The Stephen Lawrence Research Centre team
Staff
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Dr Lisa Palmer, Interim Director
Dr Lisa Amanda Palmer is the Interim Director of the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at 冈本视频, Leicester. She was the former Course Director for the Black Studies undergraduate programme and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Birmingham City University.
Lisa is a qualified librarian and previously worked for Birmingham Libraries and Archive Services for many years. She has a keen interest in working with local archive collections, specifically, the Vanley Burke Archive held at the Library of Birmingham.
Her research focuses on Black feminism, Black cultural politics and the intersection of race, racism, gender and sexuality.聽 Her writing covers a broad spectrum of fields including the gendered politics of lovers鈥 rock music, the production of local community archives and the misogynoir faced by Black women in British public life. She is the co-author of the book Blackness in Britain (2016) and is currently writing her book on Black women in the UK鈥檚 lover鈥檚 rock reggae scene.
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Sherilyn Pereira, Interim Deputy Director
Sherilyn Pereira has had a long-standing career in Communications, Marketing and Public Relations (PR). Her early career in international fashion PR set the pace for an exciting career in New York where she worked as PR to the newly divorced Ivana Trump and a number of high-profile clients. She also held PR positions at the Metropolitan Opera and Cambridge University鈥檚 US Development Office - her entry point into the Higher Education sector.
Sherilyn was a member of 冈本视频鈥檚 Communications Team before joining the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre in January 2019, with a focus on developing the public face and professional profile of the centre, which she now manages through delivery of an exciting public engagement programme.聽 She is also co-chair of 冈本视频鈥檚 BAME Network.
Sherilyn juggles her role while studying for an MSc in Advertising and Public Relations Management. Her work is enhanced by her passion for race, identity and social justice issues that are debated on a nightly basis with her large 鈥榯eam鈥 at home.
Legacy in Action Fellows
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Dr Fatima Rajina
Dr Fatima Rajina鈥檚 research is focussed on the relations between Bangladeshi and Somalian communities in Tower Hamlets in the East End of London.聽
She will be looking at how the Bangladeshi community constructs notions of blackness and how this construction unravels vis-a-vis the Somali community.
Dr Rajina says: 鈥淚 am fascinated by the East End of London and I want to see what the interactions are between communities as they have moved around the world.鈥
After completing an MA in Islamic Societies and Cultures, Dr Rajina went on to do a PhD at SOAS, University of London. She has also worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, looking at police and counter-terrorism. Dr Rajina was also a Teaching Fellow at SOAS, Research Fellow at UCL and worked as a Lecturer in Sociology at Kingston University.
Dr Rajina has a passion for languages and is fluent in German, Spanish and Bengali and can read and write in classical Arabic.
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Dr Yusef Bakkali
Dr Yusef Bakkali grew up in Brixton, South London,聽and from an early age became aware of injustice and inequality operating in society.
His key research focuses around the lives of young people involved in 鈥楻oad Life鈥 - a contemporary street culture of which elements have recently been the subject of popular media representations in shows like聽Top Boy聽(Channel 4/Netflix) and films like聽Blue Story聽(BBC Films/Paramount Pictures).聽聽
Yusef says: 鈥淚t is important to me to be working with people who have a lot of faith in what we are trying to do. We have to respect the legacy of the Lawrence family and our research has to have an activist dimension to it. Activism is about taking a stance. We do not necessarily want to be part of the current research canon. Our research needs to challenge and it needs to take risks.鈥
Yusef鈥檚 areas of expertise are youth, social exclusion, race, crime, music,聽youth cultures, road life, austerity, decoloniality聽and聽masculinities. He holds a PhD in Sociology, an MSc in Social Research Methods and a BA in Politics and Society.
Academic affiliates
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Dr Amina Easat-Daas
Dr Amina Easat-Daas earned her PhD at Aston University, Birmingham, UK and studied Muslim women鈥檚 political participation in France and Belgium. She is an Early Career Academic Fellow in the department of People, Politics and Place at 冈本视频, Leicester. Before joining 冈本视频 Amina worked in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds within the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies on the EU funded Counter-Islamophobia Kit project.
Her research interests include the study of Muslim political participation, Muslim women, Muslim youth, Islamophobia and creatively countering-Islamophobia in Europe, gendered dimensions of Islamophobia, and 鈥楨uropean-Islam鈥. In her capacity as an emerging Islamophobia studies specialist, she has been invited and has presented her research findings to the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Carter Center (USA), and the OSCE-ODIHR among others and has appeared on national and international media on numerous occasions to discuss Muslim current affairs.
Her forthcoming publications include her monograph EASAT-DAAS, A., 2020. Muslim Women鈥檚 Political Participation in France and Belgium. (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke)
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Dr Christopher Roy Zembe
Dr Christopher Roy Zembe is a Lecturer in History at 冈本视频. His research interests are the history of migration, colonial and post-colonial legacies, Black British History and the African diaspora. His published work consists of: a book entitled Zimbabwean Communities in Britain Imperial and Post-Colonial Identities and Legacies ; a Chapter entitled Quest for a Cohesive Diaspora African Community: Reliving Historic Experiences by Black Zimbabweans in Britain in a book on 鈥楴ew Perspectives on Black British History鈥; and an article in the Journal of Migration History entitled Migrating with Colonial and Post-Colonial Memories: Dynamics of Racial Interactions within Zimbabwe's Minority Communities in Britain.
Chris has also been involved in organising 鈥楬istory Matters鈥 Conference aimed at exploring why there are few history students of African or Caribbean heritage in British education institutions.
His Twitter handle is
PhD Researchers
Lisa Robinson, PhD Researcher
Keisha Bruce, PhD Researcher
Raj Gill, PhD Researcher
SLRC Academic Advisory Committee
Chris Hall, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Fiona Dick, Head of Sport
Professor Shushma Patel, Dean, Computing, Engineering and Media
Professor Jo Richardson, Associate Dean, Research and Innovation
Katharine Short, Special Collections Manager
Dr Manjeet Ridon, Associate Dean, International and 冈本视频 Dubai Provost
Dr Meera Warrier, Head of Policy Governance and Research Student Services
Dr Momodou Sallah, Director, Centre for Academic Innovation
Professor Bertha Ochieng, Integrated Health and Social Care
Professor Richard Hall, Education and Technology
Professor Siobhan Keenan, Associate Dean, Research and Innovation
Professor Stuart Price, Media and Political Discourse
Vanessa Haye, Project Manager, Leicester’s Future Leaders
Kaushika Patel, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Professor Simon Oldroyd, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Dean, Health and Life Sciences