Alice Massari

Alice Massari is a political scientist with an MA in International Relations and a PhD in Political Science, European Politics and International Relations. She was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Global Fellowship hosted by CERC Migration at Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Copenhagen, which has now concluded.

Before joining TMU, she has worked in the humanitarian sector since 2007 as a researcher, aid worker, and consultant. Over the last 15 years, she has combined academic work with operational and policy-facing roles, serving as a Humanitarian Adviser and Humanitarian Analyst for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), as a migration expert for the European Commission, and as an aid worker across Africa and the Middle East.

Her research and writing focus on visual governance, migration, and humanitarianism.

Recent Publications

Triandafyllidou, A. & Massari, A. (forthcoming, April 2026) Special Issue – Visual Governance in Migration, Ethnicities, Volume 26, Issue 2

Massari, A. (2025), Visual Governance – Theorizing the role of images in migration governance (external link) , in Special Issue – Visual Governance in Migration, Massari, A. and Triandafyllidou, A. (eds), Ethnicities

Triandafyllidou, A. & Massari, A. (2025) Introduction to Special Issue – Visual Governance in Migration (external link) , Ethnicities, Volume 26, Issue 2

(2024). Migration agencies’ visual performance within the Border spectacle. The case of EU and Canadian institutions (external link) . Comparative Migration Studies, 12(1), 1-20.

(2024). The visual governance of Canadian migration agencies (external link) . Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 1–18.

with Mohlo, J. (2024). Can the arts challenge mainstream representations of migration? An Inquiry into the Aga Khan Museum’s Afghanistan My Love Exhibition (external link) , International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.

(2023).  (PDF file) The role of images in migration governance. A proposed new theoretical framework and methodological approach, Working Papers Series produced jointly by the Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement and the CERC in Migration and Integration, Toronto Metropolitan University, Working Paper No. 2023/06 June 2023.

with Achilli, L. (2023). Enter the Boogeyman: representations of human smugglingin mainstream narratives of migration (external link) , Achilli L. and Kyle D. (eds), Global Human Smuggling. Buying Freedom in a Retreating World, Johns Hopkins University Press.

(2023). No countries for refugees. Canada and Europe’s shrinking asylum space (external link) , PKI Global Justice Journal, 325-344.

(2024).  (PDF file) “Reframing Migration: The Use of Visual Communication by Government Institutions”, CERC Migration Policy Brief 19, Toronto Metropolitan University.

(2023).  (PDF file) The role of images in migration governance. A proposed new theoretical framework and methodological approach. Working Paper.

(2021) Visual Securitization. Humanitarian Representations and Migration Governance, (external link)  IMISCOE/Springer series. 

(2021).  (excel file) Hollywood and the Myth of Criminal Convergence. The case of Sicario: Day of the Soldado (external link)  in Sanchez, G. and Achilli, L. (eds) The Illicit Global Economy Discourse.

Digital Scholarship

Massari, A. (2024), The power of images in migration governance (external link) , YouTube

Massari, A. (2024), What visuals define Canadian government migration communication? (external link)  YouTube

Massari, A. (2024), Different representation of different displacement crises (external link) , YouTube

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101024772.