Kristin Surak Keynote Speaker

Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the LSE
Author of 'The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires'
Regular commentator for BBC, Bloomberg TV, Huffington Post, Channel News Asia TV and Sky TV News.

Kristin Surak's Biography

Dr. Kristin Surak is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the LSE and the author of The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires (Harvard University Press 2023).

Her research on elite mobility, international migration, nationalism, and politics has been translated into a half-dozen languages. In addition to publishing in major academic and intellectual journals, she also writes regularly for popular outlets, including the London Review of Books, Washington Post, Guardian, and New Statesman.

Kristin also comments regularly for global media outlets, including the BBC, Bloomberg TV, Huffington Post, Channel News Asia TV, and Sky TV News.

She has held several internationally recognized positions, including Richard B. Fischer Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University, Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for Japanese Arts and Cultures.

Kristin is a Lifetime Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and has been a visiting professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and New York University in Abu Dhabi.

Where is international migration headed?

Where is the future of global mobility?

The global market in citizenship by investment

The global market for talent migration

She sits at the forefront of research on elite mobility, migration and nationalism at the London School of Economics, bringing academic rigour to questions reshaping politics and society.
She draws on her work as the author of The Golden Passport to unpack how citizenship, borders and global wealth are being redesigned, and what that means for governments, businesses and institutions.
She translates complex political and migration dynamics into sharp, accessible insights for senior audiences, informed by writing for leading outlets including the London Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian and the New Statesman.
She is a trusted media commentator across major global broadcasters, bringing clarity and authority to live conversations on migration, identity and the geopolitics of mobility.
Her briefings help leaders understand the forces driving mobility and belonging, anticipate policy and reputational risk, and communicate confidently on issues that polarise audiences.