Maria Jose Recalde-Vela LLM MSc

Bio

My name is Maria Jose Recalde-Vela, and I am an Ecuadorian/Honduran PhD candidate at the Department of Public Law and Governance at Tilburg Law school. I am part of the European (joint) Doctorate on Law & Development (EDOLAD) program. My PhD project investigates the manner in which inclusion is conceptualized in the field of statelessness through the practice of human rights and international development actors. As part of my research, I conducted interviews with practitioners who work on statelessness in various sectors, including international organisations, think tanks, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and grassroots organisations, to name a few.

Expertise

I work under the supervision of Professor Morag Goodwin (TLS), Dr. Laura van Waas (TLS), and Professor Ingunn Ikdahl (Oslo Law School). I am also currently the co-managing editor of the Statelessness and Citizenship Review, a joint initiative of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and Melbourne Law School. I hold an LL.M in international and European Law, a M.Sc. In Victimology and Criminal Justice and an LL.M in Legal Research, all from Tilburg University. My undergraduate thesis, titled 'how can identity assert a claim to citizenship? In search of a safeguard against statelessness' was the 2014 winner of the UNHCR Award for Statelessness Research in the undergraduate category.

I am interested in questions of inclusion, nationality, citizenship, and statelessness. I have a growing interest in matters relating to the influence of coloniality in current development trends, on decolonial approaches to development, and on Andean philosophy and knowledge. 

Collaboration

Networks and programs

EDOLAD program (PhD student)

Law & Development Research Network (member)

GPS (Global PhDs on Statelessness) Network (founding member)

Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research (member)

Recent publications

1. Ethics and epistemic injustice in the Global South - A response to Ho…

   Kaur, K., Grama, B., Chaudhuri, N. R., & Recalde-Vela, M. J. (2023). Ethics and epistemic injustice in the Global South: A response to Hopman’s human rights exceptionalism as justification for covert research. Journal of Human Rights Practice, 15(2), 347-373.

2. Access to redress for stateless persons under international law - Cha…

   Recalde-Vela, M. J. (2019). Access to redress for stateless persons under international law: Challenges and opportunities. Tilburg Law Review: Journal on international and comparative law, 24(2), 182-203. https://tilburglawreview.com/article/10.5334/tilr.153/

3. The state of statelessness research - 5 years later

   Recalde-Vela, M. J., Jaghai-Bajulaiye, S., & Vlieks, C. (2019). The state of statelessness research: 5 years later. Tilburg Law Review: Journal on international and comparative law, 24(2), 139-141.

4. Solving statelessness - Interpreting the right to nationality

   Vlieks, C., Hirsch Ballin, E., & Recalde Vela, M. J. (2017). Solving statelessness: Interpreting the right to nationality. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 35(3), 158-175.

5. How can identity assert a claim to citizenship? - In search of a safe…

   Recalde-Vela, M. J. (2015). How can identity assert a claim to citizenship? In search of a safeguard against statelessness. Student Undergraduate Research E-journal!, 1(1), 1-4. https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/index.php/sure/article/view/1028