Dr Hassan Ould Moctar is an LSE Fellow in International Development. His research focuses on the relationship between migration, borders, and development processes, with a regional focus on Mauritania, the West African Sahel, and the Sahara. In particular, he is interested in how the illegalisation of migration interacts with the racial and territorial legacies of colonialism, contemporary uneven development processes, and conflict and displacement dynamics. He is currently preparing a monograph based on his PhD thesis, which details how the EU border externalisation processes intervenes within social relations and structures in Mauritania.

Prior to joining LSE, Hassan was an ESRC postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London, where he also obtained his PhD in May 2021. He holds an MSc in Migration and Ethnic Studies, which he obtained with distinction from the University of Amsterdam. His work has been published in academic journals, such as Environment and Planning: D, Anthropologie et Développement, and Movements: a journal of critical migration and border studies, as well as in media outlets such as Al-Jazeera, Open Democracy, and Jadaliyya. He sits on the Advisory/Executive Committee of the Centre for Maghrib Studies at Arizona State University, and on the editorial board of the Tamazgha Studies Journal (formerly Francophone journal of North African Studies). He is currently guest co-editing special issues of l’Ouest Saharien and Movements.