Kelsey Norman, Ph.D., is a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute and director of the Women’s Rights, Human Rights, and Refugees Program. Her research focuses on refugee and migration issues in the Middle East and globally, as well as women’s rights, human rights, comparative political institutions, international relations, and Middle East and North African politics.

Her book, “Reluctant Reception: Refugees, Migration, and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa,” was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. The book is based on three years of fieldwork in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The book was selected as one of Choice’s Outstanding Titles for 2021, was awarded an honorable mention by the American Political Science Association’s Migration and Citizenship 2021 Best Book Committee, and was selected for The Washington Post’s 2022 Annual African Politics Summer Reading Spectacular. The book is also adapted from Dr. Norman’s doctoral dissertation, which was chosen for the Best Dissertation award by the American Political Science Association’s Migration and Citizenship section.

Her research has been published in academic journals including the European Journal of International Relations, International Studies Review, the Journal of North African Studies, International Migration Review, the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, Globalizations, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, among others. She has also published policy-oriented articles in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. Her article, “Rich Countries Cannot Outsource Their Migration Dilemmas,” won the 2021 Perry World House-Foreign Affairs Emerging Scholars Policy Prize. She regularly gives radio and television interviews and public lectures on topics related to her research and analysis. Additionally, she is an advisory board member of Refugees Solidarity Network in New York.

Prior to joining the Baker Institute, Norman was an SSHRC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia and a postdoctoral fellow at the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy at the University of Denver. She received her doctorate in political science from the University of California, Irvine, a master of public policy from the University of Toronto, and a bachelor of arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Contact at kpnorman@rice.edu or 713-348-2997.