Wanki, Presca

Presca Wanki is an Associate Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS.  Presca is currently a consultant for a research project on case management for returnees in the Horn of Africa ( Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia). 

Under the supervision of Prof. Dr Ine Lietaert (Ghent University and UNU-CRIS), her doctoral research focused on the post-return experiences of migrants in Cameroon. In investigating this, she focused on people returning from different Western countries and under different circumstances by critically examining how community expectations and [in]formal support structures determine their reintegration processes. Apart from focusing on her research, she also assists in supervising a master student for her dissertation.

Presca holds a master’s degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology and an Advanced Master’s degree in Cultures and Development Studies from KU Leuven. She wrote her master’s thesis on “The Education-Migration Nexus: An Anthropological Study of Everyday Lives of Cameroonian Students in Leuven”. In this thesis, she seeks to answer a plethora of questions concerning the everyday lives of self-sponsored Cameroonian students in Leuven who live a double life by juggling work and studies. The main questions which arise are; How do they identify with their student, worker or transnational caregiver identity? Can these identities go together?

Moreover, these issues unveil their next step in their migration trajectory. For this master’s thesis, Presca was awarded the Gülen Chair Award for the Best Intercultural Master Thesis. The study was published in the journal ‘Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power’.