Dr Marta Welander is a border and migration researcher, and a longstanding human rights advocacy professional. She led Refugee Rights Europe as its Executive Director for five years, spearheading advocacy and field research work in borderzones and camps across Europe from 2016-2021, which resulted in the publication of more than 40 research reports. Marta holds a PhD from the University of Westminster, awarded in 2021 based on an ethnographic account of the ‘border struggles’ associated with the UK-France borderzone in northern France. Marta moreover has a MA in Human Rights & Democratic Governance from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights (EIUC), and an MA in International Relations from King’s College London. Prior to that, she obtained a BA (Hons) in International Relations and Arabic from the University of Westminster. Marta currently works as an advocacy director at a large international humanitarian NGO and is a member of the Border Criminologies advisory board at Oxford University.