Galatea Scotti

Galatea is a social anthropologist and PhD researcher in the Department of African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. Her doctoral research is an ethnographic study of life after deportation in Ghana. It focuses on how forced return affects social and gendered relations, masculinity, and experiences of time, as well as its enduring impact on individuals and communities in countries of return. Grounded in participatory methodologies, the project also examines everyday forms of resilience and resistance, and what might emerge from disruption and perceived endings.

Galatea previously conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana examining undocumented migration from the perspective of Ghana-based families, and returnees’ experiences through detention and deportation. More broadly, her research interests include African migration and diasporas, irregular and high-risk migration, immigration detention and deportation, post-deportation lives, gender and masculinity, temporality, ethnographic storytelling, affects and emotions, structural injustice and social marginalisation. 

Alongside academia, Galatea has over a decade of experience in the migration sector across the UK and Europe, working in research, advocacy, policy, and support roles with refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants. She holds a BA in History and Cultural Anthropology from Sapienza University of Rome and an MA in African Studies from the University of Birmingham. She is also a member of Border Criminologies' Detention and Deportation thematic group.