Meet this year's Conference Team

Mel Williams (she/her)

Mel is a third year PhD Student based in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of York. The current working title for her PhD is: ‘We are Here to Stay Inna Inglan: Britain’s Immigration Regime, Contingent Status and Belonging Amongst Windrush Descendants of Jamaican Heritage’.

Alongside her studies, Mel is also involved in community work and activism, mostly focussed on social justice, anti-racism, access to justice, and ‘Windrush’. Mel is co-founder and member of the ‘Anti-Racism Working Group’ based at the University of York, EDI Consultant at the Anthony Walker Foundation and an active member of various regional anti-racism focussed organisations. Mel particularly believes in the importance of connecting activism with research, legal practice and the arts to trigger necessary change, and has worked with the rest of the conference team to create this interdisciplinary space for PhD students and ECRs.

Susy Williams (she/her)

Susy is a third year PhD student, based in the University of York Politics and International Relations Department. Her research, situated within Critical Political Economy and Labour Migration Studies, is focused on the barriers to addressing the (super)exploitation of migrant workers in the fast fashion manufacturing industry in the UK. She adopts critical approaches in her research, including frameworks from post/de/anti-colonial, post-Marxist, post-structuralist and feminist theoretical lenses, while aiming to be disruptive in research methodology.

Additionally to her research, Susy has co-led the Anti-Racism Working Group with Mel since early 2022, and is involved in other social justice activist work. She collaboratively set up and coordinated the York Staff-Student Alliance with four other PGRs; works closely with a garment worker rights organisation which informs her approach to research; and supports different local community groups within York, including migrant solidarity and Palestinian solidarity campaigns.

Dr Paula McLean

Dr Paula McLean graduated with her PhD from the University of Wolverhampton in 2024. She is a former Probation Officer and her current role is that of a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice at Sheffield Hallam University.

Her thesis was concerned with examining the experiences of Black women in the criminal justice system (CJS) utilising a Black feminist lens to analyse their personal narratives. Her interest was piqued through both her career as a Probation Officer and a Black woman witnessing the disparities and the disregard of academia, government state agencies to actively address the invisibility, mistreatment and silenced voices of this group of women.

Paula seeks to continue to research the plight of Black women in the CJS. Her most recent work is a book chapter discussing Black women's activism in prisons. The book is due to be released in January 2026 entitled ‘Women, Relationships and Criminal Justice: The Personal and Professional.’

Victory Chidinma

Victory is a nurse, lecturer, author, and doctoral researcher whose work critically examines race, power, and marginality in nursing education. Her research draws on decolonial and critical race perspectives to explore racialised bullying, belonging, and structural inequities in higher education. She is the founder of a Healing Studio that centres reflection, restoration, and leadership development for Global Majority professionals, and she is the author of several books that explore identity, equity, and inclusive practice. Victory is committed to socially engaged scholarship that bridges lived experience, research, and practice to foster more just and inclusive academic and clinical environments.

Victory Chidinma Oforji | LinkedIn

https://www.thehealingstudiogw.co.uk/