Eve Hayes De Kalaf

Institute & SAS Roles

Eve joined the IHR as a research fellow in 2022. She is currently Training Fellow in History & the Humanities, supporting the School of Advanced Study's national mission to promote and facilitate Research Training in the field of History and related disciplines. Her role involves working with academic leads to develop the School’s short course portfolio, facilitating cross-Institute/departmental collaboration and helping to launch new courses and seasonal schools, both online and in-person. Eve is also a member of the University of London Research Ethics Committee. A specialist in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, she is currently taking applications for PhD research in the following areas:

• Spanish and Francophone Caribbean history, including Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Haiti
• Colonial expansionism and foreign intervention in the Americas
• Race formation, identity and belonging in the Americas

Research Interests

Dr Hayes de Kalaf’s work examines the historical origins of modern-day identity-based digital development 'solutions' within and beyond the international development sector - including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - which aim to provide all people, everywhere with a legal and, increasingly, digital identity over the next decade. Her critically acclaimed book 'Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner', published with a Foreword by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dominican American author Junot Díaz, focuses specifically on access to citizenship across Latin America and the Caribbean examining how states can manufacture, block or deny access to citizens - including the migrant-descended - to their documentation. This includes the growing influence of international organisations such as the World Bank over facilitating the en masse introduction of digital identification systems. Her recent work on the AHRC-funded project ‘The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context’ included extensive empirical research across Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago as well as the design and creation of an online digital oral history archive examining the historical origins of this major controversy.

You can find out more about her publications and research interests here. 

Wider academic work

Eve is winner of the David Nicholls Memorial Trust Award (2016), the Latin American Studies Association Guy Alexandre Prize (2018) and the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS) Early Career Fellowship (2021), Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London. She is a former 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 Secretary of the Haiti Support Group.

In collaboration with the Society for Caribbean Studies, Eve convenes the popular CLACS Caribbean Studies Seminar Series. This online 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, we welcome the participation of postgraduate students, early career researchers, writers and scholars who wish to share their interdisciplinary, comparative and integrated research on the region. You can sign up for upcoming seminars here.

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 an ECR membership scheme across the humanities and social sciences. Eve is a proud single mum to her daughter Leila who regularly accompanies her to work events and conferences.

Funded Fellowships

• Short-term scientific mission (STSM) to the University of Amsterdam, COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action CA21120 (2023)
• Early Career Fellow, Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London (2020-2021)
• Visiting Research Fellow, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh (2017-2018)
• Isabella Middleton Scholarship Fund, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen (2016)
• Principal's Excellence Fund, University of Aberdeen (2015)
• Comparative Statecraft PhD Studentship Award, Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen (2014-2018)
• UNHCR Fellowship to participate on Statelessness Course and present at The First Global Forum on Statelessness, Tilburg University (2014)

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)
• 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)