FFVT

J. Olaf Kleist

J. Olaf Kleist

Political scientist specializing in research on democracy promotion, evaluation as well as forced migration and refugee politics.

Key expertise
  • refugee and forced migration studies
  • refugee policy
  • refugee politics
Current affiliation
  • DeZIM Institute – German Centre for Integration and Migration Research
Regional expertise
  • Western Europe

Professional career

Olaf Kleist received his PhD in 2012 from Freie Universität Berlin, after research stays in Melbourne and Oxford, with a thesis on the relationship between migration and memory politics using the example of Australia. He worked as a postdoc at IMIS, University of Osnabrück and for two years as a DFG Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford before returning to IMIS, where he coordinated a BMBF-funded collaborative project on the state of refugee studies in Germany. He joined DeZIM in 2018 and is co-head of Fachgruppe Demokratieförderung und demokratische Praxis since 2020.

Profile according to FFVT taxonomy

Scientific topics
  • National Refugee And Asylum Policies
Research fields
  • Migration Research

Relevant publications

  • Scharrer, T., Glorius, B., Kleist, J. O., Berlinghoff, M. (eds.) (2023). Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung: Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
  • Kleist, J. O., Dermitzaki, D., Oghalai, B., Zajak, S. (eds.) (2022). Gewaltschutz in Geflüchtetenunterkünften: Theorie, Empirie und Praxis. Kultur und soziale Praxis. Bielefeld: transcript.
  • Kleist, J. O. (2022). Beyond the Crisis Mode of the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement: Towards Sustainable Rights-based EU Asylum and Refugee Policies. Thessaloniki: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Thessaloniki.
  • Kleist, J. O. (2018). The Refugee Regime: Belonging, Sovereignty, and the Political of Forced Migration. In: Pott, A., Rass, C., Wolff, F. (eds.): Was ist ein Migrationsregime? What is a Migration Regime? Migrationsgesellschaften, 2018, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 167-185.
  • Kleist, J. O. (2018). Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung in Deutschland: Akteure, Themen und Strukturen, mit einem Beitrag von Lars Wirkus, State-of-Research Papier 01, Verbundprojekt ‚Flucht: Forschung und Transfer‘, Osnabrück: Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS) der Universität Osnabrück / Bonn: Internationales Konversionszentrum Bonn (BICC), Februar.