Belén Fernández Suárez
Assistant Professor
Belén Fernández Suárez is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology of the UDC. Her research activity was recognised by 2 positively evaluated research periods (2006-12, 2013-18) recognised in 2022 and 2023. She is accredited as full university professor by ANECA (2023). In her thesis she carried out a regional comparison of immigrant integration policies with which she obtained an international mention and an extraordinary doctoral prize at the UDC in 2015. She is a member of the Societies in Movement Research Team (ESOMI) of the UDC, a research group considered of excellence by the Xunta de Galicia since 2006 and a member of the European network of migration studies “International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion” (IMISCOE). In addition, Belén is also a researcher at the Inter-University Research Centre for Atlantic Cultural Landscapes (CISPAC) and the Centre for Gender and Feminist Studies (CEXEF, UDC). She has been the coordinator of the Official Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Socio-Community Intervention (MOPS) from 2019 to 2023, which forms part of the European network of European Master’s degrees specialising in migration studies [EuMigs].
Its main lines of research focus on three main areas: a) the analysis of comparative migration policies, especially in the study of immigrant integration policies in Spain at regional and local level; b) the study of gender relations and immigration in the case study of Cape Verdean migrations in Spain, applying innovative methodologies to research with an artistic approach (Girls to the front/Mulleres à fronte); and finally, c) the study of skilled migrations, specifically intra-European mobilities carried out by Spaniards towards European countries.
These academic interests have given rise to a scientific production that includes: 14 articles in indexed journals (4 JCR, 10 Scopus), 5 books in SPI publishers (2 monographs as sole author, 1 monograph written by 4 authors, 2 works coordinated by 2 authors), coordinator of 2 monographic issues (Papers. Revista de Sociología in 2024 and Journal of International Migration and Integration in 2024); and has authored more than 25 book chapters for SPI publishers. Belén actively participated in congresses, colloquia and scientific meetings, both national and international, such as FES, IMISCOE, IPSA, ESA, and ASAEE. This participation can be summarised in the coordination of 4 panels (IPSA, IMISCOE, AEMI and ASAEE), and in the presentation of 86 communications (40 in international congresses and 46 in national ones). In 2023 it organised the EuMigs Workshop on Knowledge Transfer within the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership KA220-HED, and the international seminar Intra-European mobility in times of permanent crisis. Trends and emerging issues as a result of the EMIGRAREIN project.
As a researcher I have participated in 22 competitive research projects throughout my academic career. She was principal investigator of the National Plan research project “Integration and return of the “new Spanish emigration”: a comparative analysis of Spanish communities in the UK and France” (EMIGRAREIN, PID2019-105041RA-I00, 2020-2024). She took part as a researcher in 21 projects: 3 European projects (1 research and 2 researcher networks: ERASMUS+), 6 national plan projects (4 projects and 2 researcher networks), 13 regional projects and researcher networks (5 consolidation grants, 6 research projects and 2 researcher networks). She was also a researcher in 19 research projects with the formula of contracts, agreements or non-competitive R&D&I projects with public administrations or private entities, leading 4 projects, 3 in consortium of the UDC with third sector entities (Architecture Without Borders-Galicia and Engineering Without Borders-Galicia).
She has carried out 12 research stays, 7 post-doctoral stays and 5 pre-doctoral stays, in research institutes specialising in migration. Among the international stays I would highlight the stay at Géographie-Cités-EHESS (Paris, 2024, 5 months), University of California-Berkeley (2019, 4 months), MIGRINTER (University of Poitiers, 2018, 2 months), Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território (IGOT, Universidade de Lisboa, 2016, 3 months), Policy Department (University of Sheffield, 2009, 6 months), and at the CCIS (University of California-San Diego, 2007, 4 months).
As a researcher, I have co-directed a doctoral thesis -Verónica Verdía Varela (2022)- which received the extraordinary doctoral prize at the UDC, and whose results have led to the publication of 3 articles in indexed journals. Also, in her research career she is participating in two PhD programmes at the UDC: Social and Behavioural Sciences and Social and Ageing Sciences since 2022. She has been an evaluator of projects of the national R+D+I plan (2022). She has also collaborated as an anonymous reviewer of indexed journals specialised in migration and public policy: International Migration, Revista Internacional de Sociología (RIS), Política y Sociedad, Papers. Revista de Sociología, Revista Migraciones Internacionales, Revista Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas, Revista Migraciones, Migraciones Internacionales, and many other publications.