“The European Union between Border Controls and Protection of Refugees. A Geography of Refugee Law in the Mediterranean“ [Die Europäische Union zwischen Grenzkontrolle und Flüchtlingsschutz. Eine Geographie des Flüchtlingsrechts auf dem Mittelmeer]: That is the title of the doctoral dissertation for which Dr. Silja Klepp was recently awarded the Doctoral Thesis Prize 2010 by the Research Academy Leipzig. In front of a backdrop of disputed EU external borders and inadequately defined international law with regard to refugees on the high sea,  over the years large numbers of refugees have suffered one way or another, even to the extent of loss of life. This topic has occupied the political and scholarly attention of ethnologist Silja Klepp for the past ten years. Dr. Klepp spent months researching for her dissertation in Italy, Malta and Libya, where – often under very difficult conditions – she carried out interviews with the responsible authorities in order to gain a more accurate picture of the local situation.

The Doctoral Thesis Prize is awarded each year by the Research Academy Leipzig for outstanding dissertations in the fields of Mathematics / Computer Science and the Natural Sciences, the Life Sciences, and the Humanities and Social Sciences. Currently Dr. Silja Klepp is working at the artec|Research Center for Sustainability Studies at the University of Bremen and at MARUM, part of the international graduate school INTERCOAST (Integrated Coastal Zone and Shelf-Sea Research). She is currently occupied with the topic of climate change and mobility in the Pacific region. In this context she is specialized above all on the effects of climate change on the life worlds of the population as well as the rights of “Environmental migrants”.