Staff

Convenors of Sexuality and Gender Studies

In semester 1 of 2024-25, the regular convenor Professor Lisa Downing is on Research Leave and Dr Elliot Evans will convene the Sexuality and Gender Studies Programmes. In semester 2, Elliot is on Research Leave and Lisa will take up convenorship again.

Professor Lisa Downing

Professor Lisa Downing

Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality

Department of Modern Languages

I am Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality and a specialist in interdisciplinary sexuality and gender studies, critical theory, and the history of diagnostic and cultural concepts. My enduring research interest is in questions of exceptionality, difficulty, and (ab)normality as they are represented and understood in cultural, medical, and political fields. My most recent work has been on ...

Dr Elliot Evans

Dr Elliot Evans

Associate Professor in Modern Languages

Department of Modern Languages

Dr Evans is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages. Elliot is the author of Queer Permeability: The Body in French Thought from Wittig to Preciado(2020). Their research is concerned with the varied constructions of sexuality and gender across cultures; with the biopolitical formation of these identities, and the ways in which they are elaborated through writing and visual ...

Academic staff with interests in sexuality and gender studies:

Dr Michela Baldo

Dr Michela Baldo

Lecturer in Translation Studies
Programme Lead for the campus MA in Translation Studies

Department of Modern Languages

I am a Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Birmingham and I teach across the provision of core and optional modules for the MA programme in Translation Studies. My research interests revolve around Italian-Canadian writing and its translation into Italian and around the role of translation in Italian queer feminist activism. In addition to teaching, I have been working as a ...

Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay

Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay

Professor of Economics

The Department of Economics

Siddhartha is an internationally recognised economist in the field of political economy and public policy. He was the recipient of the Duncan Black prize awarded by the Public Choice Society in 2015 for his work on the electoral incentives of prosecutors with Bryan McCannon. His work on political coalitions has been published in internationally leading journals and has been widely cited by ...

Professor Caroline Bradbury-Jones

Professor Caroline Bradbury-Jones

Professor of Gender Based Violence and Health

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Caroline is a registered nurse, midwife and health visitor. Since joining academia she has developed research expertise in the field of domestic violence and abuse.  Specifically, within the scope of addressing inequalities, focused on issues of family violence and child abuse and neglect. Caroline has led or been actively involved in securing funding for several research projects relevant ...

Dr Amy Brosius

Lecturer in Music

Department of Music

I specialize in seventeenth-century Italian singers, singing culture, vocal music and early modern gender construction. My approach to research is interdisciplinary, employing methodologies from art history, critical theory, gender studies, and performance studies.

Dr Hilary Brown

Dr Hilary Brown

Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies

Department of Modern Languages

I joined the Department of Modern Languages in 2011 and teach in Translation Studies and German. I am currently Athena Swan Lead for the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music. I am the Principal Investigator on the Feminist Translation Network project.

Professor Leslie Brubaker

Professor Leslie Brubaker

Professor Emerita of Byzantine Art

Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies

I am Professor Emerita of Byzantine Art History, with particular interest in the cult of the Virgin, ‘iconoclasm’, the relationship between text and image, manuscripts, and gender.  I am also Director of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, which is a unique research cluster with an international reputation, a thriving postgraduate community, and its ...

Dr Shelley Budgeon

Dr Shelley Budgeon

Honorary Senior Lecturer

Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology

Dr Shelley Budgeon is an Honorary Associate Professor in Sociology who specializes in gender and feminist theory. Her research analyses the impact of various forces of social change on the constitution of gender relations and the performance of gendered identities. Her expertise encompasses theories of gendered subjectivity; feminist politics; gender, postfeminism and neoliberalism; sexuality and ...

Dr Courtney J. Campbell

Dr Courtney J. Campbell

Associate Professor in Latin American History
Joint Director of the University of Birmingham Brazil Institute

Department of History

My current research interests are Latin America and the world, global microhistory, regional identity, race and representation, gender and representation, transnational consumer culture, popular culture movements, movement and migration, language-based movements, and spatial understandings of regional culture.

Dr Meghan Campbell

Dr Meghan Campbell

Reader in International Human Rights Law

Birmingham Law School

Meghan Campbell is Reader in International Human Rights Law at the University of Birmingham. Her research explores how the international human rights system can best respond to gender inequality and poverty. Her monograph Women, Poverty, Equality(Hart Publishing, 2018) explores how the concept of equality in the UN Convention on the Discrimination on the Elimination of All Forms of ...

