Janna Wessels

Janna Wessels is a tenured Associate Professor at the Amsterdam Center for Migration and Refugee Law, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is also affiliated with the Kooijmans Institute and holds leadership roles in major research projects funded by NWO and DFG. Previously, she served as a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at Justus Liebig University Giessen and as a Research Associate at the University of Technology Sydney.

• PhD in Refugee Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam & University of Technology Sydney
• Master of Science in Forced Migration, University of Oxford
• Diplôme de Sciences Po Lille & Diploma in Social Sciences, University of Münster

Her research focuses on the intersection of human rights and migration law, particularly how states use human rights language to justify migration control. She employs legal doctrine, empirical research, and feminist/queer theory. Her recent work critically examines jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights and doctrinal debates in refugee law, especially concerning discretion in sexuality-based asylum claims.

Her recent publications, including articles in European Journal of Migration and Law and Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, reveal a strong trend toward analyzing legal discourse, gender-based harms, and the strategic framing of human rights in migration governance. She has also published a monograph with Cambridge University Press on the concealment controversy in refugee protection.

• Quentin Bryce Law Doctoral Scholarship
• International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS)
• Toenissteiner Prize (2013, 2015)
• Fellow, Young Policy Network on Migration (YPNM)
• Hölderlin Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

Janna Wessels supervises Master’s theses in the International Migration and Refugee Law track and teaches courses such as Fundamental Rights in Europe and the Migration Law Clinic. She is Principal Investigator on two major grants: an NWO Veni project on 'Countering human rights from within' and a DFG-funded project on empowerment before the Strasbourg Court. She is also a co-founder of the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Refugee Law.

She leads the ACMRL Migration Law Series and is an active member of several academic networks, including the MeDiMi research group on human rights discourse in migration societies. Her public engagement includes media contributions and expert commentary on EU migration law.