Eve Hayes De Kalaf

Institute Roles

Eve joined 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. 

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), Honorary Fellow 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.