Sverre Molland

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AsPr Sverre Molland

 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4510-1951
20052024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

I am an anthropologist specialising in the intersection of migration, aid, and security in mainland Southeast Asia, with over two decades of research and program experience related to human trafficking, development, and mobility in the Mekong region.

During my PhD fieldwork, I conducted research on migration and anti-trafficking interventions along the Lao-Thai border. Recently, my focus has shifted toward understanding the growing importance of “safe migration” as a governance approach in the Mekong region. My ongoing research compares anti-trafficking efforts, modern slavery initiatives, and safe migration aid modalities. Additionally, I collaborate with UN agencies and external partners through consultancies and commissioned research to advance academic understanding in this field.

Qualifications

PhD, Anthropology

Research Interests

My research examines the intersections between migration, development, and security from a comparative perspective. I specifically focus on governance regimes and intervention modalities in mainland Southeast Asia. There are four analytical domains of particular importance:

  1. Space-Governance Relations: How do spatial (and temporal) dimensions of migration policy come into being, and how do they affect interventions?
  2. Biolegitimacy: How does life legitimize interventions, and how is life legitimated within aid and migration discourses?
  3. Development Aid and Migration Governance Networks: What accounts for continuity and change within trans-institutional networks of aid and migration governance, and how can they be accounted for ethnographically?
  4. Intervention Modalities in a Comparative Perspective

Research student supervision

  • Registered to supervise
View all 40 research outputs