Mariza Avgeri

Mariza Avgeri is a Walter Benjamin postdoctoral researcher at CeMig working on epistemic injustice in the context of disability related asylum claims. Her main points of interest are the particular social group ground for international protection and how its scope can be expanded to marginalized groups in risk, i.e. disabled/gender nonconforming persons. She is a qualified lawyer in Greece and an Associate lecturer in Law, Culture and Society, International Law and Public Law at the Open University, UK. She has graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Political Science from VU Amsterdam. She is has completed her PhD in Maynooth University at the Law Department working on transgender asylum claims and jurisprudence in the context of the European Union and was awarded jointly the prize for best thesis in 2023 in European Law by the European Law Faculties association. She was a John and Pat Hume fellow for the duration of her doctoral studies. She is a fellow of Higher Education Academy UK. In the past, she has worked as a legal researcher, a case worker at the Greek Asylum Service and a member of the Appels’ Committees. She has participated in many civil rights initiatives regarding migrant rights and LGBT rights, both as a lawyer and as a member of the queer community. She is interested in the intersection of disability studies, queer theory, transgender studies and the epistemology of feminism in the context of Refugee Law.