Raffaela Puggioni holds a Ph.D in International Relations from the University of Kent. She has done extensive works on Kurdish refugees in Italy, and on Italian refugee camps. Her recent publications include ‘Refugees, Self-Help Strategies, and Institutional Invisibility’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 2005; ‘Resisting Sovereign Power: Camps In-between Exception and Dissent’ in Huysmans, Dobson, and Prokhovnik (eds.), The Politics of Protection (Routledge, 2006). She is now writing a book on Kurdish refugees and the politics of invisibility in Italy.