Research Profile

Research Interests

I am interested in what happens when people migrate to new societies. What challenges and opportunities do newcomers experience to inclusion? How do receiving societies experience, perceive and narrate demographic change? My research seeks to answer these questions through ethnographic inquiry. 

My doctoral research, published as a book by Bristol University Press in February 2024, explored the social dynamics of migration and diversity in two English secondary schools. The research also investigated the role of educational policies and practices in shaping these dynamics. The findings have been published in academic journals including the British Educational Research Journal and the British Journal of Sociology of Education. Outside education, I have conducted research on the role of NGOs and third sector organisations in facilitating the social inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees in Jordan, England and Northern Ireland (NI). I have also conducted research on perceptions and understandings of evangelicalism in NI. 

My current project examines the social dynamics of migration and diversity in public spaces in NI, specifically the bus. It conceptualises public transport as a mobile ‘interface’, moving away from traditional thinking about interfaces as concrete structures dividing/connecting nationalist and unionist communities. The project builds on my previous work to explore the bus as a site of division and encounter between individuals with increasingly diverse identities in the context of increasing immigration to NI. Ethnographic research allows me to investigate how and why experiences of division and encounter play out within specific transport infrastructures and segregated urban spaces.

Teaching

I lectured on MA and BA modules on migration, refugees and wellbeing at the University of Sussex between 2018 and 2023. I currently lecture on MA and BA modules on migration, globalisation and conflict at Queen’s University Belfast.

Books

Soye, E. (2024) Peer Relationships at School: New Perspectives on Migration and Diversity. UK, Bristol University Press.

Journal articles

Aalto, S. et al. (2024) ‘The effect of teacher multicultural attitudes on self-efficacy and wellbeing at work’, Social Psychology of Education.

Soye, E. and Watters, C. (2024) ‘On placemaking and wellbeing: Practitioner perspectives on third sector support for refugees and asylum seekers’, Wellbeing, Space & Society, 6(100205).

Ganiel, G and Soye, E. (2024) ‘“The Last Bastion of Evangelicalism in Europe?” Evangelicalism and Religiosity in Northern Ireland’, Religions, 15(6).

Soye, E. (2024) ‘“On the frontline”: Gangs, teachers, and the ethics of care’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 45(4), pp. 625-638.

Soye, E. and Berry, F. (2024) ‘Seeking Asylum in Ireland: Emma Soye in conversation with Director Frank Berry about “Aisha”’, Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, 38, pp. 126-132.

Soye, E. and Watters, C. (2024) ‘Facing the Other: Development education and “encounter” in contexts of migration and displacement’, Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, 38, pp. 52-68.

Soye, E., Hilden, P. K., Andersen, A. and Watters, C. (2024) ‘Recognising the newcomer: Education policy and teaching practices in Norway and England’, Frontiers in Education, 8(1231633).

Soye, E. (2024) ‘I and Thou? Challenges to dialogical pedagogy in a diverse London secondary school’, British Educational Research Journal, 50(1), pp. 183-199.

Spaas, C., et al. (2023) ‘School-based Psychosocial Interventions’ Effectiveness in Strengthening Refugee and Migrant Adolescents’ Mental Health, Resilience, and Social Relations: A Four-country Cluster Randomized Study’, Psychosocial Intervention, 32(3), pp. 177-189.

Peltonen, K., et al. (2022) ‘Effectiveness of Promotive and Preventive Psychosocial Interventions on Improving the Mental Health of Finnish-Born and Immigrant Adolescents’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6).

Szelei, N., et al. (2022) ‘Migrant Students’ Sense of Belonging and the Covid‐19 Pandemic: Implications for Educational Inclusion’, Social Inclusion, 10(2).

Verelst, A., et al. (2022) ‘Social Determinants of the Mental Health of Young Migrants’, European Journal of Health Psychology, 29(1), pp. 61-73.

Kankaanpää, R., et al. (2022) ‘Effectiveness of psychosocial school interventions in Finnish schools for refugee and immigrant children, “Refugees Well School” in Finland (RWS-FI): a protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial’, Trials, 23(1).

Spaas, C., et al. (2022) ‘Mental Health of Refugee and Non-refugee Migrant Young People in European Secondary Education: The Role of Family Separation, Daily Material Stress and Perceived Discrimination in Resettlement’, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 51(5), pp. 848-870.

Soye, E. (2019) Book Review, ‘Voices from the Jungle: Stories from the Calais Refugee Camp’, Anthropology Matters, 19(1). "