Marcia Vera-Espinoza
Dr Marcia Vera-Espinoza is a Reader within the Institute for Global Health and Development Division at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. She is Principal Investigator on the Migration, Integration and Social Connections Project.
Marcia is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose main areas of specialisation sit at the intersection of development, political and social geography. Her work is at the forefront of migration and refugee research in Latin America, focusing on the study of inclusion of refugee and migrant populations and migration governance in the region. Marcia, alongside colleagues of the Migration and Social Connection Team, is conducting research on the impacts of social connections in refugees’ experiences of integration in Scotland, and beyond. Marcia leads the Psychosocial Wellbeing, Integration and Protection Cluster at the IGHD.
Before joining Queen Margaret University in 2021, Dr Vera Espinoza was a Lecturer in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London and an associate researcher in the ERC funded project ´Prospects for International Migration Governance´ (MIGPROSP) at the University of Sheffield.
Marcia has an undergraduate degree in social communication from Universidad de Chile (Chile), a MA in International Studies and a PhD in Human Geography from the University Sheffield. Marcia is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Marcia has recently been awarded a place on the Scottish Crucible 2022, an award-winning leadership and development programme.
Marcia is also a Researcher and co-funder member of Comparative Analysis in International Migration and Displacement in the Americas (CAMINAR).
Her research interests are in international and regional migration governance, refugee and migrant integration and wellbeing (in Scotland and across regions), refugee resettlement, immigration policies and responses to ‘crisis’ in Latin America, and refugee and migrant organisation and resistance.