Melanie Garland’s doctoral research is situated in the urgent and highly relevant field of border regimes, migration, and refugee practices. The project emerged from the escalating crisis of European and South American border regimes around 2015, marked by violence, dehumanization, and the establishment of “refugee camps” as tools of control. Focusing on three self-built settlements — The Dzjangal in Calais, Tiburtina in Rome, and Los Arenales in Antofagasta — her research explores how communities-in-transit resisted state-controlled border regimes, occupying abandoned urban spaces to create social places of belonging, alternative modes of coexistence, and solidarity networks. By rethinking “non-places” as sites of conviviality, her work challenges conventional urban hierarchies and highlights the political potential of liminality and inbetweenness in migratory contexts.
Combining postcolonial studies, critical geography, and multimodal European ethnology, Melanie integrates artistic practice with ethnography, using sound and listening practices, critical walking, and collaborative methods to explore the multisensory dimensions of placemaking. Her dissertation is an innovative multimodal PhD at the Institute of European Ethnology, comprising the book Making Places Inbetween, this multimodal website, and the collaborative exhibition Somewhere Inbetween.