James Beresford - James is an ESRC +3 funded PHD candidate in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. Working at the intersection of Sociology, Socio-legal studies and Social Policy, his research is a qualitative project looking to the becoming of the last major piece of UK equality legislation, the Equality Act 2010. It questions how certain policies and political interventions become located as necessary. Taking a relational approach, focus is on the different actors involved in this, and how their positionally and differently located authorities work to allow them to shift this in various directions.  It asks how this inadequacy of a previous process was established, looking to the power relations enacted through this process. James' research interests include then; narrative, memory, socio-legal studies, critical policy analysis, affect, ideas and govern mentalities of equality, and qualitative methods. In addition to his role with the Postgraduate Forum, he is also an editor of the Graduate Journal of Social Science (GJSS.org). From January to March 2017, he was a visiting scholar in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney.

Twitter: @jezybezy

Laura Clancy - Laura is a joint AHRC- and ESRC-funded PhD candidate in Sociology and an Associate Lecturer at Lancaster University. Her doctoral research is concerned with the ways in which the contemporary British monarchy is represented in media culture, and the cultural meanings and ideologies circulating through monarchical imaginaries. In particular, mobilizing the work of Stuart Hall and British Cultural Studies, the research explores how discourses of classed power in Britain are manifest in the (re)production and (re)appropriation of images of the royal institution.

Laura's wider research interests include gender and feminist studies, celebrity studies, classed inequalities, "the elites" and alternative or creative methodologies. She is part of the Executive Committee for the Feminist and Women's Studies Association. Laura joined the BSA Postgraduate Forum team in 2016.

Twitter: @Laura__Clancy

Kate Haddow - Kate is a full time PhD student at Teesside University and was awarded a university scholarship in 2016, after completing her master’s degree at Newcastle University.  Her PhD is looking at local and diverse religious responses to poverty in Middlesbrough, and how religious communities are fighting poverty and inequality and whether their responses are adequate.

Kate's wider research interests are; social class, poverty, foodbank use and social inequality.

Twitter: @KateHaddow1 

Emmaleena Käkelä -  Emmaleena is a 1+3 ESRC-funded PhD candidate in Social Work at the University of Strathclyde. Her PhD is a mixed methods study exploring the practice of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) from a migration perspective. Her study explores on the one hand how experiences of migration and resettlement come to influence potentially affected people’s attitudes towards the practice, and on the other hand, how the Scottish anti-FGC discourse comes to influence potentially affected people’s resettlement and empowerment. Her study aims to illuminate the diversity within and between potentially affected communities in Scotland and to promote the inclusion of their perspectives in future practice and policy developments. Emmaleena identifies herself as a transnational feminist, and her wider research interests include gender and diaspora, identity formation, structural inequalities and postcolonial critique. Emmaleena is also a member of the Athena Swan self-assessment team at the School of Social Work and Social Policy.

Emmaleena has previously completed MSc Applied Educational and Social Research (distinction) as part of her ESRC studentship at the University of Strathclyde and MA Hons in Geography and Theology and Religious Studies (first class) at the University of Glasgow. Her previous research projects have explored Somali migrant women’s experiences of resettlement and feelings of belonging, as well as social workers' experiences of service provision to ethnic and cultural minority service users.

Twitter: @EmmaleenaKakela