Research
My research is about equity, intersectionality, and political participation. In particular, I am interested in 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, gender identity, and sexuality, equality policy, political representation, 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
(2025-2027) "Unequal Opportunities to Advance Equality? Gender and Racial/Ethnic Civil Society in Comparative Context"
(Co-Principal Investigator with Orly Siow, Lund University, Sweden, funded by Swedish Research Council)
Civil society organizations (CSOs) are key to advancing equality, particularly in their ability to influence and scrutinize government policy. However, we know very little of: a)the comparative influence of CSOs representing women and/or racial/ethnic equality on elected representatives, and b)how this varies across Western democracies with differing equalities architectures. Our previous research published in West European Politics shows that in the UK, equality CSOs representing women have far greater access to government ministers than racial justice organizations, or organizations led by and for intersectionally marginalized groups, while in this project we explore the causal mechanisms at play. Our comparative approach (Canada, Sweden, UK) and innovative dissemination strategy fosters cross-country and policy sector learning. Our methods include interviews, document analysis and workshops. We aim to inform strategies that enhance the participation and influence of CSOs representing marginalized groups, and ultimately contribute to the development of more equitable democratic processes.
(2023-2025) "Operationalizing Intersectionality in Canada: Equality Policy & NGOs" (PI; funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada)
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 explores 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 am exploring 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.
(2021-2026) "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 2026 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.
(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.