CURRENT RESEARCH
OUTSIDE/IN
Qualitative Study · Sweden · 2016
A. Horning, PhD — Principal Investigator and Research Lead
Sara Jordenö — Film Direction and Research Lead
A qualitative study of unaccompanied young refugees navigating the Swedish asylum system during the 2015–16 migration period. The research examines displacement, institutional encounters, and the social relationships that develop under conditions of prolonged uncertainty.
CIVIL SOCIETY
Qualitative Study · Sweden · 2018–19
A. Horning, PhD — Principal Investigator and Research Lead
Sara Jordenö — Film Direction and Research Lead
A study of the civil-society networks that mobilized in response to increasingly restrictive asylum policy in Sweden. Through interviews and field research, the project examines how teachers, advocates, families, volunteers, and other community members became involved in supporting young refugees facing deportation.
RETURN CONDITIONS
Longitudinal Qualitative Study · Sweden · 2026
A. Horning, PhD — Principal Investigator and Research Lead
Sara Jordenö — Film Direction and Research Lead
This longitudinal study revisits the civil-society networks first documented in Civil Society to examine how relationships, forms of support, and political engagement have changed over seven years. It situates these changes within major shifts in Swedish and European asylum policy and public discourse, including the growing centrality of return within migration governance.
RESISTANCE/DRIFT
Comparative Qualitative Study · Northern Europe + United States · In Development
A. Horning, PhD — Principal Investigator and Research Lead
Sara Jordenö — Film Direction and Research Lead
A comparative study of civil-society networks responding to migration governance in Northern Europe and the United States. The research examines how networks form, persist, change, and adapt across different political and institutional contexts.
RELATED ART & FILM PROJECTS →
RELATED PUBLICATIONS →
EARLIER RESEARCH
SEX MARKETS, MAPPING + GOVERNANCE
Qualitative + Visual Research · United States · 2011–
A. Horning, PhD — Principal Investigator
Sara Jordenö — Artist and Researcher
Beginning in 2011, Jordenö and Horning Ruf developed a body of collaborative research examining sex markets, urban space, policing, migration, and the effects of legal and policy frameworks on people working within and around the sex trade. The research combines qualitative methods with mapping and visual research and has produced publications, presentations, and projects including the NYC Maps Project.
NYC MAPS PROJECT →
RELATED PUBLICATIONS →