Dr. Patricia Ward, 2020-2021

Patricia Ward was a postdoctoral fellow at the department. Trish’s research interests are in the areas of transnational labor, humanitarian aid and development, and the global refugee regime. Her research focuses on labor practices in the humanitarian aid sector, particularly within the Middle East context. Trish received her PhD in Sociology from Boston University in 2020. Her dissertation, “How Humanitarian Relief ‘Works’: International Aid Organizations and Local Labor in Crisis Contexts" examined the reorganization of aid operations amidst a growing number of protracted displacement crises worldwide and its effects on national aid workers employed in the sector. As a postdoctoral fellow at MPI-MMG, Trish began working on her second project that focuses on humanitarian logistics as everyday labor practices in UN humanitarian hubs. Patricia is now at TU Dresden.