Mengia
Tschalär
Ph.D. in Anthropology (2013), University of Zurich, Switzerland
M.A. in Anthropology, International Law, and East Asian Art History (2007), University of Zurich, Switzerland
Mengia Tschalär is an Adjunct Full Professor of Anthropology and Law and Society at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. From 2018 to 2020, she led an EU-funded research project at the University of Bristol (UK) examining the experiences of LGBTQI+ asylum seekers with Muslim backgrounds within Germany’s asylum system. From 2020 to 2023, she was a Research Fellow at Brunel University London (UK), where she coordinated policy work and gender monitoring for the ITFLOWS project, which aimed to develop migration flow predictions for humanitarian purposes. She has also consulted for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), ORAM, and the Council of Europe on issues of migration, gender, and sexuality.
She is the co-editor of Queer Liberalisms and Marginal Mobilities (Routledge, 2026) and the author of Muslim Women’s Quest for Justice: Gender, Law, and Activism in India (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in high-ranking peer-reviewed journals, edited collections, and policy reports addressing socio-legal resistance, gender and sexuality, migration and asylum, gender-based and sexualized violence, and Islam.
She is the co-founder and co-director of the Queer European Asylum Network, through which she provides technical expertise and advice on the protection of LGBTQI+ persons’ rights to public and administrative authorities, equality bodies, and human rights institutions, and regularly collaborates with LGBTQI+ activists to organize international stakeholder events on queer asylum.
Mengia is also trained as a relationship and intimacy coach: https://www.mengiatschalaer.com
ANT 310 Culture and Personality
ANT 210 Sex and Culture
ANT 315 Systems of Law
ANT 330 Cultural American Pluralism and the Law
POL 319 Gender and the Law
LWS 225 Research Methods in Law and Society
LWS 200 Introduction to Law and Society
WMST 2150 Practicing Intersectionality: The interdisciplinary study of race, gender, and ethnicity (Barnard College, Columbia University)
WGS 244 Women’s and Gender Studies, Transnational Feminisms (Hunter College, City University of New York)
2018- Migration and Mobilities Bristol (MMB)
2019-24 IMISCOE International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion Network
2021-23 American Anthropological Association
2021-23 European Anthropological Association
2011-23 Law and Society Association
Books
Saleh, F., & Tschalär, M. (Eds.). 2026. Queer Liberalisms and Marginal Mobilities (1st ed.). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003712428
Tschalaer Hong, Mengia. 2017. Muslim Women’s Quest for Justice. Gender, Law and Activism in India. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society).
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications
Tschalaer, M., Alexandra Xanthaki and Ermioni Xhantopoulou. 2025. Human Rights Risks of Migration Flow Predictions and Policy Implications Within the EU. Human Rights Quarterly. (47)1, 87-114.
Saleh, F. and Mengia Tschalaer. 2023. Introduction to Special Issue: Queer Liberalism and Marginal Mobility. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 46(9), 1769-1790.
Tschalaer, M. 2023. Queering migration temporalities: LGBTQI+ experiences with waiting within Germany’s asylum system. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 46(9),1833-1853. (Selected for the shortlist of eight articles for the Martin Bulmer Prize for Article of the Year Award 2023)
Tschalaer, M. 2023. Queer Motherhood in the Context of Legal Precarity: Experiences of Lesbian Mothers Seeking Asylum in Germany. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Vol 46(2), 233-253.
Tschalaer, M. 2022. Queer Necropolitics: Experiences of LGBTQI+ Asylum Claimants During Covid-19 in the UK. Journal of Contemporary European Research. Vol 18(1), 115-132.
Tschalaer, M. 2021. Femininities and Victimhood in Black Lesbian Asylum Cases in Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Vol 47(15), 3531-3548.
Tschalaer, M. 2020. Between Queer Liberalisms and Muslim Masculinities: The Assessment of Queer Muslim Asylum Quests in Germany. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Vol 43(7), 1265-1283.
Tschalaer, Hong M. 2015. Muslim Women’s Rights Activists’ Visibility: Stretching the Gendered Boundaries of the Public Space in the City of Lucknow. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 11, 1-18.
Tschalaer, Hong M. 2021. Competing Model–Nikahnamas: Muslim Women’s Spaces within the Legal Landscape in Lucknow. NAVEIÑ REET: Nordic Journal of Law and Social Research, 3, 65–80.
Tschalaer, Hong M. 20210. Women Entering the Legal Landscape: Negotiating Legal Gender Reforms in a ‘Tribal’ Women’s Forum in South Rajasthan, India. Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 60, 41–70.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
Tschalär, M. 2025. “The Recognition of Lesbian Refugee Protection Claims within the European Union’s Asylum Regime”. In Gökce Yurdakul, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Intersectional Approaches to Migration, Gender, and Sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197775417.013.0024.
Tschalaer, M. 2023. “Social and cultural politics of resistance and empowerment”. In Martin Fotta, Cecilia McCallum and Silvia Posocco (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. Cambridge: University Press (Cambridge Handbook in Anthropology), pp. 313–335. https://doi: 10.1017/9781108647410.015.
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Tschalaer, M. 2021. Fighting for asylum, as a lesbian and as a mother. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, openDemocracy. 8. December.
