Sara Arapiles

Visiting Research Fellow

Dr Sara Arapiles is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law of Lund University. She conducts her research within the interdisciplinary project ‘Refugee Finance: Histories, Frameworks and Practices (REF-FIN)’ where she studies innovative financial instruments aimed at refugees and migrants, particularly refugee bonds, performance-based contracts and concessional loans, with a focus on the institutions, processes and actors involved. Sara teaches and supervises undergraduate and LLM students in human rights law, refugee law, and socio-legal research.

Sara is also Visiting Professor at Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (University of the Basque Country - UPV/EHU). There, she convenes the course ‘Sustainable Finance and Human Rights’ on their Socio-Legal Master. She is also a Research Affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) of the University of London and serves on the Coordinating Committee of the Interest Group on Migration and Refugee Law of the European Society of International Law (ESIL).

During her fellowship at Oxford, Sara will be working on a book chapter on innovative financing mechanisms for Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia. This chapter will draw on data gathered from semi-structured interviews with financial and humanitarian actors as well as public and governmental institutions in Colombia in February-April 2025.

Overview