Zana Vathi is a social scientist and writer, journeying through disciplinary boundaries and incorporating the arts and creative technology into her research. She approaches the movement of people across borders from both a human rights and a creative angle. After doing research in this area since 2005, she is critical of the academic machinery of publishing, asking questions such as 'how would we work and what would we write if we were not expected to do so and in a certain way?'

Re-centering the focus of her research on curiosity and learning, away from epistemic hierarchies and into the boundless possibilities of the arts, she wonders whether form, sound and colour could say more about the clash between migration as the natural process of following hope, and the fear of letting the 'other' in. 

Vathi is interested in the residual remit of research in migrant researcher’s body. While at Studio/Lab, she is working towards channelling the frequency of research encounter, that which is withheld and brews as the analytical gaze matures and rests, not just through themes, codes and the written word, but also through sound, form and colour.