About
I am a Research Associate in the Institute of Educational Technology where I work on the Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online (PRIME) project, funded by UKRI and led by Heriot-Watt University. PRIME, which was envisioned in the context of the rapid digitalisation of key public services in the UK, aims to deliver innovative harm reduction interventions, processes and technologies which will transform online services by creating safer spaces for minoritised communities and increasing transparency and accountability among service providers. My present research interests are centred on the ways in which structures of ‘race’, class, gender and age facilitate or impede access to social rights such as health, housing, education, energy and social security in an era of rapid technological transformation. Of particular concern in this context is the impact of the digitalisation of key services and AI decision-making on minoritised groups who already experience entrenched health, housing and educational inequalities. I am also a Human Rights Advisor on the University of Bath-hosted “Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Social Policy and Conflict Prevention GCRF Research Fund” - which aims to advance scholarship and practice in security, social equality and social protection in the MENA region - and a member of the Food and Work Network (FAWN) which brings together academics, trade unionists and community campaigners seeking to understand the connections between structural food inequalities and working conditions in the UK. I hold a PhD in the sociology of human (social) rights from the University of Essex’s Human Rights Centre and a Masters in International Public Policy from University College London (awarded with distinction) and I have published in the areas of human rights, social rights, legal empowerment and access to justice. Before commencing my PhD I worked at the intersection of human rights and international development for UN agencies and NGOs in the UK, the Middle East and East Africa for approximately ten years.