Kathryn Allan is a PhD student at the Australian National University where she is looking at the lived experiences of refugees and asylum seekers. Prior to embarking on PhD studies she was an activist with Amnesty International for over 10-years with a focus on campaigning on refugee and asylum seeker policy. She also worked in the International Development sector with DFAT Australian Awards and ACIAR capacity building programs. Kathryn graduated as the Chancellor’s Medallist from the University of the Sunshine Coast, awarded for both her work in the community and honours thesis entitled ‘Identity management in disaster response environments: a child exploitation mitigation perspective’ for which she was awarded the IDCARE honours scholarship. Kathryn is passionate about gender equality and social justice.