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Liz Gloyne

Reader in Latin Language and Literature

Expertise: Gender equality, family ethics, engaging with the future through the past

My work focuses on issues of gender and family structures in antiquity, and offers significant lessons for how we tackle problems around gender and equality in contemporary society. My expertise in classical reception extends to how we might think through the climate crisis by using ancient Greece and Rome as a way to explore environmental catastrophe and how to tell stories differently.

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Martina Hutton

Senior Lecturer in Marketing

Themes: Thriving communities, Reducing health inequalities

Expertise: Consumer poverty, social stress complexities of economic/social disadvantage, consumption adequacy and wellbeing, community-based research methodologies

For 14 years I have worked as a researcher with diverse communities experiencing a range of intersecting inequalities, specifically focusing on deprived consumption, economic and social exclusion. My experience includes partnering with national and international stakeholders who represent groups experiencing hunger, poverty and post-prison restrictions.

I have published widely on the issues of consumer poverty, wellbeing and marketplace exclusion and have expertise in a range of social justice research methods (eg critical PAR, emancipatory praxis). Currently I am working on a funded impact study with a cross sector multi-stakeholder initiative, examining a range of sustainable food well-being solutions designed by the community for the community.

Zena Kamash

Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology, Dept of Classics

Themes: Reducing health inequalities, Sustainability and creativity, Thriving communities

I am British Iraqi archaeologist who is strongly committed to improving wellbeing amongst communities, especially in the UK and the Middle East. I am currently PI on a British Academy-funded project titled ‘Crafting Heritage for Wellbeing in Iraq’, which brings together researchers in the UK and Iraq across the fields of archaeology, heritage, psychology and arts/craft practice to explore how bringing together heritage and crafting can improve the wellbeing of people who have experienced conflict.

I am also writing a book titled Heritage and Healing in Syria and Iraq (under contract with Manchester University Press) that challenges existing approaches to cultural heritage reconstruction in post-conflict contexts and explores the ways in which such reconstruction might be more effectively framed to promote healing and reparation.

Outside academia, I am a trustee for Oxfordshire Mind, where I work to reduce mental health inequalities to ensure that everyone who needs support is able to access it.

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Ruth Livesey

Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Thought

Themes: Sustainability and creativity, Thriving communities

Expertise: Community engagement through creative practice/research; urban/rural relations; sustainability and history of transport; nineteenth-century natural history.

My research focuses on the social and cultural effects of industrialisation in the nineteenth century. I also work with arts organisations, museums, and community groups using literature to explore sense of place in smaller towns and communities undergoing major challenges now. My last book – Writing the Stagecoach Nation (2016) – explored the ways in which writers helped nineteenth-century readers come to terms with the new infrastructure of the railways in Britain by looking back to the capillary networks of the horse-drawn stage coach system.

My current research focuses on the idea of ‘provincialism’ and fictions of the provincial town c. 1820-1930 and the cultural legacy of this thinking. I have also written about nineteenth-century practices and knowledges drawn from natural history and philosophy as an anticipation of present eco-critical thinking. I am a passionate advocate of the value of interdisciplinary research and creative practice in addressing the challenges of the present.

Susan O’Leary

Lecturer in Accounting

Themes: Thriving communities

Expertise: Participatory and beneficiary accountability within NGOs, social impact, monitoring and evaluation

My work relates to the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment tools used within NGOs, and how they are used to derive outcomes as diverse as accountability to donors to the fulfilment of social development obligations at a grassroots level. My emerging research interests include the conception of vulnerable minorities by governments, international bodies, NGOs and associated institutions in accountability relationships, particularly in the area of modern slavery, trafficking, and refugee and asylum policy, and I am interested in working with diverse partners in this field. Methodologically, I employ a critical and interdisciplinary style with an emphasis on case-based qualitative methods.

