Karen Akoka

Karen Akoka is an Associate Professor in Political Science at Paris-Ouest-Nanterre University. 

She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Poitiers. She is a researcher at the Institut des Sciences Sociales du Politique (ISP). Her research interests include the implementation of refugee laws and policies from a socio-historical perspective. It focuses on the daily practices as well as on the trajectories and the social properties of the administrative agents in charge of implementation. She studied more specifically the French administration dealing with refugee protection (Ofpra : Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et des Apatrides) since its creation in 1952 till the beginning of the 1990’s.  She highlighted the weight of foreign affairs, ideological and diplomatic considerations of State as well as the recruitment logic pursued by the institution, in the decision to grant or not refugee status during that period.

Her research interests also include the study of asylum and immigration policies in other national contexts especially in Cyprus and Israël. Her research has appeared in journals and in the proceedings of major academic conferences. Her publications include in particular : « Pour une histoire sociale de l’asile politique en France » in Pouvoirs n°144, 2013 (with Alexis Spire) ; « Régime de confinement et gestion des migrations sur l’île de Chypre » in L’espace politique n°25, 2015 (with Olivier Clochard), and « La demande d’asile en Israël » in Cambrezy L., et al. (ed.),  L’asile au Sud, La Dispute, 2008.