Dr. Nerges Azizi
Freie Universität Berlin
International Summer and Winter University
(FUBiS)
Dr. Nerges Azizi completed her PhD in Law at Birkbeck, University of London, and holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She currently works in the International Crimes and Accountability program at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and serves as Executive Director of the Afghanistan Research Hub at Humboldt University Berlin.
Previously, she worked as a legal advisor with the Border Justice program at ECCHR, as a Carlo Schmid Fellow at the Ethics Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, and as a lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin and Philipps-Universität Marburg, among others.
Current FUBiS courses:
- Europe, Migration, Refugees (FUBiS Term III 2026)
2020-2025 PhD in Law at Birkbeck, University of London (pass with no corrections)
2018-2019 MSc in Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Science (Distinction)
2014-2018 Double BA in Political and Social Sciences at Sciences Po Paris and Freie Universität Berlin (1,0 / Summa Cum Laude)
Summer 2024 Europe, Migration, Refuges
Freie Universität Berlin International Summer and Winter University
Winter 2023/24 Critical Perspectives on Refugee and Human Rights Law
Postgraduate, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Philipps Universität Marburg
Winter 2023/24 Contemporary Struggles against European Border Violence
Undergraduate and Postgraduate, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Philipps Universität Marburg
Spring 2023 Law, State Violence and Abolitionist Futures
Undergraduate and Postgraduate, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Philipps Universität Marburg
Winter 2022/23 Race, Law and Imagination, together with Anna Rahel Fischer
Undergraduate, Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin
In her research, she analyses the current conjuncture of migrants' rights struggles by focusing on the role of legal interventions against pushbacks in the Mediterranean. Beyond this, she writes on migrations from and deportations to Afghanistan. Her work engages with critical migration and border studies, political geography, feminist theory, Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and socio-legal methodologies.
Conferences/Presentations:
05/09/2025 Prefiguring Freedom of Movement: Requesting Interim Measures to Prevent Pushbacks, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
30/06/2025 From El Tarajal to the Melilla Massacre: Intentional Investigative Failures and the Denial of Legal Personhood at Borders together with Hanaa Hakiki, Vienna Centre for Migration and Law, Austria
23/09/2023 The Role of Families, Love and Kinship in Border Justice Contestations
Border Violence Symposium, Aegean University, Lesvos, Greece
18/07/2023 The Role of Families, Love and Kinship in Border Justice Contestations
Problematizing Migration Conference, University of Palermo, Italy
06/06/2023 Race, Law and the Repression of Movement across Space
Law and Society Association Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico
07/10/2022 Race, Law and Border Violence
UBEL Student Conference, London, UK
30/09/2022 Scales of Representation in Legal Interventions against European Border Violence
Fluchtforschungskonferenz in Jena, Germany
13/07/2022 Legal Interventions against European Border Violence
Law and Society Association Conference in Lisbon, Portugal
27/05/2022 Legal Interventions against European Border Violence
PGR Conference at Birkbeck, University of London, UK
26/05/2022 Racialisation in the context of Legal interventions against European Border Violence
Contemporary Processes of Racialisation, Seminar Series, Birkbeck Department of History, London
26/04/2022 Legal Interventions against European Border Violence
UCL, Bloomsbury and East London DTP’s Seminar Series, London, UK
24/02/2022 (Un)Recht an der Europäischen Außengrenze together with Vera Wriedt and Nassim Madjidian
Migration Law Moot. Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany
31/10/2021 Pushbacks: Jurisprudence, Critique and Transformation with Vera Wriedt
KritJur Konferenz in Hamburg, Deutschland
Azizi, Nerges, Atal, Mohjib Rahman; Salomon, Stefan (2021): Warum schutzbedürftige Afghaninnen einen Rechtsanspruch auf ein Einreisevisum gegenüber Deutschland haben. Verfassungsblog.https://verfassungsblog.de/warum-schutzbeduerftige-afghaninnen-einen-rechtsanspruch-auf-ein-einreisevisum-gegenueber-deutschland-haben/. DOI: 10.17176/20210822-112735-0
Azizi, Nerges (2021): Azadeh bedeutet Freiheit. Notausgang: Mapping the Journey of Spaces. Journal by Baerenzwinger Berlin. https://baerenzwinger.berlin/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/21-02-25_BarenzwingerBooklet_Notausgang_revised.pdf
Azizi, Nerges; Schmalz, Dana (2018): Advertising against Asylum. Thoughts about the ‘Rumours about Germany’ Campaign Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. https://www.mmg.mpg.de/27451/blog-azizi-schmalz-advertizing
Azizi, Nerges; Schmalz, Dana (2018): Werben gegen Asyl. Gedanken zur ‚Rumours about Germany‘ Kampagne. Fluchtforschungsblog. https://fluchtforschung.net/werben-gegen-asyl/