Deena Dajani

Deena’s research focuses on:

• Exploring the connections between water and migration, with a current emphasis on how displaced people experience drought in the cities where they settle, and how this shapes their social, civic, and political relationships
• Developing creative and participatory methodologies to better understand and document the lived experiences of refugees in urban settings, including community-led data initiatives and community filmmaking, and
• Supporting colleagues in advancing knowledge about refugee wellbeing and creating tools to capture the priorities of refugees living in protracted urban situations.

Her research portfolio includes:

• Principal investigator on the British Academy-funded project ‘Drought in displacement: generating evidence to inform responses to urban drought that are inclusive of displaced people’ (2024-26)
• Project lead on the Open Society grant ‘Data justice for refugees’ (2022-24)
• Co-investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project ‘Living in difference and in common: urban refugees and convivial cultures in Kenya' (2021-24), and
• Co-investigator on the British Academy project ‘Rethinking humanitarian aid for refugees as investment in urban water and sanitation’ (2021-24).