Claudia María Serrano
Geography and Methods
Thematic Research Area
Student Group
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About
Claudia M. Serrano is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of British Columbia. She is currently a graduate affiliate at UBC’s Centre for Migration Studies (CMS) and was a CMS Graduate Fellow as part of the inaugural cohort from 2022-2023. She currently serves as a Graduate Student Representative on the CMS’s Executive Committee and has worked as a Graduate Research Assistant on several of the Centre’s projects.
Her doctoral research, supervised by Dr. Antje Ellermann, examines the effects of border control on the safety of migrant communities seeking to enter the United States and Australia. Specifically, Claudia employs a critical border perspective to understand and highlight the lived experiences of people on the move and local service providers, as experts of their own realities. Her previous research has explored the impact of the 2018 Salvini Decree on the safety of migrant communities in Italy, as well as the consequences of the criminalization of non-state Search and Rescue (SAR) operations in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Claudia holds a Master’s in Political Science (2021), a Bachelor’s in International Studies (2019), and a Certificate in Psychology (2013) from the Université de Montréal.
Awards
Dean of Arts Graduate Student Research Award (2025-2026)
UBC President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (2021-2025)
UBC Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship (2021-2025)
SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral program (2021-2024)
UBC Centre for Migration Studies Graduate Fellowship (2022-2023)
SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s program (2020-2021)