Iva is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Migration, Diversity and Justice (CMDJ) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She is affiliated to the Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Migration and Minorities (BIRMM) and she conducts research related to the VUB Strategic Research Programme Evaluating Democratic Governance in Europe (EDGE). Iva obtained her PhD in Migration Studies (2023) in the European Joint Doctorate MOVES at Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier 3 in France and Charles University in the Czech Republic, where she held a Horizon 2020 Marie Curie fellowship. Her doctoral dissertation, titled Europe and Its Others: Migrant Integration in Research and Policy, examined the contested discourse on migrant integration in the EU policy framework, in scientific research, and in the production of “evidence” for policymaking. She holds an MA in Ethnic and Minority Studies (with honours) from ELTE, Budapest and a BA in Journalism and Media from the University of Skopje.
Iva spent brief research stays at Brown University in the US (2022) and Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland (2023) and has taught in the area of borders and migration at CU. She is active in the IMISCOE network as a board member of the Standing Committee ‘Reflexivities in Migration Studies’. She is a critical and interdisciplinary researcher, whose research currently focuses on EU governance in the area of borders, immigration, integration and citizenship, against the broader question of how contestations over migration and diversity are changing the ways liberal democracies govern their (racialized) populations. She is also interested in knowledge production in the area of migration, notably in the effects of data practices on contesting, reshaping and reproducing inequalities along the migrant/citizen divide. Other research interests: Immigration and migrant integration policy, EU politics (Justice and Home Affairs), Colonialism, Racism, Science-policy collaboration, Civil society organizations, Qualitative methods.