EDITORIAL MICHELLE FOSTER * AND LAURA VAN WAAS ** A feature of a maturing field of study is its propensity and capacity to generate a critical approach to its scope, methodology, approaches and standpoint. Just two years ago, in the first volume of the Statelessness & Citizenship Review, contributors discussed the emergence of statelessness studies as a relatively new field. It is impressive to observe how rapidly a level of sophistication is emerging, with scholars increasingly willing to reflect on, evaluate and critique the status quo, and introduce critical methods and perspectives that can open up new avenues for scholarship. This is particularly evident in the work of emerging statelessness scholars — the new generation of researchers — whose work is promising to reshape and push the field to greater depth and insight. This is in many cases achieved through introducing theoretical insights from other disciplines and questioning the dominance of established traditions within the field. As Deirdre Brennan and Thomas McGee observe in the introduction to their Critical Statelessness Studies Project, while early approaches to statelessness studies have been dominated by legal approaches: the time has come to interrogate many of the assumptions that have become embedded within statelessness studies through lack of prior questioning. Critical reflections and readings against the grain must also not be divorced from the reality of lived statelessness. 1 Such interrogation includes reflecting on the space for, and importance of, the contributions and perspectives of those who have experienced statelessness. Increasingly, stateless persons are rejecting the label of ‘invisibility’, as evidenced most strikingly in the establishment of organisations such as United Stateless, 2 and State Free, 3 formed and led by those with lived experience to build community, empower, educate and advocate for the rights of stateless persons. As Christiana Bukalo, founder of State Free observes, her inspiration for establishing this new initiative was the ‘gap between those affected by statelessness and those working to fight statelessness’. 4 She argues that a pressing priority is to produce * ** 1 2 3 4 Michelle Foster is Professor and Director of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at Melbourne Law School. Dr Laura van Waas is a founder and Co-Director of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, as well as an Assistant Professor at Tilburg Law School in The Netherlands. Deidre Brennan and Thomas McGee, ‘Introductory Blog: Taking a Critical Approach to Statelessness Studies’, Critical Statelessness Studies Blog (Blog Post, July 2020) <https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/statelessness/critical-statelessness-studies-blog/cssblog-articles/introductory-blog-taking-a-critical-approach-to-statelessness>. ‘United Stateless’, United Stateless (Web Page) <https://www.unitedstateless.org/>. ‘Welcome’, State Free (Web Page) <https://statefree.world/>. Christiana Bukalo, ‘Knowledge to Empower: Closing the Gap between Stateless People and Statelessness Research’, Critical Statelessness Studies Blog (Blog Post, December 2020) <https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/statelessness/critical-statelessness-studiesblog/knowledge-to-empower-closing-the-gap-between-stateless-people-and-statelessnessresearch>.