2025-26 Postdoctoral Fellows
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(Goldsmiths, University of London)
Primary mentor: Professor Nirmal Puwar
Second mentor: Dr Sobia Ahmad Kaker
Publications:
2024 CUCR: My Spiritual And Intellectual Home, online article on StreetSigns
2024 Trader Tales at Deptford Lounge, online article on StreetSigns
2024 Visibilising gentrification-induced dis-placement: a visual essay on the role of a socially and politically engaged photo-graphic practice in housing activism,Visual Studies 39(1-2), pp.118-126, DOI:10.1080/1472586X.2023.2241424
2023 (In)visible mountain infrastructures, online article on StreetSigns
2021 The Stone Sea: a walk through mountain research, editorial and article in Walking Places: Conference Proceedings, e-book published by DINÂMIA'CET-IUL, The Centre for Socio-economic and Territorial Studies at University Institute Lisbon, pp.I-III; 7-23
2020 Deptford is Changing: a creative exploration of the impact of gentrification, self-published resource book
2018 Deptford is Changing: The impact of regeneration on local residents, article in Capital City, pp. 44-47, publication by University of the Arts London
2018 A Neighbours’ Event: building community through socially-engaged photography, article published in Ethical Record, 123(1), pp.18-20, Conway Hall Ethical Society, London
2017 Using Photographic Research to facilitate social interaction, article in fLIP 38, pp.12-15, published by London Independent Photography
2013 Deptford High Street, article in StreetSigns 2012/2013, pp. 20-22, published by the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths, University of London
2011 Deptford High Street, article in fLIP 18, p. 55, published by London Independent Photography
2011 Deptford High Street, self-published book
Planned publications:
- An article for Qualitative Research. ‘Repoliticising participatory arts to work towards social justice on the ground’ advocates a return of participation to its oppositional origins, redressing depoliticised participatory art and research practices.
- A visual essay for Visual Communication. ‘Campaign material as empirical data’ introduces campaign material from housing campaigns as valuable data on the psychosocial effects of gentrification-induced displacement, emphasising the insights visual data can offer about the lived experience.
- An article for Visual Studies. ‘Towards Radical Visual Studies: supporting housing activism through gentrification and displacement research’ argues for more activist-oriented visual research methods and for research to get directly involved in political struggles.
- An article for Housing Studies. ‘Visibilising the emotional trauma of gentrification-induced displacement’ demonstrates how a politically and socially engaged research methodology reveals deeper insight into lived experience.
- An article for Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. ‘Conflictual Place Attachment: moving beyond traditional understandings of place attachment’ introduces political struggle as a way of developing place attachment.
Contact details:
Email: anitastrasser@gmail.com
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Research topic title: Towards an activist creative sociological imagination: Utilising politically and socially engaged visual research methods
Research project description: With this post-doctoral fellowship (PDF), I seek to expand the academic impact of my research and establish myself as a visual scholar bridging academia, arts and activism.
The main aim of this PDF is to publish in peer-reviewed academic journals and make a significant contribution to literature on gentrification, displacement and housing activism as well as visual research methods. The main output of this fellowship is a series of stand-alone academic journal articles rewritten from thesis chapters (see planned publications).
Another aim is to enhance my skills in writing academic articles, thus helping me achieve my main aim. I’ll be working with a professional academic writing consultant through one-to-one tutorials and attend two writing retreats to obtain individual feedback on drafts. I will also attend free training sessions on writing and publishing at Goldsmiths.
I will continue engaging with a range of different audiences and build networks to develop impact opportunities and further development. As such, I will attend networking opportunities with housing campaigners, residents, artists and academics to sustain existing and build new networks (e.g. Gentrification Project at Public Interest Law Centre, LSE Cities Programme, UCL Urban Lab). I will also attend and present at a high-profile conference (IVSA or RGS-IBG) to communicate my research findings, get feedback, network and identify potential opportunities for further impact or development and/or potential collaborations
Finally, I will develop a funding application to work on an independent research project after this fellowship.
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(Goldsmiths, University of London)
Primary mentor: Aminul Hoque
Second mentor: Tracey Costley
Publications:
Cooke, M. Rampton, B, Winstanley. B. and Bryers, D. (2023) Participatory ESOL: Taking Stock. Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies. King’s College London. Paper 310
Winstanley, B. (2022) Walking Interviews, visual diagramming and participatory ethnography. Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies. King’s College London. Paper 299
Cooke, M, Bryers, D. and Winstanley, B. (2019) ‘Our Languages’: towards sociolinguistic citizenship in ESOL. In M. Cooke and R. Peutrell (eds) Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens: exploring ESOL and citizenship (pp. 137-153) Bristol: Multilingual Matters
Cooke, M. Winstanley, B. and Bryers, D. (2014) ‘Whose Integration? A participatory ESOL project in the UK’ in Simpson, J. & Whiteside, A. Adult Language Education and Migration: Challenging Agendas in Policy and Practice Routledge.
