, the David Nicholls Memorial Trust Award (2016) and the competitive Early Career Fellowship from the SAS Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (2019). Dr Hayes de Kalaf’s critically acclaimed monograph ‘Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner’ (2021) includes a Foreword by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and MacArthur Fellow Junot Díaz. Her PhD project ‘Making Foreign: Social Policy, Legal Identity and the Contours of Belonging’ was the first to provide an in-depth overview into the use of modern-day registration and biometric practices to actively strip individuals of their birthright citizenship in the Americas.
Dr Hayes de Kalaf’s academic work largely focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean. She is best known for her publications on citizenship, legal and digital identity and statelessness. An active member of CISRUL during her time at the University of Aberdeen, she will be returning on 18 February to lead a seminar on Globalising Digital Identity: Citizenship, Rights and ‘Statelessness-like’ Experiences. Drawing on examples from her research across the Caribbean, the talk will explore her concept of the ‘statelessness-like experience’ (2025) which considers how ‘people can experience exclusion in ways that do not fit comfortably within the legal parameters of citizenship deprivation, yet that can have an overwhelmingly detrimental impact on an individual’s wellbeing and legal personhood.’ This work builds on a recent keynote Dr Hayes de Kalaf presented at the 7th Privacy Symposium Africa, a premier platform for the most pressing issues in data protection and digital governance which brought together leading experts, regulators, policymakers, civil society actors, legal professionals, and industry leaders.
For more information about her work and publications, and to learn about more opportunities for research training and short courses at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, visit her SAS profile here.