Dr Anissa Daoudi

Dr Anissa Daoudi

Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Translation Studies
Language Co-ordinator for Arabic

Department of Modern Languages

Dr Anissa Daoudi's research examines how language and translations shape memories, public narratives, and enhance campaigns for transitional justice. Her project: Breaking the Protectorate of Silence: Violence Against Women in 1990s Algeria, funded by the Leverhulme Fellowship, focuses on the experience of women survivors of sexual violence and rape committed during the Civil War.  ...

Professor Fiona de Londras

Professor Fiona de Londras

Director of Research, College of Arts and Law
Barber Professor of Jurisprudence

Birmingham Law School

Fiona de Londas is Director of Research for the College of Arts and Law and Professor of Global Legal Studies at Birmingham Law School. Her research concerns constitutionalism, human rights, and transnationalism. She is particularly interested in the role and function of rights in contentious policy fields, inquiring into how (if at all) rights shape the making of law and policy in complex ...

Professor Máiréad Enright

Professor Máiréad Enright

Professor of Feminist Legal Studies
Head of Research Impact

Birmingham Law School

Máiréad Enright’s research is in feminist legal studies and critical legal theory, with a particular focus on law and religion. She has written on issues including reproductive justice, law reform and grassroots organising, illegality in social movements, responses to historical injustice and obstetric violence.  She often works with and advises groups campaigning around ...

Dr Emma Foster

Dr Emma Foster

Associate Professor in International Politics
College Director of Postgraduate Research

Department of Political Science and International Studies

Dr Emma A. Foster is an Associate Professor in international politics. Emma’s research interests include gender and sexuality studies, (de)politicisation and anti-politics, international sustainable development policy and development studies more broadly.

Emma co-convenes the Gender and Feminist Theory Group, a vibrant research group hosted in POLSIS and bringing together academics ...

Professor Nicola Gale

Professor Nicola Gale

Head of the School of Social Policy and Society
Professor of Health Policy and Sociology, Health Services Management Centre

Health Services Management Centre

Nicola Gale, MA, PhD, is a health sociologist and interdisciplinary health researcher, working in the fields of health services research, public health, primary care, community-led and complementary health care. She specialises in qualitative and mixed methods research.

Professor Gale is committed to theoretically-informed empirical work that involves, aids better understanding of, and meets the ...

Dr Luis-Manuel Garcia-Mispireta

Dr Luis-Manuel Garcia-Mispireta

Associate Professor in Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies

Department of Music

I research electronic dance music scenes (e.g., house, techno, etc.), with a special focus on issues of affect, sexuality, tourism, and the creative industries. My ethnographic fieldwork focuses primarily on Berlin, Germany.

Dr Dave Gunning

Dr Dave Gunning

Reader in English Literature

Department of English Literature

I teach and research contemporary Anglophone literature and postcolonial studies.

Dr Sarah Hall

Dr Sarah Hall

Reader in Religious Education
Director of Postgraduate Taught programmes for the College of Social Sciences

School of Education

Sarah is passionate about the role that outstanding Religious Education has in shaping young people's lives and equipping them for the modern world as reflective and tolerant thinkers. She has an extensive vocabulary of teaching and learning strategies which inspire teacher trainees and pupils in school to enquire and respond to religion in a creative and reflective way whilst developing ...

Professor Rosie Harding

Professor Rosie Harding

Professor of Law and Society
Deputy Dean

Birmingham Law School

Professor Rosie Harding's research explores the place of law in everyday life. Her primary interests are in social justice, disability and family law. Her work has a particular focus on the regulation and recognition of caring and intimate relationships. She uses social science methods including both qualitative and quantitative approaches to empirical research to investigate the place of law in ...

Professor Louise Hardwick

Professor Louise Hardwick

Professor of Francophone Studies and World Literature
AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellow
Associate Fellow, Homerton College, University of Cambridge

Department of Modern Languages

I am a specialist of Francophone Studies and World Literature, with a particular interest in the global reception, adaptation circulation and translation of Francophone literature. A published translator, with a growing body of work in Translation Studies, I am fluent in French and German, and am currently learning Spanish.

The majority of my research focuses on the postcolonial literature, film ...

Dr Vanessa Heggie

Dr Vanessa Heggie

Associate Professor in the History of Science and Medicine

Department of Applied Health Sciences

Dr Vanessa Heggie is a historian of modern science and medicine, with a particular interest in the history of nineteenth and twentieth century biomedical and life sciences. She also dabbles in the philosophy of science. 

Vanessa has published books on the history of exploration and physiology, and on sports medicine, and many articles and chapters on a range of topics from Victorian nursing ...