Cooke, M, Bryers, D and Winstanley, B. (2014) ‘Participatory ESOL’ In D. Mallows (Ed.), Language Issues in migration and integration: Perspectives from teachers and learners. (pp. 9-19). London: The British Council.
Cooke, M, Bryers, D and Winstanley, B. (2014) ‘The power of discussion’. In D. Mallows (Ed) Language Issues in migration and integration: Perspectives from teachers and learners. (pp. 35-54). London: The British Council.
Planned publication:
- Winstanley, B. ‘Bangladeshi Italians and sociolinguistic change in an east London market’, in Goglia, F and Villa, V (eds) Onward Migration, Languages and Education (forthcoming).
- Winstanley, B, ‘Onward Bangladeshi migration from Italy and Sylheti language maintenance in east London’. Multilingua (volume forthcoming)
Contact details:
Email: Beckywinstanley71@gmail.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becky-winstanley-5367545b
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Research topic title: Sylheti speakers and language heterotopias in London's East End
Research project description: This project centres multilingualism in Tower Hamlets, east London, with focus on the importance of Sylheti in the public place. I expand on my work in migrant language education and education research to explore multilingualism outside education spaces, Sylheti is widely spoken in east London but is often positioned as a ‘home language’ with little relevance for social life outside and, like with other racialised minority languages, it is at the sharp end of negative tropes about multilingualism. My research challenges these discourses, showing that Sylheti is integral to local communication practice - often central, at times peripheral, and rarely entirely absent, with repertoires continually changing as speakers respond to shifting patterns of daily life and new migrations.
Using ethnographic walking methods and linguistic landscaping, my research explores everyday multilingual practices in places such as cafes, shops and markets, investigating the relationship between language and place. The Fellowship work will strengthen this orientation by bringing Foucault’s notion of ‘heterotopia’ (1986:24)- spaces where normative discourses are upturned and counternarratives flourish. The inherent challenge to deficit discourses around multilingualism and the highlighting of the importance of Sylheti repertoires in social life brings an activist sociolinguistic focus.
Public engagement is a core element of the project and I will produce a monograph, an interactive exhibition and a portable exhibition kitfor schools and community work. The strong focus on stakeholder engagement and local participation takes inspiration from my PHD, an AHRC (CHASE) funded Collaborative Doctoral Award, conducted in close collaboration with community organisation, The Osmani Trust (https://osmanitrust.org/). I will continue to work with the Osmani Trust for this Fellowship project and they will host the exhibition.
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Primary mentor: Professor Nitya Rao
Second mentor: Professor Roland Hardenberg
Publications:
2026. Buffalo politics: sovereignty and sacrificial publics in the highlands of East India. Comparative Studies in Society and History
2026. Tactile tensions: uncertainty, mutuality, and therianthropic nightmares in highland Odisha. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Planned publication:
Further publications are currently under review or in preparation
Contact details:
Email: s.wilby@uea.ac.uk
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Research topic title: Precarious mutualities: agroecological relations, family livelihoods, and inequality at the margins of the Anthropocene
Research project description: Building on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Sam’s project explores the intricate and precarious relationships between people, land, ecology, and spiritual forces in highland East India, asking how these connections are being reshaped by climate transformation and rapid generational change.
As in many parts of the world, the intertwined crises of livelihood sustainability and climate change pose acute challenges in India, where roughly two-thirds of the population depends directly on agriculture. These pressures are bound up with a longstanding agrarian crisis marked by land privatisation, dispossession, and widening socioeconomic inequalities. Those most affected by climate change and livelihood precarity are often the poorest and most marginalised – particularly Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, who occupy the lowest rungs of India’s socioeconomic and religious hierarchies.
Yet, India’s vast sociohistorical diversity shapes how these transformation unfold. In some regions, entire ways of life are disappearing; in others, distinctive livelihoods endure and adapt. At a time when divisions within and between communities appear to be deepening, this project centres both the interconnections that persist and the new forms of mutuality that are emerging.
