Ahlam Chemlali

Ahlam Chemlali is a Research Fellow at Aalborg University's Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, specifically within the Department of Politics and Society. She is affiliated with the Global Politics & Diversity Centre for the study of coercion and accountability and teaches at Global Refugee Studies (GRS) with a focus on borders, transit, violence, and gender.

Her research explores the politics and practices of border violence in European migration politics, emphasizing how externalization of EU border control to North Africa generates everyday violence affecting gendered experiences. She conducts unique ethnographic studies on West African migrant women in Tunisian and Libyan borderlands.

• Projects: Leads 'Everyday Violence in the Borderlands' and contributes to 'Unpacking Confined Lives' (2025–2029) and 'Women on the Move' (2019–2022).
• Geographic Focus: North Africa (Tunisia, Libya), EU Southern Borders, West Africa.
• Methodology: Ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative analysis, policy critique.

Her recent publications in journals like Geopolitics and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies analyze topics such as felt externalisation, gendered stuckness, and EU borderland practices. She received the EliteForsk Rejsestipendie (2023) and has contributed to 62 press/media appearances critiquing EU migration policies.

Chemlali engages in public talks, workshops, and consultancy, emphasizing the human cost of EU policies in North Africa and advocating for systemic change in migration management.