Nuria Rifa Targarona

Nuria Targarona Rifa is a PhD candidate at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. She is currently working on the ERC Advanced Grant project PATCHWORK "A Network Science Approach to Social Cohesion in European Societies", where she does qualitative analysis of acquaintanceship networks and their relation with ethnic diversity and social cohesion. More specifically, she conducts mixed-method social network analysis (MMSNA) – including the use of visual tools and in-depth interviews informed by quantitative data – to explore the processes of categorisation and boundary drawing within personal networks. She is interested in studying the presence (or absence) and salience of ethnic and other types of social boundaries, how individuals contest or reinforce social categories imposed from above, the everyday strategies they use to maintain or create new boundaries between and within ethnic groups, and their responses to experiencing or witnessing racism and discrimination within their own personal networks.

Previously, her research has focused on migration-related issues including asylum and employment in the UK, Human Rights within immigration detention centres in Europe, and housing and migration. Methodologically, she has used qualitative research methods (conducting in-depth interviews, focus groups, and text analyses) and participatory action research. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Refugee Studies. She has also collaborated on the project ‘Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment (SSAHE)’ by the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Refugees, Migration and Settlement.

She holds a degree in Political and Administration Sciences from Pompeu Fabra University (Spain), a Master´s Degree in Refugee Studies from the University of East London (UK), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Research Techniques from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Barcelona (UB), Spain.

She is a member of the Research Group on Fundamental and Oriented Anthropology (GRAFO) and the COALESCE Lab (Laboratory for Computational Analysis of Egonetworks, Social Cohesion, and Exclusion), both based at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.