Kelly Birch Maginot, PhD

Dr. Kelly Birch Maginot is the Assistant Director, Advocacy Services of the Campus Advocacy Network.

Kelly is an educator and advocate with interests in gender, international migration, and violence. Before coming to UIC, she completed her PhD in Sociology at Michigan State University with a specialization in Women’s and Gender Studies.

As a 2016 Inter-American Foundation Grassroots Development Fellow, Kelly completed a qualitative research study with Salvadorans deported from the United States, which explored individuals’ experiences of exclusion, stigmatization, and belonging in the U.S. and El Salvador. At MSU, she served as a member of the university’s Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention team and worked in the Center for Gender in Global Context as the managing editor of the Gendered Perspectives on International Development (GPID) Working Papers. She has taught at MSU, DePaul University, and Dominican University, and her research has been published in Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, & Change and The International Handbook of Migration Studies. She also draws from her research as an expert witness in stay-of-deportation and asylum cases.

Kelly takes a survivor-centered approach to advocacy and is committed to supporting survivors while advocating for an end to violence and harassment. She is excited to join the UIC community and be part of the university’s innovative work for change.