Jessi Kume

Visiting Toronto Metropolitan University

Spring and Summer 2026

Jessi Kume is a PhD candidate in Social Sciences at Université Paris 8 and member of the Centre de Recherches Sociologiques et Politiques of Paris. She conducts her doctoral research within the ERC project “Growing Up Across Borders” (GRABS). The project aims to bring greater understanding of the experiences of young people who are “growing up” whilst crossing borders and/or of those whose lives have been shaped by borders or bordering policiesincluding international, internal, bureaucratic, or legal borders.

Other research interests include Qualitative Methodology, Critical Criminology and Border Studies. Jessi has also worked as an EU Advocacy Coordinator in non-profit organization active along the Western Balkan Migration Route focusing on accountability for border violence.

Research focus while a Visiting Fellow with Bridging Divides:

Jessi’s research focuses specifically on the lived experience of youth in forced migration and precarious youth in Toronto looking at bordering practices and temporal borders but also at how these are renegotiated and contested by young people. She employs innovative qualitative methodologies developed within the GRABS team, with a commitment to reflect on extractivism, ethics, and decolonial approaches to research.