Zoe Raven

PhD Student

Themes: Thriving communities, Reducing health inequalities

Expertise: Ethics of care, business ethics, practice theory, sensemaking, social justice, social inclusion, childcare and early years education

I have extensive experience and knowledge of the UK childcare sector, and am particularly interested in the problem of making childcare accessible, affordable, and inclusive in a marketised sector. My PhD thesis explores the tensions between ethical intentions and marketisation, and I am also hoping to carry out further research on the transition of childcare provision from a local authority to the third sector, and the impact of community-based childcare on the lives of low-income families, particularly women.

Chris Rees

Professor of Employment Relations

Themes: Thriving communities (especially decent working practices, also sustainable work and economic growth)

Expertise: Employee representation and participation, corporate governance regulation and reform, employment consequences of mergers and takeovers

My research has been broadly in sociology of work and employment, with particular focus on employee voice and representation. Recent interest in UK corporate governance reform – especially codetermination at board-level, also ownership and stewardship, directors’ duties, corporate reporting and ESG disclosure requirements, and regulatory / company law mechanisms. Relevant to wide range of debates on sustainable business, socialising finance, and the democratisation of work.

Published recent reports and papers on stakeholder corporate governance, board-level workforce engagement, and the regulation of takeovers. Established connections and contacts across a range of relevant policy-related bodies – e.g. Financial Reporting Council (FRC), Involvement & Participation Association (IPA), Trades Union Congress (TUC), Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), High Pay Centre, and Labour Business.

Erica Rowan

Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, Member of the Food Group

Themes: Biodiversity and natural capital, Greener futures, Thriving communities

Expertise: I am passionate about creating a greener and more sustainable planet for human, plant, and animal communities

My work on ancient diet and fuel consumption contributes to our understanding of past human/environment relationships and provides future solutions for sustainable food production and consumption. My current AHRC project, Negotiating the Modernity Crisis: Globalization, economic gain and the loss of traditional and sustainable food practices in Turkey (AHRC AH/V000454/1), aims to articulate and find solutions to local and globalising pressures by studying the dynamics of both ancient and modern sustainable foodways in the province of Manisa, and especially the agency of women.

I am also one of the founding members of The Food Group at RHUL where I have co-organised and participated in our two sustainability events, Inedible, Unpalatable and Indigestible and Food and Drink on the Brink. I enjoy discussing and sharing the findings of my research with the public through a variety of media, including blogs and podcasts.

Sukanya Sengupta

Professor of Management

Themes: Thriving communities, Sustainability and creativity

Expertise: Employee share ownership, performance management, small and medium enterprises, creative and media sector

My research interests include performance management, employee share ownership schemes and their impact on organisational and behavioural outcomes (e.g. organisational performance, labour productivity, commitment and employee turnover). The research on employee share ownership and performance based on quantitative analysis using the Workplace Employee Relations Survey and similar secondary databases. Another strand of research is predominantly qualitative and focuses on employment relations in small and medium enterprises, particularly in the creative and media sector.

The project report on Employment Relations in SMEs with Professor Paul Edwards facilitated a dialogue between policy and practice and was recognised for its research impact. An emerging area of research interest is precarious employment in the Indian Film industry. I would like to work with UKDA, IOD, Film Council UK and relevant audio visual medium.

Hyemi Shin

Lecturer in Responsible Management

Themes: Greener futures, Thriving communities

Expertise: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability governance, corporate communication, stakeholder engagement

I have worked on exploring corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability as an emerging field at multi-levels as management researcher. My work focuses on how the CSR/ sustainability field has emerged in different contexts by examining CSR/sustainability governance, CSR/sustainability reporting, the role of governments, and professional CSR/sustainability organisations, and how CSR/sustainability professionals work and implement CSR/sustainability policies. My experience includes working with CSR/ sustainability professionals and serving as consultant to business actors (both social enterprises and for-profit organisations) that implement CSR/ sustainability (e.g., UN SDGs) in Slovenia and the UK and as researcher to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to investigate the emergence of the CSR/sustainability function at organisations. I would like to work with various stakeholders that contribute to the field, particularly such as the government, CSR/sustainability professionals, and entrepreneurs.

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