CANCELLED - ‘Accidental leadership’ and radical hope: Insights from the experiences of Black and racialised women in public services in the UK

In this event, we will share insights on ‘accidental leadership’ and radical hope from the lived experiences of Black and racialised women in leadership within UK public services. Dr Mirna Guha will discuss her Medical Research Council-funded project with Dr Katherine Allen [LINK 1], University of Suffolk, on addressing the postcode lottery of domestic abuse and sexual violence services across England and Wales.

We will then introduce emerging and established leaders from a pioneering and growing Community of (Leadership) Practice for Black and racialised women within public services. Finally, we will discuss with Dr Emma Murray [LINK 2], Associate Professor and Director of the Social Sciences Research Lab at the UKRI-funded Centre of Excellence for Equity in Uniformed Public Services at ARU Chelmsford, how research can explore, document and amplify what justice, healing and radical hope can look like in the lives of marginalised communities and individuals.

Dr Mirna Guha [LINK 3] is a political sociologist and an intersectional scholar, with a PhD in international development from the University of East Anglia. Her research specialisms include gendered violence, gender and development, and social (in)justice in the lives of marginalised communities globally. She uses mixed methods to research the domestic abuse vulnerabilities and leadership of Black and other racialised women, with a view to transforming institutions and services.

Her research on the domestic vulnerabilities of Asian women in Cambridgeshire led to the launch of Cambridgeshire’s first specialist service, the Dahlia Project, for Asian women, through a Home Office-funded collaboration with Peterborough Women’s Aid. In early 2024, Dr Guha was awarded a Medical Research Council–UK Prevention Research Partnership-funded VISION grant for a project entitled Nothing about us without us: Investigating the impact of the leadership of global majority women on domestic abuse service provision in East England. This project, in collaboration with the University of Suffolk, has established a regionally pioneering Community of (Leadership) Practice for 35 Black and racialised emerging and established women leaders, and established a blueprint to transform and diversify public services to increase equity and access for racially minoritised victim-survivors of violence, harm and exclusion across the UK.

Event presented by Anglia Ruskin University.