Shreya Bhat

Shreya Bhat is a Research Fellow at the University of Vienna's Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, working under the supervision of Dr. Monika Palmberger. She is also a PhD candidate in Comparative Gender Studies at Central European University (CEU), enrolled since 2019.

• Education:
  • Bachelor of Arts in Sociology
  • Master of Arts in Development Studies
  • Master of Arts in Critical Gender Studies

Her research focuses on the financial lives of West African migrants in Sicily, exploring remittance practices, engagement in formal and informal economies, and care obligations toward non-migrant family members. She integrates qualitative methods from anthropology, gender studies, and migration research, emphasizing the influence of religious institutions on migrant economic behaviors. Her work extends to migration governance along the Central Mediterranean Route and irregular migration dynamics.

Outside academia, Shreya has over six years of experience addressing migrant, refugee, and asylum seeker issues with organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), and Migration Policy Institute (MPI) across Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Asia-Pacific regions.