Irene Manganini is a PhD candidate in International Law at the Graduate Institute of Geneva and will be a visiting researcher at ACMRL for six months. Next to her research, Irene works as a UNHCR-designated asylum adjudicator (first instance) in the Territorial Commission for the Recognition of International Protection of Milan. Before her current position, she worked in different capacities with IOM in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bangladesh and with UNHCR in Italy, as well as with human rights NGOs and grassroots activist groups working on migration issues.

Irene’s current work involves reaching on the application of queer legal theories to the international migration law framework. In particular, her work aims to analyse, in law and in practice, the encounter of queer migrants with the international migration law framework across two different case studies: asylum law and family reunification. The analysis has a dual purpose. Firstly, it seeks to assess whether there is any space for queer migrants within such frameworks and/or which of these could be seen as the best legal avenues for them to navigate the system; secondly, by comparing the findings, it aims to offer a reflection on what this space or lack thereof might say about the system itself from a queer perspective.

During her visit, Irene plans to focus on her asylum case study while also benefitting from the valuable insights that the ACMRL has to offer on family reunification as well as on international human rights law and critical theory.