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Primary mentor: Professor Philip Leach
Second mentor: Professor Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos
Publications:
Kiruba Munusamy, ‘The Dynamics of Federalism in the Constitution of India’, South Asia@LSE, 15 September 2025, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2025/09/15/the-dynamics-of-federalism-in-the-constitution-of-india/
Kiruba Munusamy, ‘The Legal Basis for Affirmative Action in India’, WIDER Working Paper No. 2022/74, The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), July 2022, https://doi.org/10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2022/205-8
Kiruba Munusamy, ‘Caste and Judiciary in India’, The Dalit Truth: The Battles for Realising Ambedkar’s Vision, Penguin Random House India, 2022, pp.38-56
Kiruba Munusamy, ‘Caste, Domestic Violence and the Pandemic: The Dysfunctional State Protection’, The Gendered Contagion: Perspectives on Domestic Violence during COVID-19, Gender, Human Rights and Law, the Centre for Women and the Law, National Law School of India, Volume 7, April 2021
Kiruba Munusamy, Intersection of Identities: Online Gender and Caste based Violence, GenderIT.org, 7 June 2018
Planned publication: ‘In the Interests of (In)Justice’: Adjudication of Caste Violence in the Supreme Court of India’ (monograph under review)
Caste-based Discrimination and the International Human Rights Law and Politics (Blogseries), Oxford Human Rights Hub (Forthcoming)
Caste-based Discrimination and the Advocacy Strategies in the International Human Rights Forums
Role of the International Human Rights Law in Combatting Caste-based Discrimination
Designation of India as a ‘safe country’ and the challenges faced by Indian asylum seekers in the United Kingdom
Contact details:
Email: kirubagmunusamy@gmail.com
Institution Link: https://www.mdx.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-directory/dr-kiruba-munusamy/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiruba-munusamy/
X– https://x.com/kirubamunusamy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirubamunusamy/
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Research topic title: Transforming Institutional Justice for Caste-Based Discrimination and Violence
Research project description:
This Post-Doctoral Fellowship focuses on strengthening institutional and legal responses to caste-based discrimination and violence by translating rigorous socio-legal research into academic, policy, and public-facing outputs. The project builds on the doctoral thesis In the Interests of Justice: Cases of Caste Violence in the Supreme Court of India, which offers a systematic, time-bound analysis of how India’s highest court adjudicates cases of caste-based violence. By demonstrating that the persistent failure to deliver justice to oppressed castes is structural rather than episodic, the research provides critical insights into the limitations of existing legal frameworks and their role in reinforcing their systematic exclusion and marginalisation.
A key component of the project is the consolidation of the doctoral thesis into a monograph to be published with a leading academic press. The monograph will contribute original scholarship to debates on caste, access to justice, and judicial accountability, offering a sustained legal analysis that complements and extends existing literature on caste and the Indian judiciary. To ensure wider dissemination beyond traditional academic audiences, the project includes the publication of a commissioned collaborative blog series with the Oxford Human Rights Hub. Co-authored with scholars and practitioners working on caste-related issues, the blog posts examine caste discrimination within the framework of international human rights law and its implementation.
The project places strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement and international advocacy through collaboration with the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), a leading global organisation addressing caste-based discrimination in South Asia and the diaspora. Through this partnership, the project engages directly with global policy processes by participating in sessions of the multilateral institutions such as the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and the European Union Human Rights Forum in Brussels.
In collaboration with IDSN, the project undertakes a scoping exercise to map existing international advocacy strategies, mechanisms, and campaigns addressing caste-based discrimination. This includes reviewing international human rights monitoring systems, establishing key contacts, and analysing advocacy approaches through participation in UN and EU forums. The insights gained from this mapping exercise are planned to be developed into an academic article, contributing to scholarship on the relationship between human rights advocacy, policy engagement, and legal reform.
Building on its focus on India, the project develops future research on caste-based discrimination in Nepal. In collaboration with IDSN and its regional partners, the project develops competitive funding proposals for major research funders such as the ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, and Nuffield Foundation. This work expands the geographical and thematic scope of my doctoral research by examining how legal institutions in Nepal address caste-based discrimination and identifying pathways for more effective legal and policy interventions. The project further facilitates advanced research training and strengthening expertise in data management, research ethics, qualitative analysis, and knowledge exchange, alongside interdisciplinary collaboration with the Social Policy Research Centre.
Together, the project forms an integrated dissemination and impact strategy that bridges academic research with policy and practice by engaging scholars, policymakers, advocacy organisations, and affected communities, while informing legal and policy reform and contributing to transformative interventions at national and global levels.