IACS
Place Montesquieu 1/L2.08.01
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Anna Maria Simola
Chargée de recherche FNRS
Anna Simola holds a PhD in sociology. She is an FNRS postdoctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Families and Sexualities (CIRFASE) at IACS, at the UCLouvain. She is also a member of the Centre of Excellence for Research on Ageing and Care (RG3 Migration, Care and Ageing) at the University of Helsinki.
In her research, she develops a critical orientation and novel approaches for the study of free mobility in Europe. Her broad areas of interest cover the intersections of migration, families, work and social policies, and the associated issues of freedom, vulnerability, precarity, aging, dependency, and inequality. Her subject-oriented, qualitatively comparative investigations address the parallel influence of structural forces, and personal life forces (affinities, passions) in shaping transnational mobility and living. Her research has been published in leading journals such as Sociology, Journal of European social policy, Work, employment and society and Global Networks.
Anna’s current postdoctoral research project (2022-2025), funded by Le Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), aims at developing a novel orientation for the study of mobility and transnational family life that builds particularly on Jennifer Mason’s (2018) groundbreaking work on affinities defined as potent connection in personal life. Set in the context where people are confronted with growing uncertainties related to major transnational crises such as the recent pandemic, the climate crisis and wars escalating in Europe and its vicinity, the study investigates EU migrants’ multidimensional connections with the people and places that matter to them. It seeks to understand how such potent forces shape not only their experience of transnational living, but also more concretely their movements and lives in conditions of free mobility. The promotor of this project is professor Laura Merla.
Anna obtained her PhD at the University of Helsinki in 2021. Her PhD research titled Passionate Mobile Citizens or Precarious Migrant Workers? Young EU Migrants, Neoliberal Governance and Inequality within the Free Movement Regime" investigated young European Union (EU) citizens experiences of free mobility in precarious labour conditions. Between November 2018 and October 2020, she worked on her PhD study as a visiting researcher at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). From September 2022 until September 2023, she prepared her postdoctoral project as a visiting researcher at CIRFASE at the UCLouvain with a funding from Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation and the Finnish Cultural Fund. Starting from 2018, she has also been involved in the research work and various publications undertaken at the Centre of Excellence for Research on Aging and Care (RG 3 Migration, Care and Ageing), as well as the Academy of Finland research project ‘Citizenisation in the Local Welfare State’.
Personal websites:
- Diploma
Year Label Educational Organization 2008 Master en sciences sociales 2021 Doctor of social sciences University of Helsinki 2021 Doctor of social sciences Université de Helsinki
- LTRAV2720 - Comparative social protection systems
Potent connections: European transnational families and times of crises
This postdoctoral research project (2022-2025), funded by Le Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), aims at developing a novel orientation for the study of mobility and transnational family life that builds particularly on Jennifer Mason’s (2018) groundbreaking work on affinities defined as potent connection in personal life. Set in the context where people are confronted with growing uncertainties related to major transnational crises such as the recent pandemic, the climate crisis and wars escalating in Europe and its vicinity, the study investigates EU migrants’ multidimensional connections with the people and places that matter to them. It seeks to understand how such potent forces shape not only their experience of transnational living, but also more concretely their movements and lives in conditions of free mobility. The promotor of this project is professor Laura Merla.
Simola, Anna Maria ; May, Vanessa ; Olakivi, Antero ; Wrede, Sirpa. On not ‘being there’: Making sense of the potent urge for physical proximity in transnational families at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In: Global Networks, Vol. 23, no.1, p. 45-58 (2023). doi:10.1111/glob.12382.
Vasara Paula ; Simola, Anna Maria ; Olakivi, Antero. The trouble with vulnerability. Narrating ageing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In: Journal of Aging Studies, Vol. 64, no. 2023, p. 1-9 (2023). doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101106.
Simola, Anna Maria. Passionate Mobile Citizens or Precarious Migrant Workers? lectio praecursoria. In: Nuorisotutkimus, Vol. 40, no.1, p. 61-67 (2022). doi:10.57049/nuorisotutkimus.9115808.
Simola, Anna Maria. Quest for Passion: Understanding Precarious Migration of Young Highly Qualified EU Citizens as Lived Neoliberal Subjectivity. In: Sociology, Vol. 56, no.4, p. 621-637 (2022). doi:10.1177/00380385211051224.
Simola, Anna Maria ; Wrede, Sirpa. Young EU migrant citizens’ access to financial independence in conditions of precarious work: A tripartite approach to welfare conditionality. In: Journal of European Social Policy, Vol. 31, no.4, p. 395-408 (2021). doi:10.1177/0958928720950625.
Simola, Anna Maria. Lost in Administration: (Re)Producing Precarious Citizenship for Young University-Educated Intra-EU Migrants in Brussels. In: Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 32, no.3, p. 458-474 (2018). doi:10.1177/0950017018755653.
Nathan Lillie ; Simola, Anna Maria. The Crisis of Free Movement in the European Union. In: Mondi Migranti, Vol. 2016, no.3, p. 7-19 (2016).
Simola, Anna Maria. Passionate Mobile Citizens or Precarious Migrant Workers? Young EU Migrants, Neoliberal Governance and Inequality within the Free Movement Regime, Dissertations, University of Helsinki: Helsinki, 2021. 978-951-51-7323-2. 93 p.
Simola, Anna Maria. Short-sighted Policies Drive EU Migrants into Precarious Jobs. In: Ilke Adam, Serena D'Agostino, Nick Schuermans, Florian Tauner (eds.), Migration, Equality and Racism: 44 Opinions, VUB Press: Brussels, 2021, p. 78-82. 9789461171061 (Soumis).
Simola, Anna Maria. EU citizenship as precarious status for precarious workers: Implications of national policies restricting EU citizens’ rights for young university-educated EU migrants in Brussels. In: Sandra Mantu, Paul Minderhoud, Elspeth Guild (eds.), EU Citizenship and Free Movement Rights Taking Supranational Citizenship Seriously, Brill: Nijhoff, 2020, p. 190–214. 9789004411784.