Programme

Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Manchester, specializing in racisms and antiracisms, particularly in education and policing. His recent work addresses topics such as police in schools, campus securitisation, pandemic policing, police abolition, and racism in British education. Remi is a steering group member of the Northern Police Monitoring Project, and the No Police in Schools campaign. He is also a member of the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE).

Dr Laura Connelly is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Sheffield. Sheworks on or at the intersections of race, gender and criminalisation, often exploring these issues within the context of the sex industry. Laura’s work is social justice oriented. With Remi, she is the co-author of Anti-Racist Scholar-Activism, published in 2021. Laura is also a trustee of the sex work charity, National Ugly Mugs, and organises with the Northern Police Monitoring Project, a grassroots abolitionist organisation that works with local communities in Greater Manchester to resist police harassment, violence and racism.

Dr Madeline-Sophie Abbas is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in racism and anti-racism in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University, UK.  Her research and teaching specialisms are in critical race and whiteness studies, Islamophobia, counter-terrorism, security and surveillance, and refugee, asylum and migration.  Her work explores the impact of counter-terrorism measures on British Muslims and citizenship and she is currently undertaking a project exploring the experiences of Palestinian, Arab and/or Muslim students’ experiences of engaging with pro-Palestinian solidarity on UK university campuses (Securitising Palestinian Solidarity: The Fight for Democracy and Freedom of Expression – Community Policy Forum).  She is author of Terror and the Dynamism of Islamophobia in 21st Century Britain: The Concentrationary Gothic (Palgrave, 2021) and has published for Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, British Journal of Sociology and Ethnicities.  

Dr Amina Razak is a Research Associate at Newcastle University with a focus on student voice, co-creation, and participatory action research. Passionate about collaborating with seldom-heard groups, she works to amplify their voices and advance social justice. While leading a project with Engineering students to narrow the degree awarding gap, she founded the Belonging in Engineering Network—a space for Black and other Global Majority students to strengthen their sense of belonging, facilitate peer networking, and share lived experiences. She is a member of the Racial Justice in Education Action Team, Tyne and Wear Citizens UK and employs community organising methods in her research to empower underrepresented groups, helping them recognise their power, voice, and agency to drive change.She also co-convenes the Student Voice in Higher Education working group for the Network for Evaluating and Researching University Participation Interventions (NERUPI).

Sai Murray is a writer, poet, performance and graphic artist of Bajan/Afrikan/English heritage. He is a founding artistic director of the youth arts educational initiative, Voices that Shake!; an organising member of the Maangamizi Education Trust; a former trustee of The Racial Justice Network and co-founder of the '13th': RJN 's Race & Climate Justice framework. Sai has designed, edited and published over 30 books, resources and toolkits. His poetry collection, Ad-liberation, and novella are published by Peepal Tree Press.