Tschalaer, M. 2021. Report from the Field: The Recognition of Queer Asylum Claims in Germany. News From the Ninth Floor. Anthropology. Vol 4(1).
Tschalaer. M. 2021. Queer liberalisms and marginal mobility – special issue and interview series. Migration Mobilities Bristol Blog. 7 April.
Tschalaer, M. 2020. The Recognition of Queer Asylum Claims in Germany. nccr-on the move Blog. 4. November.
Tschalaer, M. 2020. Experiences of Waiting for LGBTQI+ Asylum Claimants in Germany: A Form of State Control and Resistance. In: Maria Lis Baiochhi “Gender Politics in the Age of Patriarchal Authoritarianism”. Political and Legal Anthropology Review. 15. September.
Tschalaer, M. 2020. Fehlender Schutz für Schwarze lesbische Geflüchtete. Tagesspiegel. 23. June.
Tschalaer, M and Nina Held and Danijel Ćubelic. 2020. „Ich habe mich noch nie einsamer gefühlt“. Tagesspiegel. 30. March. (This article appeared in the print version of the Tagesspiegel under the title "Mein Leben ist eingefroren" on 6. April 2020.
Tschalaer, Mengia, Nina Held and Danijel Ćubelić. 2020. Coronavirus exacerbates LGBTQI refugee isolation and trauma. In: Al Jazeera. 22 April.
Tschalaer, M. 2019. LGBTQI+ Asylum Claimants Face Extreme Social Isolation in Germany. In: Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, openDemocracy. 26. November.
Tschalaer, M. 2019. Denied Victimhood of Lesbian Asylum Seekers Racialized as Black in Germany. In Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, openDemocracy. 14. August.
Held, N. and Mengia Tschalaer. 2019. Better Legal and Social Support Needed for LGBTQI+ People Seeking Asylum in Germany. Mobilities and Migration Bristol Blog. 31.October.
Tschalaer, M. 2019. Conforming to stereotypes to gain asylum in Germany. Mobilities and Migration Bristol Blog. 12. August.
Policy Briefs
Held, Nina and Mengia Tschalaer. 2023. The intersectionality of gender and sexuality in lesbian asylum applications: A guide to improving asylum practices regarding lesbian refugees in Germany. Federal Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld.
Tschalaer, Mengia, Alexandra Xanthaki and Ermioni Xhantopoulou. 2023. Migration Flows Prediction Tools and Asylum Policy Commitments in Alignment with Human Rights. Brunel Law School.
Danijel Cubelic, Marie-Luise Löffler and Mengia Tschalaer. 2023. An Intersectional Approach to the Istanbul Convention: Perspectives on the Protection of LBTQI Girls and Women in Germany. Federal Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld und the Gunda-Werner Institute for Feminism (Heinrich Böll Foundation), Berlin.
Tschalaer, Mengia and Christopher Pullen. 2021. Equality in the UK Asylum Process. Written Evidence submitted to the UK Parliament Women's Select Committee. Published on the UK Parliament Committees Website: 17. November 2021.
Tschalaer, Mengia. 2021. The Istanbul Convention and Queer Women Seeking Asylum. Policy Bristol.
Tschalaer, Mengia. 2020. Covid-19 and Queer Asylum. Policy Brief. June 29. PolicyBristol.
Tschalaer, Mengia. 2020. The Recognition of Black Lesbian Asylum Claims in Germany. Policy Bristol
Held, Nina and Mengia Tschalaer. 2019. Queer Asylum in Germany. Better Visibility and Access to Legal and Social Support Needed for LGBTQI+ People Seeking Asylum. Policy Bristol.
Reports
Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM). 2024. Mainstreaming Inclusion for LGBTIQ Refugees. An Overview of the Displacement Context in Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin.
Samuel Hall and IOM. 2023. Mapping and research to strengthen protection and assistance measures for migrants with diverse SOGIESC. IOM, Geneva.
Boland, C. and M. Tschalaer. 2022. ITFLOWS Gender Action Plan, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Brunel University London.
2023 Federal Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld. Small Research Grant (EUR 7,500)
2022 Mellon Transformative Learning in the Humanities Faculty Fellow, Transformative Learning in the Humanities, CUNY ($1,800)
2019 ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Grant. Grant Nr. ES/M500410/1 ($3,717)
2018 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship. Grant Agreement Nr. 793497. 1. September 2018 – 31. August 2020 (2 years, $202,011)
2012 Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship for Prospective Researchers (6 months, $32,250)
2008-12 University of Zurich Candoc Dissertation Fellowship. Grant Nr. 56650301 and 143439 1. August 2008 – 31. July 2012 (3 years, $151,056)
Mengia Tschalär’s research is situated at the intersection of anthropology, law and society, migration and asylum studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Her work examines how law is experienced, negotiated, and contested by marginalized groups, with a particular focus on LGBTQI+ asylum claimants and survivors of gender-based and sexualized violence. Using ethnographic and socio-legal methods, she analyzes asylum and migration regimes in Europe, engaging feminist, queer, and postcolonial critiques of liberal legalism. Her research is grounded in close collaboration with activists, NGOs, and international organizations and seeks to bridge academic scholarship with policy engagement and advocacy in the pursuit of more just and inclusive migration governance.