Dr Aija Lulle is a renowned migration scholar with extensive international research experience in youth mobilities and life changes related to migration, as well as in geographies and spatialities of children, youth, families and ageing, across Europe. She is a Senior Researcher at the Karelian Institute of the University of Eastern Finland and previously worked in Geography and Environment at Loughborough University, and at the University of Sussex. She defended her PhD in Human Geography at the University of Latvia in 2014.
Driven by a curiosity about how people live their lives in myriad places across the world, her core research focuses on two dimensions: how these lives change through migration, and how they evolve across the life-course. Dr Lulle has researched the geographies and spatialities of children, youth, family and ageing, framed by the overall question: How can people create better lives for themselves and their families through migration and mobility? The key concepts which are deployed to shape her research are diaspora, transnationalism, identity, and well-being. These research questions and conceptual approaches are reflected in her writing, including journal articles, book chapters and books. Aija is currently developing a book on youth mobility in the new context of Brexit.
Two other features are distinctive about her work as a geographer. One is the value of accessible communication to all audiences: fellow academics, students, the policy community and the public at large. This comes from her earlier experiences as a journalist, migration expert and policy consultant. The second is her commitment to interdisciplinary study, especially across the linked fields of human geography, sociology and anthropology, again reflecting her prior academic trajectory.