LISA ANN SENECAL
RESEARCH PROFILE
Anthropologist of migration and European governance specializing in the EU regime of borders, noncitizenship and stratified mobility across the Mediterranean. My work integrates ethnography, legal and discourse analysis alongside multimodal methodologies, including counter-mapping and soundscape research, to examine how bordering practices structure racialized inequality and privilege through differential regimes of mobility, recognition and belonging.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
International migration and European governance; the EU regime of borders; stratified mobility and the production of “gradients of Europe”; race, class and noncitizenship; border ethnography and Mediterranean borderlands within the EU-Africa continuum; mobility justice; critical cartography and multimodal methodologies for the production and public communication of knowledge.
EDUCATION
PhD, Migrations (Anthropology), Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon
Dissertation: Counter-mapping Malta: A study of the regime of borders through structures and noncitizen subjectivities. Passed with distinction, February 2026
MA, International Law and Human Rights, The United Nations Mandated University for Peace, 2016
MS, Education (Teaching Students with Disabilities), with honors, City College of New York, 2007
BA, Philosophy, cum laude, Tufts University, 2004
PUBLICATIONS & MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION
Border Multiplicity: Reconceptualizing the EU Regime of Borders. Article manuscript (under revision for journal submission). Submission planned May 2026. Target journal: Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space.
Deathnography and Border Deaths in Malta. Article manuscript advancing a methodological framework for tracing border deaths within the EU regime of borders and interrogating the epistemological limits of representing absence and noncitizen subjectivity. Submission planned Autumn 2026.
Counter-mapping Malta. Book project in development based on doctoral research examining institutional bordering practices and multimodal methodologies to analyze how the EU regime of borders structures racialized mobility, stratification and belonging in Malta, the Mediterranean and Europe.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) PhD Scholarship, 2021–2024
Thanatic Ethics Fieldwork Travel Grant, Education University of Hong Kong, 2022
Fulbright U.S. Student Program, English Teaching Assistantship, Malta, 2010–2011
New York City Teaching Fellowship, 2005–2007
SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Forthcoming Conference Presentations
Towards a theory of the multiplicity of borders. Migration, Mobilities, and Environments Conference, Loyola University Chicago’s Rome campus, May 2026
Towards a theory of the multiplicity of borders. On the move: Diasporas, Mobilities and Transcultural Practices in a Changing World, Centre for the Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, April 2026
Selected Past Conference Presentations
Nothing different: On narratives and the multiplicity of borders. Thanatic Ethics Conference, American College of the Mediterranean, October 2025
Borders and categorizations: Who are migrants? Neuchâtel Graduate Conference on Migration and Mobility Studies, July 2024
Border multiplicity. Maastricht Centre for European Law, Maastricht University, June 2024
Notes from aboveground: A deathnography. Ethnography and Qualitative Research International Conference, University of Trento, June 2023
Mapping Malta: A study of the regime of borders through structures and noncitizen subjectivities. Three Minute Thesis Final Competition, University of Lisbon, May 2023
Notes from Aboveground: A Deathnography. Presentation as fulfilment of the receipt of the Thanatic Ethics Travel Grant, online. February 2023
Mapping Malta’s Regime of Borders Through Deathnography. Thanatic Ethics Conference, Maison Française of Oxford, April 2022
‘Deathnography’: An approach to circumvent the challenges of tracing migrating subjects after death. Law and Migration: Critical Discussions on Epistemology seminar series, Ecole de droit de Sciences Po, December 2021
The “problem-space” of migration: What border spaces, the regime of borders and bordering practices reveal about this transforming space. ULisboa-UMass Amherst Joint Seminar, December 2021
Mobile Privilege, Mobile Inequality: The Maltese Context. IMISCOE Annual Conference, Online, July 2021
Digital Aspects of the Regime of Borders: Driving Deterrence, Identification and Death in the Central Mediterranean. ESA Midterm Conference, online. Technical University Berlin, January 2021
INVITED SPEAKER
The experiential border: Where (what and who) are borders? Paper presentation,cies_iscte, Meetings on Migratory Experiences series, May 2025
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Ethnographic Fieldwork, Malta (2021-2023) Conducted multi-sited patchwork ethnography across four research visits including extensive qualitative interviews, participant observation, discourse analysis of legal and policy documents and multimodal data collection and outputs (counter-mapping and soundscape research). Ethnography included research and interviews with migrants, civil society actors and state officials including representatives of the Armed Forces of Malta, Identity Malta, Community Malta and the Office of the Police Commissioner.
UNIVERSITY TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Teaching Assistant, School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC), Cardiff University, 2019. Led undergraduate seminars for Representations (Cultural Studies, UG level).
Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, University of Malta, 2010–2011. Designed and delivered university-level writing and language instruction.
ACADEMIC SERVICE & INSTITUTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
Conference and Event Organization
Panel Organizer (proposal under review), Thanatic Ethics Conference, October 2026
Supported organization, International Migrant’s Day, Museum of Science and Natural History, Lisbon, December 2025
Supported organization, Movements: Revolution, Circulation and Borders, Exhibit, Museum of Science and Natural History, Lisbon, September 2025
Supported organization, Science Night, Museum of Science and Natural History, Lisbon, September 2024 and September 2025
Supported organization, Doctoral Workshop, ICS-ULisboa, November 2023
Editorial and Communications Contributions
Editorial and digital support, ICS-ULisboa Migrations Hub, 2021-2022
ADVANCED RESEARCH TRAINING
EuroMedMig Summer School: Mediterranean Migration Studies – Theoretical and Empirical Research Agenda (Competitive selection), June-July 2021. Presented doctoral research and participated in thematic workshops o Mediterranean migration governance.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND MULTIMODAL RESEARCH
Essay contributor, ICS-ULisboa Migrations Hub, 2022
Development of multimodal research outputs including counter-mapping projects and research-based soundscape
Finalist, University of Lisbon Three Minute Thesis Competition, 2023
deconstructing b/orders. 