Dr Irina Kuznetsova

Dr Irina Kuznetsova

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Associate Professor

Contact details

Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Irina Kuznetsova's research expertise includes areas of migration, forced displacement, health, and critical urbanism. Her recent projects focus on social consequences of population displacement in Ukraine, Russia, Rwanda, Nigeria and Japan, including mental health and well-being, and the impact of migration on rural communities.

Qualifications

BA and MA in Sociology, PhD - Kazan Federal University, Russia

Biography

Irina Kuznetsova is an Associate Professor at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) at the University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡. Her area of specialism includes population migration, well-being, and critical urbanism. She leads Cities, Regions, and Mobility Research subtheme in GEES and works in the admissions team. 
Irina is an associate member of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity and Centre for Urban Wellbeing. She is a Fellow of Intercontinental Academy ‘Laws. Rigidity and dynamics,’ University-based Institutes of Advanced Studies (UBIAS).
Her current research focuses on population displacement from Ukraine and Russia. She leads the QR funded Policy impact project ‘Futures of Ukraine: youth, mobility and post-war reconstruction’ studying everyday experiences and aspirations of displaced youth in the UK, Germany, and Poland. Another study, funded by IGI, University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ focuses on ‘Everyday geopolitics and war as experience: displacement from Russia and new Russian literature within re-considered post-Soviet space in the Caucasus and Central Asia.’

Irina Kuznetsova has studied the social consequences of population displacement from Ukraine's war-torn territories since 2016 and funded by the AHRC PaCCs and the British Academy, collaborating with the Ukrainian Catholic University and national and international stakeholders on lived experiences and well-being of internally displaced people (IDPs) (Kuznetsova et al 2018, Kuznetsova&Mikheieva 2020, Kuznetsova 2021, etc). Since 2022, she was involved in research and impact work on gender-based violence towards Ukrainian refugees in Poland and IDPs in Ukraine (Pertek et al 2022, ).
Dr Kuznetsova has been working on migration from Central Asia to Russia for several years together with Dr John Round focusing on everyday experiences of migrants in a hostile environment (, , etc). She also works on the impact of migration on rural communities in low- and middle-income countries (), and the impact of forced displacement on wellbeing in Brazil and Nigeria (Adejoh, Kuznetsova & Dhesi 2021). Another strand of her studies focuses on population immobility via the prim of intersectionality, including forced immobility and well-being of older adults and people with disabilities in conflict-affected countries (, ).Ìý
Irina leads the final year undergraduate and PGT module on ‘Urbanity and well-being’ that has been established due to the at the University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡. 
Before coming to the UK in 2014, she established and led the European Union Centre Voices with the O.5 ml Euro grant from the European Commission at the Kazan Federal University, Russia. She also worked on various research projects on migration, social inclusion, and sustainability in the region. 
Dr Kuznetsova’s research engages with feminist geographies, critical border studies, decolonisation studies, necropolitics, and geographies of art. 

Teaching

  • Geographies of Russia in a Global and Regional Context
  • Work, Migration and Alternative Economies
  • Tutorials and Study Skills for Geographers
  • Fieldwork Project Design
  • Geography and Planning Research (dissertations)
  • Advanced field trip (Tokyo, Dubai)  
  • Urban lives (MSc Urban Planning, Dubai)

Postgraduate supervision

Forced displacement, migration, well-being, ageing

Research

Migration, city, social inclusion, health, social policy, ethnic relations, religion, superdiversity

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Kushnirovich, N, Kuznetsova, I & Mikheieva , O 2025, '', Mobilities.

Mikheieva, O & Kuznetsova, I 2024, '', Voluntary Sector Review, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 74–91.

Murzakulova, A, Kuznetsova, I & Mogilevskii, R 2023, '', International Migration.

AbuQamar, M, Eltayyan, D, Kuznetsova, I, Dhesi, S, Catling, J, Al-Dadah, R, Mahmoud, SM & Abuhaiba, M 2023, '', International Journal of Social Psychiatry, pp. 1-9.

Pertek, S, Kuznetsova, I & Tsarevska, I 2023, '' Forced Migration Review, no. 72, pp. 56-59. <>

Yasmin, T, Dhesi, S, Kuznetsova, I, Cooper, R, Krause, S & Lynch, I 2022, '', International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Adejoh, S, Kuznetsova, I & Dhesi, S 2022, '', Critical Public Health.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Hamann, H, Heisserer, U, Kabira, N, Kusche, I, Kuznetsova, I, Liedl, P, Schonberg, T & Ventura, CAA 2024, . in E Rabinovici (ed.), Laws: Rigidity and dynamics . World Scientific, pp. 181-205.

Kuznetsova, I 2024, . in RM Cucciolla & N Pianciola (eds), Le trasformazioni della Russia putiniana. Stato, società, opposizione. I libri di Viella, no. 511, Viella editrice, Rome . <>

Kuznetsova, I 2023, . in L Lessard-Phillips, A Papoutsi, N Sigona & P Ziss (eds), Migration, displacement and diversity: The IRiS anthology. Oxford Publishing Services, Oxford, pp. 172-176.

Kuznetsova, I 2022, . in Global Uncertainties: Collected Conversations from the Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research. Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research, Cambridge , pp. 84-86.

Commissioned report

Kuznetsova, I, Kogut, N & Jones, S 2024, . University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡.

Conference contribution

Effiong, C, Kanu, E, Dhesi, S, Kuznetsova, I, Mahmoud, SM, Al-Dadah, R & Aziz, AN 2024, . in AL Pisello, I Pigliautile, SSY Lau & NM Clark (eds), Building Resilient and Healthy Cities: A Guide to Environmental Sustainability and Well-being. 1 edn, vol. 1, Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation, Springer, Switzerland , pp. 31-43, 1st International Conference on Health and Environmental Resilience and Liveability in Cities, 20/01/22.

Other report

Jones, S, Kuznetsova, I & Kogut, N 2025, .

Mikheieva, O & Kuznetsova, I 2023, . IOM Migration Research Series, no. 77, IOM. <>

Expertise

  • Population displacement from Ukraine (including youth)
  • Population displacement from Russia as the result of the war
  • Population immobility in well-being of older adults and people with disabilities in conflict-affected countries
  • Migration from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Moldova

Expertise

Dr Kuznetsova provided consultancy for GIZ and European Asylum Office and presented her recent projects internationally including Columbia University, Chatham House, UNDP, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre amongst others.