Research

My research is about the operationalization of the Black feminist theory of intersectionality in policy and practice: its influence and possibilities, as well as the discursive and material resistance it faces. I also have a particular interest in intersectional research methodology. My areas of specialism include equity, intersectionality, NGOs, inequalities relating to race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, and sexual orientation, equality policy, and inequalities in higher and further education. 

 
Find out more about my research in these videos:

Intersectionality, unfiltered with Ashlee

Applying intersectionality in research, policy and practice 

Research projects 

(2016-2024) ‘Intersectionality in Policy and Practice’ 

(PI, funded by UK Economic and Social Research Council and University of Edinburgh College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange and Impact grant)

My PhD research on the UK was the first empirical study internationally to explore how both equality NGO practitioners and equality policymakers themselves understand how to operationalize ‘intersectionality’. My fieldwork was conducted with equality networks (comprising racial justice, feminist, disability rights, LGBTI rights, and refugee organisations, and intersectional combinations) in 3 cities, and employed interviews (41), focus groups (1), participant observation and documentary analysis (66). Having published more than 20 outputs, the project culminated in my monograph The Politics of Intersectional Practice: Representation, Coalition and Solidarity in UK NGOs (Bristol University Press), 2024. 

(2021-2025) 'Gender equalities at work: an interdisciplinary history of 50 years of legislation' 

(Named Research Fellow, PI Professor Louise Jackson; funded by UK Arts and Humanities Research Council)

In this multidisciplinary project (Legal and Gender History, Political Science, Industrial Relations) conducted by three institutions, we explore how UK gender equality legislation was introduced, implemented and changed, in what contexts and with what consequences, through collection and analysis of official records documents (House of Commons and House of Lords daily records and papers) and newspaper articles 1964-2020, archival research and oral history interviews that were deposited in the British Library. I have a particular focus on the relationship between race equality and gender equality legislation, as well as the influence (and silencing) of Black and women of colour theory and activism and intersectionality in its design and implementation. Our monograph Equality at Work: Gender and the Mobilisation of Rights in the UK c. 1970-2020 will be published in 2025 by Bristol University Press to mark 50 years of UK legislation governing gender inequalities at work. This book is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary history of campaigning, organizing and litigating around gender equality rights in the UK workplace since the 1970s, traversing a key period of social, economic and technological transformation. Centring on the law in action and as lived experience, it highlights the tools and strategies that were successful, as well as the reasons for inertia and backlash. The book explores the impact and legacies of actors, institutions, discourses and key junctures in shifting law, attitudes, policy and practice. The book is also the first historical study of the influence of intersectionality on legal thinking and campaigning around UK workplace gender equality, as well as the difficulties experienced in giving intersectionality legal form. 

(2022-2026) 'Race, Gender, and Political Representation Beyond Parliamentary Chambers' 

(Principal Co-Investigator with Dr Orly Siow, Lund University and Newcastle University; funded by Newcastle University) 

We explore the role and influence of equality NGOs in political representation, particularly in relation to the intersections of gender and race – namely, who has access to UK government ministers, and who influences them. While it has until now been difficult to quantitatively capture ‘behind the scenes’ aspects of the representative process, we meet this methodological challenge by providing a novel analysis of a newly-available dataset of 74,000 meetings between UK government ministers and external organizations. We investigate the effect of ministers’ racial, gendered, and partisan identities on a)whether and to what extent they engage with racial and gender equality organizations; and b)which organizations they engage with, in what contexts, and to what, if any, effect on public policy. We have presented the paper 'Intersectionality, access and influence: Who has the minister’s ear?' at four international conferences including the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (all 2022). 

(2024-2028) ‘Operationalizing Intersectionality in Canada: Equality Policy & NGOs’ (PI; SSHRC Banting Fellowship held at York University, Toronto) 

Canada is considered multicultural. However, recent years have brought injustices to international attention and seen a corresponding growth of racial and Indigenous justice movements. Accordingly, the Canadian government promised to apply ‘intersectionality’ in policymaking - the Black feminist theory that inequalities shape one another. This major postdoctoral research project will explore how this theory can be operationalized, with a unique focus on NGOs. NGOs (e.g. racial justice and feminist organizations) represent marginalized groups in politics and advocate policy solutions. What do NGOs recommend should be done? How do they understand and use intersectionality? I will explore these questions to increase understanding of how intersectionality can be applied in both policy and practice, with great potential to impact policymakers’ growing interpretations of intersectionality.