Birmingham Law School Teaching Associate wins international teaching award

The Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) has named Birmingham Law School Doctoral researcher and Teaching Associate lulia Mirzac as the recipient of the 2026 Harold Josephson Award for Professional Promise in International Education.

The award, founded after the death of Dr Harold Josephson, recognises those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of international education.

As a Teaching Associate at Birmingham Law School, lulia teaches immigration, asylum, and nationality law, highlighting voices from the Global South and Indigenous scholars. She encourages students to question ideas of legal neutrality and reflect on colonial legacies, encouraging future lawyers and policymakers to consider how the law can build more inclusive societies. She is also committed to widening access to education, including founding Oxfam’s ‘Junior Lawyers Against Poverty’ pro bono scheme, which connects students from the Global North and South. Alongside her teaching, lulia is involved in supporting prospective students from diverse backgrounds through the admissions process in her role as a Postgraduate Recruitment Adviser.

lulia's UK ESRC-funded doctoral research explores implicit bias in trafficking-related asylum decisions, showing how narrow ideas of who counts as a ‘real’ trafficking victim, often shaped by gender and racial stereotypes, can prevent trafficked men and other overlooked survivors from accessing justice. Her research has important policy implications and supports more inclusive approaches to trafficking and migration.

She has also published on the rights of stateless people, protections against forced marriage, migrant labour market integration, and injustice faced by women in healthcare. She has also carried out interview-based research at Oxford Brookes University on the lived experiences of migrants who have experienced trafficking, demonstrating wide expertise across human rights law.

Working with Dr Meghan Campbell and the Equal Rights Trust, she contributed to research commissioned by the Office for Equality and Opportunity in the UK Cabinet Office to help strengthen equal pay law and tackle pay discrimination. This work supports the development of the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill announced in the 2024 King’s Speech.

lulia said of the award: “I’m so honoured and to receive this recognition. I'm encouraged to keep going with finalising my doctoral thesis and continue using law as a tool for justice in my teaching and research”.