Alissa Symon

Alissa Symon

DPhil Candidate 

Affiliation: Department of Sociology
Expert in: Irregular migration, Transnationalism
Geographic focus: Israel-Palestine, United States

Alissa’s work deals with political migration, specifically migration as a means of protest. Closely following a migration network formerly established in 2012 in Israel-Palestine, her research uncovers a form of migration in which Jewish migrants leave their home state (the United States) and move to Israel for the sole reason of protesting the occupation of Palestinian territories. Using their Jewish and American privilege—their right to Israeli citizenship as well as their ability to enter the occupied territories as American citizens—these migrants move between segregated spaces and forge alliances with oppressed Palestinian communities. Using qualitative methods and mobile ethnography, Alissa’s research focuses on their reasons for migration, as well as the intersection between ethnic, religious and national self-identification and belonging.