Janna Wessels

Janna Wessels is a tenured Associate Professor at the Amsterdam Center for Migration and Refugee Law (ACMRL), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She previously held roles as Assistant Professor (2020-2021) and was a Lecturer/Postdoctoral Researcher at Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany). Her research focuses on the intersection of human rights and migration law, employing legal doctrine, qualitative methods, and critical theory. Key projects include the NWO Veni-funded 'Countering human rights from within' (2022-2026) and a DFG-funded study on migrants and states before the European Court of Human Rights.

Education:

• PhD in Refugee Law (joint degree: University of Technology Sydney & VU Amsterdam)
• MSc in Forced Migration (Oxford University)
• Masters in Social Sciences (University of Münster) and European Studies (Sciences Po Lille)

Research Interests: She examines state migration control strategies within human rights frameworks, legal discourse shaping jurisprudence, and gender-related harms in refugee law. Her work integrates feminist/queer theory with doctrinal analysis.

Awards:

• Veni grant (NWO), DFG grant, Toenissteiner Preis (2013/2015)
• Multiple scholarships including Quentin Bryce, Hölderlin, and Fulbright

Teaching & Leadership: Teaches courses on migration law, refugee rights, and European fundamental rights. Supervises master's theses and co-leads the ACMRL Migration Law Series. Serves on editorial boards of the International Journal of Refugee Law and Fluchtforschungsblog.

Labs/Teams: Co-founder of the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration (OxMo) and leads interdisciplinary projects in the MeDiMi research group on human rights discourses in migration societies.