Laura
Lamas Abraira
Laura Lamas Abraira’s academic background is rooted in the fields of Fine Arts and Sociocultural Anthropology. She completed her doctorate between China (Xiamen University) and Spain, and was awarded an International PhD in Intercultural Studies in 2019 by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (with Cum Laude mention and the 2018/19 Outstanding PhD Thesis Award). Her PhD research was published as a monograph entitled Chinese Transnational Families: Care Circulation and Children’s Life Paths (Routledge, 2021).
She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher on Spanish and EU-funded projects, including Festspace: Festivals, Events and Inclusive Urban Public Spaces in Europe (HERA Public Spaces, 2019–2022, PCI2019-103745) and AccessIn: Social Inclusion and Access to Basic Services of Third-Country Nationals (EU-AMIF 2020-AG). In January 2023, she joined the Anthropology Department at the CSIC’s Institute of Language, Literature and Anthropology (ILLA) as a Ramón y Cajal researcher, where she has continued her research on international migration and its local and transnational articulations.
Her main lines of research are: (1) Transnational families and care; (2) Migrant background and the (re)production of social vulnerability; and (3) Space and (im)material culture. Her current research design emphasises participatory methodologies and experimentation with graphic and audiovisual languages.
Books
Lamas-Abraira, L. (2021). Chinese Transnational Families: Care Circulation and Children's Life Paths. London: Routledge.
Book chapters
- Lamas-Abraira, L.; Colombo, A. and Villanueva, X. (2025). Dancing Alone(s): Participatory Hierarchies of a Popular Culture Festival in a Global City. In M. Alami Fariman , C. Lee, A. Hakiminejad and A. Mehan: City, Public Space, and Body: The Embodied Experience of Urban Life. ISBN 9781032662381. Routledge.
- Lamas-Abraira, L. (2025). Children in Migration. In Oso, L.; Ribas-Mateos, N. & M. Moralli (eds), Elgar Encyclopedia of Global Migration. New Mobilities and Artivism (Eds.) Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN: 978 1 03530 037 2
- Lamas-Abraira, L. (2023). Fluid childhoods: Chinese migrants' descendants growing up in a transnational social field. In D. Bühler-Niederberger, X. Gu, J. Schwittek & E. Kim (eds). The Emerald Handbook of Childhood and Youth in Asian Societies (pp.61-82). Bingley (UK), Emerald publishing.
- Lamas-Abraira, L. (2022). A critical reading of the care-gender based literature in migration studies. In Saskia Sassen and Natalia Ribas-Mateos (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Gender and Global Migration beyond Western Research (Chapter 1, pp.24-36). Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Lamas Abraira, L. (2021). El cuidado en las familias transnacionales qingtianesas. En J. Beltrán Antolín (ed.), Asia Oriental. Transnacionalismo, sociedad y cultura (pp. 161-182). Edicions Bellaterra.
Artícles
- Lamas-Abraira, L., Colombo, A., Oliva, J. & Martín, J. (2025). Mapping unequal access to culture: a visual approach to culture-festival distribution and socio-economic asymmetries in Barcelona. Urban Geography.
- Lamas-Abraira, L. (2024). Re-circular el cuidado en (post)pandemia: (in)movilidad e hiperconexión en las familias transnacionales chinas entre Zhejiang y España. SI: “Familias, políticas públicas y prácticas profesionales. Tensiones y desafíos tras la pandemia”. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Familia, 15(2).
- Lamas-Abraira, L. & Colombo, A. (2023). The local and global scope of the Year of the Ox: Rethinking Chinese New Year Festival in Pandemic Times. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 19: 295–323.
- Lamas Abraira, L. (2023). Migración y globalización del cristianismo chino: dinámicas locales y transnacionales de las iglesias cristianas chinas en Barcelona. Migraciones, 58: 1–21.
- Lamas Abraira, L. (2021). ‘He crecido aquí, es diferente’: Experiencias y trayectorias vitales de los descendientes de migrantes chinos en España. Revista Migraciones, 52: 117-146
- Lamas-Abraira, L. (2019). Care circulation and the so-called ‘elderly’: Exploring care exchanges in 4G transnational Zhejianese families. Journal of Family Studies, 27(3), 460–478 Doi: 10.1080/13229400.2019.1641427