Aicha Lariani | MA, Anthropology
When Aicha Lariani began her MA in Anthropology at the University of Waterloo, she arrived with big questions about migration, displacement and how people navigate life in uncertain circumstances. At Waterloo, she found the mentorship, field experience and academic community to turn those questions into meaningful research with global relevance.
Today, Lariani’s research explores how education, migration and legal status intersect through the experiences of international students in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
“Going into my master's program, I was curious about how people navigate life in places that the world doesn't quite recognize, such as politically contested spaces.” she says. “I wanted to understand what becomes possible when the formal systems they depend on, like asylum, aren’t accessible to them.”
Building a research career at Waterloo
Conducting her fieldwork in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus alongside her supervisor, Dr. Seçil Dağtaş, became one of the defining experiences of Lariani’s graduate studies.
“She travelled to Cyprus with me, showed me the ropes, and created the conditions for me to do my best work,” Lariani says. “I arrived with an idea and left having built a study from scratch in a territory I had no prior ties to. The support I found at Waterloo made that possible.”
That opportunity fundamentally changed how she approached research.
“This experience taught me to trust the process and stay open to where the research leads rather than where you expect it to go.”
Understanding migration through education
Using interviews and fieldwork, Lariani documented the experiences of students rebuilding their lives far from home while navigating uncertainty.
“Most of the students I spoke with came from countries in active conflict or extreme instability, with few viable options for safety or mobility,” she says.
Many arrived in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus expecting affordable education and new opportunities but instead encountered financial pressures, limited employment options and uncertain legal realities.
Her findings challenge conventional ways of understanding migration by examining how policy categories shape people’s experiences and access to protection.
“I hope my research contributes to how we understand the relationship between higher education and displacement globally,” she says. “"I also hope it challenges how we use categories like ‘refugee’ and ‘student’ in migration policy. Those labels determine who gets protection, but they often don't reflect what people are actually living.”
Beyond the policy implications, it was the generosity and determination of study participants that left the strongest impression.
“What stayed with me most was the participants’ resilience,” she says. “Students were building peer economies on WhatsApp, writing human rights reports, and advocating for others while facing the same vulnerabilities themselves.”
Finding community and recognition
For Lariani, the relationships she built throughout her degree were just as meaningful as the research itself.
“My cohort, my professors, the colleagues who became friends made the hardest parts of this degree feel genuinely joyful,” she says.
Her research was recognized with the Sally Weaver Award, an honour that holds special significance within Anthropology.
“Receiving the Sally Weaver Award meant a great deal to me,” she says. “It was an encouragement to keep doing this work seriously.”