Professor Matt Houlbrook

Professor Matt Houlbrook

Professor of Cultural History

Department of History

I research, write, and teach about twentieth century Britain, particularly histories of sexuality and gender, the politics of cultural life, and the 1920s and 1930s. I have come to realise that my real interest is in the changing relationship between capital, culture, and selfhood – how ordinary people make sense of the world and their place in it, and how this is shaped by markets and money

Professor Monica Jato

Professor of Hispanic Studies

Department of Modern Languages

My research interests focus on cross-cultural comparative approaches to exile and migration. My most recent monograph explores the experience of exile as a cultural topology, considering space as relational and giving emphasis to the interconnectedness of the different places that refugees inhabit throughout their journeys. I teach courses on Spanish language, literature and culture.

Dr Katharina Karcher

Dr Katharina Karcher

Associate Professor in German

Department of Modern Languages

My work focuses on protest movements and political violence in the 20th and 21st centuries. In this context, I am particularly interested in questions of gender, race, class, dis/ability, and political ideology. My research transgresses disciplinary boundaries and draws on a range of theoretical frameworks including feminist theory, cultural studies, and critical security studies.

Dr Amarpreet Kaur

Dr Amarpreet Kaur

Lecturer in Health Technology and Governance

Health Services Management Centre

Amarpreet joined the HSMC in September 2021 as a new Lecturer. She will be contributing the Centre’s expanding interests in health technologies and genomics through her research and teaching. Amarpreet is passionate about Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion activity, and Widening Participation in Higher Education.

Prior to her appointment, Amarpreet was a member of the Sociology of ...

Dr Sophie King-Hill

Dr Sophie King-Hill

Associate Professor

Health Services Management Centre

Sophie is an Associate Professor in the Health Services Management Centre. She specialises in sexual behaviours and assessment in children and young people, sexual health, sibling sexual abuse, misogyny, relationships & sex education and the importance of youth voice. Much of her work is cross-sector, cross-disciplinary and centred around participatory and co-design approaches with young ...

Dr Iain Law

Dr Iain Law

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy

I’m a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and also Head of Education for the School of Philosophy, Theology & Religion. My main interests are in meta-ethics, applied ethics and ethical theory, and I’m currently working on papers in moral theory, moral psychology, the philosophy of medicine and applied ethics.

Professor Sabine Lee

Professor Sabine Lee

Professor in Modern History

Department of History

Having graduated from the University of Düsseldorf with a degree in mathematics, history and philosophy I completed an M.Phil in International Relations and PhD in Modern History at the University of Cambridge. I took up a lectureship in European history at the University of Hull in 1993 before joining the Department of Modern History here at Birmingham in 1994.

Dr Catherine Lester

Dr Catherine Lester

Associate Professor in Film and Television

Department of Film and Creative Writing

My current research focuses on the intersections between children’s culture and the horror genre. My other teaching and research interests include children’s cinema, animation, and representation in film and television.

Dr Elizabeth L'Estrange

Dr Elizabeth L'Estrange

Associate Professor in History of Art

Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies

My teaching and research focuses on the art and culture of the late medieval and early modern period, especially illuminated manuscripts and book culture, and French and Burgundian court art. Within these areas, I work specifically on women as subjects and consumers of visual cultures, text-image relations, and the querelle des femmes. My research addresses, for instance, questions of maternity, ...

Professor Deborah Longworth

Professor Deborah Longworth

Professor of English Literature
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education)

Department of English Literature

As PVC Education, Deborah is a member of University Executive Board, and supports the Vice-Chancellor in setting and implementing University strategy, with a specific strategic remit for excellence and innovation in teaching and learning. She provides academic leadership across the education portfolio, working closely with colleagues across the five Colleges, and with our Professional Services ...

Professor Elizabeth McDermott

Professor Elizabeth McDermott

Professor of Mental Health & Society

School of Social Policy and Society

Elizabeth McDermott, MSc, PhD, is a public mental health interdisciplinary researcher, working in the fields of mental health inequalities, public health and health services research. She specialises in the mental health of LGBTQ+ populations and theory-led mixed methods research.

Professor McDermott is committed to theoretically-informed empirical work that aims to better understand how to ...

Dr La Shonda Mims

Dr La Shonda Mims

Assistant Professor of Race and Ethnicity in the United States

Department of History

I am a historian of race, gender and sexuality in the United States, specifically the US South. My interdisciplinary research interests include fields in queer, urban, religious and women’s studies.

Professor Rebecca N Mitchell

Professor Rebecca N Mitchell

Professor in Victorian Literature and Culture
Head of Department of English Literature

Department of English Literature

My scholarship focuses on Victorian literature and culture broadly defined, and I’m especially intrigued by the study and depiction of the creative process, the self/other relationship, and the textual/visual interface; these interests also drive my work in textual editing. I teach across the long nineteenth century.

