Kathrin Fischer is a PhD candidate in anthropology with a research focus in the field of international development and migration. She is based at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA) and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.

Her doctoral project on migration decision-making in Nepal compares different population groups in their access to migration channels. The project is particularly concerned with labour broker networks as well as the mechanisms and interdependency of influencing factors related to class, caste and kinship.

Prior to joining ISCA and COMPAS, Kathrin conducted ethnographic fieldwork on health decision-making in post-disaster Nepal, and on gender aspects of decentralisation and pasture-management projects in Kyrgyzstan. Her thesis on political participation of Kyrgyz pastoral women was awarded with the ‘Sustainability Award for Theses’ (University of Tübingen, Germany).

She is also member of the WHO Emergency Medical Team ‘FAST’ – an emergency response team of the German aid and welfare organisation Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund. Previous operations included disaster relief work in Haiti after Hurricane ‘Matthew’ (2016) and project monitoring and training of trainers in water-purification in Haiti (2017).

Link to BIO