Nicole is an anthropologist focusing on migration, including regular and forced migration, migration/immigration law and policy, legal practices, ethnicity, conflict, community development and ‘crisis’, and has published on a variety of themes emerging from her independent and collaborative research projects.

Before joining the research project at the University of Bristol, Nicole conducted an in-depth ethnography investigating the practice-policy gap in UK refugee resettlement and community development among refugees (Brunel University, 2012-2017). From 2017-2022, Nicole was the lead researcher for the ASYFAIR research project (www.asyfair.com, University of Exeter), conducting qualitative (ethnographic) and quantitative research on asylum appeal court hearings in Europe. Nicole has also worked as an HP lecturer in Social Anthropology and in Global Challenges/Social Cohesion (Brunel University, 2022-23). For the Bristol-based project ‘UK-EU couples after Brexit’, Nicole is conducting qualitative research with couples affected by post-Brexit immigration regulations.

Latest publication:

Charsley, K. and  Hoellerer, N. (2025)  Migrantisation: A key concept.
CMS 13 (73) [open access]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00497-1 

Gill, N.; Fisher, D.; Griffiths, M.; Hoellerer, N. and Hambly, J. (3 November 2025) ‘How to design an independent asylum appeal body’. LSE British Politics and Policy Blog. Available here.

Gill, N., Hoellerer, N., Hambly, J. and Fisher, D. (2024) Inside Asylum Appeals: Access, Participation and Procedure in Europe. Routledge [open access]; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003295365