Silvia profile — Reel

Silvia Almenara Niebla

Ramón and Cajal senior researcher

Silvia Almenara Niebla is currently a Ramón y Cajal senior researcher and professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She obtained her PhD in Gender and Migration Studies from the Universidad de La Laguna in 2020, receiving the Extraordinary Doctoral Prize for her research on transnational belonging and media practices among refugees from a gender perspective. She also holds degrees in Political Science and International Relations, and has undertaken research stays at Utrecht University, Nouakchott University, and the University of Oxford.

Her research examines how migrants, refugees, and border residents use images and technologies to observe, narrate, and make sense of their experiences in border contexts. Her work focuses on their everyday lives, with a special emphasis on emotions, digital social media, gender dynamics, and visual representations. She also collaborates at the European level on academic initiatives regarding migration, diaspora, and media. She has published in different international journals on matters of diasporic processes through gender perspective, affects and emotions in protracted situations of displacement, and social media practices of gender control.

Silvia is vice-chair of the Diaspora, Migration and the Media section of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association), and collaborates in European academic initiatives on migration, diaspora, and media.

In the Reel Borders project, she focused on the everyday cinematic experiences of borderlanders, as well as the social and political dynamics of borders.

More information on publications and other projects on Researchgate, Google Scholar and Academia.