Dr Sadiya Akram

• PhD on agency and the work of Pierre Bourdieu at the University of Birmingham 2011 
• MA (Distinction) in Political Science Research Methods – University of Birmingham 2005 
• BA (Distinction) in Sociology - University of Birmingham 2004 
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK 2018 

Sadiya joined the University of Birmingham as an Associate Professor in Sociology in January 2024 having previously held academic posts at HPP, Manchester Metropolitan University (2017-2023) and at SPIR, Queen Mary University (2015-2017). Prior to this, Sadiya was a post-doctoral research fellow at IGPA, The University of Canberra, Australia, where she worked on an Australian Research Council-funded project exploring alternative forms of political mobilisation in a cross-national study of Australia, Denmark and the UK (2013-2015). Sadiya began her academic career with a PhD in POLSIS at the University of Birmingham (2006-2011).   

Throughout her career, Sadiya has combined empirical research with conceptual analysis to help further the field of the politics of race in the UK and globally. 

Race and Racism  (Semester 1)

Introduction to Social Divisions (Semester 2)

Sadiya is interested in supervising students in the following areas: 
Race and racism; 
British politics of race; 
Political mobilisation of marginalised groups; 
Concepts of Agency – particularly neglect of the unconscious;
The work of Pierre Bourdieu

She is currently supervising:
Sergio Bedoya Cortéz (external supervisor)
Alison Iboro Offong
Tanaka Mhishi

Supervised to completion:
Mohamed Hagi Mohamoud

Research interests 

• Race and racism, particularly a critique of core concepts such as unconscious bias, institutional racism, decolonisation.
• Political mobilisation of racially marginalised groups. To date Sadiya’s research has explored race-rioting, politics of the incarcerated, institutional racism in The Metropolitan Police, Muslim women’s experiences of racism and political mobilisation.
• Agency and the unconscious  
• Critical realism as an approach to socio-political critique
• The work of Pierre Bourdieu, particularly his notion of habitus and institutions
• The political theory of Hannah Arendt - a decolonial critique
• Consociationalism – power sharing in divided societies    

Current projects 

• What can New Institutionalism tell us about Institutional Racism?  A Case Study of The Metropolitan Police.
• Consociationalism in Northern Ireland: A Politics of Smoothness? A Critical Race Theory Perspective

Trustee of the Cowrie Scholarship Foundation  - a charity which supports disadvantaged Black British students into Higher Education at UK universities. 

External Examiner for Politics at the University of Sheffield. 

Associate Editor Sociological Research Online 

Editorial Advisory Board member British Politics 

Book Series Co-Editor – Routledge Studies in Democratic Crisis