Eve Hayes De Kalaf

Institute Roles

Eve joined History and Policy at the IHR in 2022. She is currently conducting high-level oral history interviews with senior diplomats, government representatives and Caribbean and UK High Commissioners to explore how prominent issues of migration, citizenship and forcible return were in UK-Caribbean diplomatic relations from the 1960s onwards. You can find out more about Eve's publications and research here.

Research Interests

Eve’s research examines the use and abuse of modern-day identity-based development 'solutions' - including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - which aim to provide all people, everywhere with a legal and, increasingly, digital identity over the next decade. This interdisciplinary work examines the ways in which states have historically used registration systems to manufacture, block or deny access to citizens to their documentation. 

Her widely acclaimed book ‘Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner’ is part of the Anthem Series in Citizenship and National Identities. Focusing specifically on the experiences of Haitian-descended people born in the Dominican Republic, the book warns of the potential problems associated with large-scale identification programmes, as promulgated by the World Bank, the United Nations and others. Her in-depth study illustrates how digital identification systems can exclude traditionally marginalised groups based on their race, national and ethnic origin. 

Wider academic work

Together with Dr Jack Webb and the Race, Roots and Resistance Collective, University of Manchester, Eve convenes the CLACS Caribbean Studies Seminar Series. The series conceives of the Caribbean in its broadest possible sense; cross-cutting varying historical, political, sociocultural, linguistic, transnational and decolonial contexts. Through the active promotion of intellectual engagement, knowledge exchange and collaboration, the series welcomes the participation of postgraduate students, early career researchers, writers and scholars who wish to share their interdisciplinary, comparative and integrated research on the region.

Eve is winner of the David Nicholls Memorial Trust Award (2016), the Latin American Studies Association Guy Alexandre Prize (2018) and the CLACS Early Career Fellowship (2021), Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London. She is board member of the Society for Latin American Studies (2019-2023), an affiliate of the Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative, Overseas Development Institute (2022-), and Treasurer of the Haiti Support Group. 

In addition to her scholarly work, Eve is an active campaigner against precarity and casualisation in higher education. She is founding member of the British Academy Early Career Network which, in partnership with the Wolfson Foundation, is piloting a new scheme across the humanities and social sciences over the next two years. Eve is a proud single mum to her daughter Leila who regularly accompanies her to work events and conferences.

Selected Publications

• The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context. Forthcoming. (Monograph).
• Digital Identity: Emerging Trends, Debates and Controversies (2023) London: Women In Identity.
• Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner (2023) London: Anthem Press Series in Citizenship and National Identities. (Paperback with Foreword by Junot Díaz).
• A New Expression of Dominicanidad: The Dominican ID Card, Technology and Race. In Jiménez Polanco, J., & Sagás, E. (2023) Dominican Politics in the Twenty-First Century: Continuity and Change. New York, London: Routledge.
• Chocolate, Children, and the Curriculum: Child Exploitation and the Dominican Cocoa Industry. In Blackman, Stacey N. J. (2022) Equitable Education for Marginalized Youth in Latin America and the Caribbean. New York, London: Routledge
• Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner (2021) London: Anthem Press Series in Citizenship and National Identities. (Hardback).
• Making Foreign: Legal Identity, Social Policy and the Contours of Belonging in the Contemporary Dominican Republic', in Cruz-Martínez, G. (2019) Welfare and Social Protection in Contemporary Latin America. London: Routledge.

Media articles

• Anger as Home Secretary ditches key review recommendations, failing Windrush scandal survivors and campaigners, History & Policy
• At “tipping point”: New Report signals limited drive within the Home Office properly to address the Windrush Scandal, History & Policy
• How some countries are using digital ID to exclude vulnerable people around the world, The Conversation
• Digital identity, rights and citizenship in Latin America and the Caribbean: who are we including and who is being left behind? CLACS blog
• Dominican Republic has taken citizenship from up to 200,000 and is getting away with it, The Conversation

Book Reviews

Jack Webb, Roderick Westmaas, María del Pilar Kaladeen and William Tantam (eds.), Memory, Migration and (De)Colonisation in the Caribbean and Beyond (London: University of London Press, Institute of Latin American Studies, 2020), xii + 187 pp.

Funded Fellowships

• Early Career Fellow, Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London (2020-2021)
• Comparative Statecraft Studentship Award, Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen (2014-2018)
• Isabella Middleton Scholarship Fund, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen (2016)
• Principal's Excellence Fund, University of Aberdeen (2015)

Prizes and Honours

• Keynote Speaker, History of Identity Documentation in European Nations (HIDDEN), European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Conference (2023)
• Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London (2021-2022)
• Best Student Who Tutors Nomination, Edinburgh University Students' Association (2019)
• Guy Alexandre Prize for Best Paper, Latin American Studies Association (2018)
• Visiting Researcher, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh (2017-2018)
• Student Travel Fund, Latin American Studies Association (2017)
• David Nicholls Memorial Trust Award, David Nicholls Memorial Trust (2016)
• Overseas Conference Grant, Society for Latin American Studies (2016)
• Postgraduate Travel Bursary, Society for Latin American Studies (2016)