Group convenors

Dr Fran Amery

Fran Amery’s research addresses contemporary feminist politics, particularly in the context of struggles for reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ rights. She is the author of Beyond Pro-Life and Pro-Choice: The Changing Politics of Abortion in Britain.

Professor Hilde Coffé

Hilde Coffé's main research interests include political behaviour, public opinion, political representation, and gender and politics.

Dr Milena Romano

Milena Romano’s main research interests focus on European integration; security; and foreign policy, including the role of gender, feminism, protest movements and their implications on politics and education.

Dr Ana Catalano Weeks

Ana Catalano Weeks studies gender and politics, political representation, and political parties, with a regional concentration in Western Europe. Her book, Making Gender Salient: From Gender Quota Laws to Policy, investigates the policy impacts of gender quota laws and was published in 2022 by Cambridge University Press.

Dr Jennifer Thomson

Jennifer Thomson’s main research interests are gender, peace and security; women’s rights in post-conflict divided societies; and sexual and reproductive health and rights in international policy-making. From 2022-2026, she is PI on the ESRC New Investigator project Gender in Foreign Policymaking: the academic and policy implications of feminist foreign policy.

Group members

Professor Peter Allen

Peter Allen's research focuses on political representation and political behaviour.

Dr Sheree Bekker

Sheree Bekker is a feminist sport, public health, and social justice researcher. She is currently working on a book project (under contract with Reaktion Books) with Professor Stephen Mumford (Durham), titled Feminist Sport.

Dr Deborah Brewis

Deborah Brewis’ research is focused on the ways in which notions of equality, diversity and practice are understood in the context of work – how do they translate into the practices, policies of workplaces as well as people’s identities and experiences of work? She has a particular interest in our embodied needs at work and the impact of digitalisation.

Dr Mel Channon

Mel Channon is a demographer and social statistician working on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and population policy in low-and-middle-income countries, especially Nepal. She is currently Honorary Secretary of the British Society for Population Studies and PI on a 5-year UKRI-funded project about menstrual justice.

Dr Joanna Clifton-Sprigg

Joanna Clifton-Sprigg’s work spans fields of migration, labour markets and social cohesion, using quantitative analysis of data. Within these fields she often explores the role of gender differences in outcomes. Some of her recent projects focus on parental leave decisions and consequences in terms of labour market performance.

Dr Sandra Daroczi

Sandra Daroczi's research focuses on contemporary women's writing in French, with a particular focus on Monique Wittig, and on the (in)visibility of women artists in art history. She also runs a series of public engagement workshops in local museums, all centred on women and gender.

Dr Matt Dickson

Matt Dickson’s research is primarily in the economics of education, covering a range of areas including the causal effect of education on life outcomes; the impact of school systems on educational and earnings inequality; and the labour market returns to undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Matt leads a programme of research at the Institute for Policy Research looking at how to widen access to higher education and promote successful participation and transition into the labour market for graduates from widening participation backgrounds.

Dr Maria Garcia

Maria Garcia's research focuses on the politics of international trade and trade agreements, including the implementation of social, environmental and gender chapters in modern trade agreements.

Dr Adalgisa Giorgio

Adalgisa Giorgio’s research is in Italian contemporary women’s writing, Neapolitan writing, and the Italian diaspora in New Zealand, with an interest across the three areas on intergenerational relationships, family and gender relations, motherhood, and Southern identity.

Professor Timo Kivimäki

Timo Kivimäki’s research investigates the level of violence in social realities that are constituted by different framings. This includes the hegemonic masculine framing of conflict and atrocity crimes.

Professor Susan Milner

Susan Milner's research focuses on policies to advance women's progression in the workplace. Her book on Women and employment in public policy will appear with Oxford University Press in early 2024.

Dr Susannah O'Sullivan

Susannah O'Sullivan's research addresses colonialism, militarism and ecological collapse, and the possibilities of intersectional resistance to these totalities. She is currently exploring intersections of gender, race and indigeneity in settler colonies. She is the author of Military Intervention in the Middle East: The Case of NATO in Libya.

Dr Penny Miles

Penny Miles' research covers two main areas: LGBTQ+ politics and human rights in Latin America, and the feminist politics of football. She is particularly interested in social movements and institutions, and how the two intersect.

Dr Elena Minelli

Elena Minelli is a Lecturer in Italian and Applied Translation Studies. Her academic and research background are in languages, translation and gender studies, and her interests are in the areas of languages and linguistics, translation and the media.

Professor Carol Taylor

Carol Taylor’s research focuses on the entangled relations of knowledge, power, gender, space and ethics in higher education, utilizing transdisciplinary, post humanist and feminist new materialist theories and methodologies.

Thiyagaraja Waradas

Thiyagaraja Waradas' research focuses on LGBTIQ+ Politics and Peace and Conflict Studies. He is particularly interested in sexual and gender justice movements in South Asia and Sri Lanka.

Dr Steve Wharton

Steve Wharton works on perceptions and portrayals of LGBTIQ+ issues in Britain and France, with a particular interest in the pink economy, homophobic acts and their reporting, and debates around ’gay marriage’.

Dr Sophie Whiting

Sophie Whiting’s research centres on political parties and power sharing institutions following violent conflict. She is particularly interested in the role of gender in issues relating to conflict and reconciliation, including political participation and the UN's Women Peace and Security Agenda.