Emma Walker-Silverman

Research Student

Emma is a doctoral researcher affiliated with the Refugee Studies Centre. She is broadly interested in intergroup relations and the forces that shape them, and specifically why different people and communities respond so differently to hosting refugees. Her doctoral research uses qualitative and experimental methods to examine the influence of social media on attitudes towards Syrian refugees in Turkey.

She holds an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in Psychology from Stanford University, both with distinction. Before coming to Oxford, she worked as a Fulbright researcher and coordinator with local NGOs in Turkey. Alongside research, she is a warden at Lincoln College, plays ice hockey for the Oxford Blues and is an editor of the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration.

Teaching
Publications
  • Teaching Fellow, Introduction to Psychology, Stanford University Department of Psychology, 2016-2017
  • Teaching Assistant, Qualitative Research Methods, Oxford Department of International Development, 2021-2022

Research Students supervised

Conference papers

Walker-Silverman, Emma (2021) 'Positively polarized: Can social media push ambivalent locals to be more supportive of refugees in Turkey?', Research Methods and Ethics in Migration Studies, 18 October, Koç University, Istanbul
Walker-Silverman, Emma (2018) '”If it were us, we wouldn’t have fled”: Attitudes towards Syrian refugees among youth in Izmir, Turkey', MIGBOARD 2018: Cultures, Migrations, Borders. 10 July, University of the Aegean, Lesvos
Research interests:

Intergroup relations, social psychology, attitudes towards refugees, Turkey, social media, populism, tribalism