About
Demelza Jones is a Research Associate within the Jubilee Centre for Character and Values. She is predominantly working on a research project looking at virtue and values in professions, which investigates the role of virtue and values in the initial training and on-going professional practice of doctors, lawyers and teachers in the UK using quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
Qualifications
PhD Sociology, University of Bristol (2013)
MSc Social Science Research Methods (Distinction), University of Bristol (2009)
MA Global Citizenship, Identities and Human Rights (Distinction), University of Nottingham (2007)
BA (Hons) English and Drama (First), University of Birmingham (2005)
Biography
Demelza’s research background is in Sociology. Her ESRC-funded PhD explored the everyday identifications experienced by Tamil migrants in the UK, and involved qualitative research (in-depth interviews and observational work) with Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and Singapore in the Midlands and South West of England. Demelza's thesis was examined in April 2013 by Professor Pnina Werbner (Professor Emerita in Social Anthropology, Keele University) and Dr Andrew Wyatt (Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Bristol) and awarded without corrections.
Alongside her work within the Jubilee Centre, Demelza retains an interest in migration, diversity, diaspora and ethnicity, and is the convenor of the Tamils in Europe Research Network which aims to promote dialogue and collaboration between researchers working on aspects of Tamil migration and settlement in Europe
Since 2009, Demelza has participated in freelance research work/internships with the FP7-funded EURASIA-Net project - a Europe-South Asia exchange on supranational (regional) policies and instruments for the promotion of human rights and the management of minority issues, and with the British Red Cross International Tracing and Messaging Service. Demelza has also worked in the charity sector, as a creative arts worker with the Refugee Council and in grant making and administration with Arts Council England and BBC Children in Need.
Teaching
Children as Citizens (lecturer, seminar tutor, and co-module leader from September 2013)
Education Policy and Improving Schools (seminar tutor)
Research
Demelza’s research interests are in character and values in the professions and in schools; migration, diaspora, and ethnic and religious identities (specifically among Tamil and other South Asian migrants); and qualitative research methods.
Other activities
I have presented papers drawing on my research at a range of conferences:
‘Continuity and change in the Hindu practice of Tamil migrants in the Midlands and South West of England’. Bi-annual Conference of the European Sociological Association’s Research Group on the Sociology of Religion. 3-5 September 2012, University of Potsdam
‘Diversity and ‘diaspora’: Everyday identifications of Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in the UK’. Annual International Conference of the Institute of British Geographers. 3- 5 July 2012, Edinburgh University
‘Cosmopolitans and cliques: The ethnic and counter-ethnic attachments of Tamil student and young professional migrants in the UK’. Highly Skilled Migration in the 21st Century: International Conference. 24-25 May 2012, Middlesex University
‘Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India and discourses of return migration’. Annual International Conference of the Institute of British Geographers. 31 August – 2 September 2011. Royal Geographic Society, London
‘Sub-state nationalism and kin-state politics: Impacts upon Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu’. Contemporary Conflicts: Class, Culture, Environment: Connections Postgraduate Conference. 13 September 2010, University of Bristol
‘Our kith and kin’: Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the ethno-political discourse of Indian Tamil regionalist parties’. Meeting of the South Asian Anthropologists Group, 3-4 September 2010, University of Oxford
‘Ethno-politics and refugee reception in India’. Ethno-politics in a Globalised Word: International Conference. 27-30 June 2010, University of Exeter
Publications
2012: 'Our kith and kin’: Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees and the Ethno-Nationalist Parties of Tamil Nadu, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 18(4): 431-451
2012: A tale of two analyses: The use of archived qualitative data, Sociological Research Online. 17(2). (Co-authored with Dr Jo Haynes)
Jones, D (2008) New UK underclass: The social exclusion of asylum seekers in the UK, Forced Migration Review. 30: pp. 68
Forthcoming (in press): ‘Cosmopolitans and ‘cliques’: Everyday socialisation among Tamil student and young professional migrants in the UK’, Ethnicities.
Forthcoming (in press): ‘Introduction to special issue: Migration, everyday life, and the ethnicity bias’, Ethnicities. (Second author to Dr Jon Fox and co-editor of special issue)
Forthcoming (with editors): ‘Bangladeshis and Pakistanis in the UK’, in Medda, R (Ed.) The Minority Rights Handbook. London: Routledge