Professor Mo Moulton

Professor Mo Moulton

Professor of Modern British and Irish History

Department of History

I study the social and cultural history of Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire in the late 19th and 20th centuries. I'm interested in the origins of modern ideas about race, gender, family, and national identity. Those questions have led to me write about a range of topics, including the Irish in Britain, queer history, and the co-operative movement. I'm currently working on an intellectual ...

Dr Prithvi Perepa

Dr Prithvi Perepa

Associate Professor in Autism Studies

School of Education

Prithvi is an Associate Professor in Autism Studies within the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN)and a member of the Autism Centre for Education Research (ACER). He is the programme leader for the distance learning Autism Children programme. He also contributes to teaching of the on-campus MA Education programme, and to some teaching on our Dubai campus. He ...

Dr Asha Rogers

Dr Asha Rogers

Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Postcolonial Literature

Department of English Literature

I am a scholar of twentieth and twenty-first century literature. I research the culture-forming work of institutions as forces in literary history, and how writers have responded to their frequently peculiar demands. 

Dr Lorraine Ryan

Dr Lorraine Ryan

Lecturer in Hispanic Studies

Department of Modern Languages

Dr Lorraine Ryan is an award-winning international researcher in the fields of Spanish literature, memory studies, and gender. She has been a visiting fellow to the IMLR (Institute of Modern Languages Research Institute) in the University of London (2014-2015),  and the Georg Eckert Institute for School Textbook Research in Leipzig (2015-16). Dr. Ryan has published extensively on ...

Dr Gregory Salter

Dr Gregory Salter

Associate Professor in History of Art

Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies

I am a specialist in British art after 1945. My research to date has focused on home and masculinity in this period, and I am currently researching a transnational history of art from Britain, 1957-88.

Dr Emanuelle Santos

Dr Emanuelle Santos

Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages

Department of Modern Languages

I am a Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages at the Department of Modern Languages, where I also coordinate the Portuguese Studies programme and the Instituto Camões’ Cátedra Gil Vicente. 

My research focuses on the intersections between the cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world, postcolonial studies, and theories of world literature, drawing attention to the ...

Dr Jason Schaub

Dr Jason Schaub

Associate Professor in Social Work

Department of Social Work and Social Care

Jason is an Associate Professor in Social Work, and Director of PGR for the School of Social Policy and Society. His teaching and research examine gender and sexuality, leadership in social work, and children and families social work. He is co-chair of the UK regional network for International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR) and previously chair of  Sexuality in ...

Dr Manu Sehgal

Lecturer in South Asian History

Department of History

I am a historian of modern South Asia (present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). My research interests range from the early colonial period with the coming of the East India Company’s rule to the late colonial period – the mobilization of Indian soldiers transforming the First World War into a global conflict. I am particularly interested in histories of gender based ...

Dr Camilla Smith

Dr Camilla Smith

Senior Lecturer
Head of Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies

Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies

I specialise in early twentieth-century German and Austrian culture and intellectual history. I gained my research council funded PhD from the University of Birmingham in December 2007 and was appointed lecturer at Birmingham in 2008, and Senior Lecturer in 2021. Before this, I spent several years in Germany teaching English. I was also a teaching assistant in the Art History Department at the ...

Dr Nicola Smith

Dr Nicola Smith

Associate Professor in Political Science
Deputy Head of Department

Department of Political Science and International Studies

Nicola Smith is a political economist working on feminist and queer theory, neoliberalism and austerity, sex work and reproductive labour, and the history of the British body politic.

Dr Zoë Thomas

Dr Zoë Thomas

Associate Professor in Modern History

Department of History

I am a social and cultural historian with particular specialisms in British history and the Anglophone world post 1850, histories of work, artistic culture, feminism, suffrage, and women’s and gender history. My first book Women Art Workers and the Arts and Crafts Movement (2020) won the Historians of British Art award for a single-author book with a subject between 1800-1960 and ...

Professor Jessica Woodhams

Professor Jessica Woodhams

Professor of Forensic Psychology
Head of Research

School of Psychology

Jessica is a chartered psychologist and an HCPC registered forensic psychologist. She is the School of Psychology’s Head of Research. Her primary areas of research are policing and sexual offending and much of her research is co-produced with practitioners from UK and international policing and law enforcement. She is the founder of the international academic-practitioner C-LINK ...

Dr Simon Yarrow

Dr Simon Yarrow

Senior Lecturer in Medieval History

School of History and Cultures

I teach the history of religion and society in the early and central middle ages, and research on the cult of saints’ relics, miracles and religious cultures from the tenth to the thirteenth century in England. I am also the Director of Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures.

Dr Shirley Ye

Dr Shirley Ye

Lecturer in Asian History

Department of History

I am a global historian. I primarily research and teach the history of China.