Department of Law hosts symposium on the Experience of LGBTQ Asylum Seekers
On the 28th November, the Department of Law hosted a Symposium on the Experience of LGBTQ Asylum Seekers: Legal and Practical Dimensions. The symposium featured presentations by Department of Law-based John and Pat Hume Scholar Maria Avgeri, and Sociologist and Activist Evgeny Shtorn. The symposium addressed the legal and social position of asylum seekers under European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights, and the particular challenges faced by LGBTQ asylum seekers, especially those in the direct provision system. The symposium also featured a screening of Maria Avgeri’s documentary Trans*it, which poignantly charts the experience of LGBTQ asylum-seekers in Greece.
Maria Avgeri is a PhD student and Hume Scholar at Maynooth University, and a graduate of Democritus University Law Department and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Maria is a qualified lawyer who has worked with the Greek Asylum Service both as a case-worker and as a member of the Appeals Committees. Maria’s research interests involve refugee and migration law, gender, sexuality, gender identity and expression and the law, disability and transformative justice.
Evgeny Shtorn is a sociologist and human rights activist holding a master’s degree from the Higher School of Economics in St Petersburg. He is a cultural diversity researcher for Create, the National Agency for Collaborative Arts, and project coordinator for the National Gallery of Ireland’s community project "Something from There", working with people seeking asylum.
The symposium forms part of the Gender, Sexuality and Law module offered by the Department of Law at Maynooth University.
