Staff in the Departments of Law and Criminology and Social Work have been engaged in a series of outreach activities. Most are reported in the news page of the website. Below is a selection of these activities and achievements.

Research News

On 4 April 2022, the Rights and Freedoms Research Cluster hosted a half-day conference to debate two topics in two panels. The first panel addressed international legal perspectives on the Afghanistan situation. The second focused on contemporary issues in business and human rights. A summary of what was debated during the conference is available here.

Dr Alexis Artaud de La Ferrière co-edited a special issue of “Fides et Libertas”, an open-access journal which brings together contributions from leading international scholars on the impact of COVID-19 restriction on religious liberty in Europe and North America (see here).

Prof Jill Marshall edited Personal Identity and the European Court of Human Rights (Routledge 2022). The collection explores how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has developed and presented a right to personal identity.

Conferences and Lectures

The Department of Social Work was well represented in two internationally attended conferences in April and June 2022. At the European Social Work Research Association conference in Amsterdam, Prof Anna Gupta presented Co-POWeR research findings on the Impact of the pandemic and racial inequalities on Black and Asian Young People and their Families. Prof Anna Gupta and Dr Yuval Saar-Heiman presented at a symposium on the Constructions of Parental Cannabis Use in Child Protection Court Proceedings. Karl Mason presented on Homelessness and ‘Need’: Messages from the Literature.

At the Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference (JSWEC) held in Leeds, Stefan Brown presented Early findings from interviews exploring MCA decision making and young onset dementia. Karl Mason presented his work on Discriminatory Abuse: Reclaiming the Social in Safeguarding Adults. Dr Louise O’Connor presented research findings on Reclaiming Emotions in a Macho Social Work Culture: Gender as a Structuring Influence, which prompted creative responses from resident cartoonist Harry Venning (see below). 

Other news include Prof Frank Keating being invited as keynote speaker at an Equalities and Diversity conference on Young Black men organised by Islington Council on 22 May 2022. Finally, Dr Yuval Saar-Heiman, PFAN (Parent Families and Allies Network) and the Department of Social Work are organising a conference on parent advocacy in child protection: Coming together to promote change: The development of parent advocacy (6 July 2022).

With reference to the Department of Law and Criminology:

- Dr Jenny Korkodeilou was invited to chair and deliver a LEX-affiliated talk.

- Dr Elizabeth Pearson presented on Misogeny and Masculinity: Suing Gender to Understand Extremism at the 47th Käte Hamburger lecture (see here). She also presented on gender, terrorism and violent extremism at the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) event in Dakar, Senegal (see here) and on Boko Haram’s abduction of women at The International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law Expert Meeting on Terrorism-related Sexual Violence (see here).

- Dr Giovanni Travaglino has been invited to deliver a two-day seminar to the doctoral students of the Department of Economic and Statistical Sciences at the University of Palermo - see here.

- Dr Eugenio Vaccari was invited to deliver guest lectures at Goldsmiths, University of London (see here) and at the Université of Paris Nanterre (see here). He also took part in a visiting lectureship at the University of Milano Bicocca (see here) and he presented at the Master en Reestructuraciones Empresariales (MRE) organised by the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Madrid.

Awards

Dr Emily Glorney received the Award of the High Sheriff of Surrey in recognition of her great and valuable service to the community (see here).

Additionally, some of our colleagues have been awarded prizes and commendations at the College Teaching Prizes 2022 (see here).

Mentorship Scheme

Professor Laura Sjoberg (PIR-P) is co-ordinating the MentorShip Programme within the School of Law and Social Science (LSS). The programme provides support to members of LSS staff.

The MentorShip Programme allows any member of the LSS Academic staff to either volunteer to mentor or to be mentored and provides the ability to specify your needs and what you have to offer. Whether you are an early career researcher interested in applying for promotion or getting publishing support, or a senior member of academic staff looking to refresh your outlook on teaching or technology, there is a mentor for you. 

The scheme kicked off by pairing mentors and mentees in Spring 2022. Senior academic staff from the LSS Departments are encouraged to volunteer as mentors.

Besides one-on-one meetings between mentors and mentees, Prof Sjoberg has recently organised a “Grant Application Session”. This event took place on 1 June 2022 and featured the participation of Dr Daniel Whistler (PIR-P), Dr Ursula Hackett (PIR-P), Dr Giovanni Travaglino (LAC) and Prof Nathan Widder (PIR-P). The speakers shared their success stories in getting large grants from a variety of domestic and international funders.

If you’re an LSS academic interested in joining the mentoring scheme as a mentor or mentee (or both), please fill out the MentorShip form. If you have questions, contact Prof Sjoberg at Laura.Sjoberg@rhul.ac.uk.

Podcasts

Dr Sacha Raoult hosts a podcast called "Academic Trajectory" where he asks academics about their curricula as a way to make our quite opaque universe more comprehensible to students.

As chairperson of INSOL ERA (Early Researcher Academics), Dr Eugenio Vaccari launched “INSOL Talks”, a podcast featuring conversations with some of the “big names” in insolvency. This podcast, addressed to students and early career researchers, aims at learning from the experience of the speakers and get some valuable tips for building a successful academic or professional career.

Magna Carta is a fundamental document in British and, arguably, whole history. The first version of the Magna Carta was issued in 1215 at “Ronimed inter Windlesoram et Stanes” (Runnymede between Windsor and Staines). Our beautiful campus is located just a stone’s throw from the Runnymede meadow where Magna Carta was sealed.

The king was forced to sign this document after a series of defeats in Normandy and increased taxation on the English nobility pushed the barons to demand (by means of an armed rebellion) some limits to the powers and prerogatives of English monarchs. The Magna Carta is the first document to establish that English rulers and their governments are not above the law.

At Royal Holloway, University of London we benefit from a wealth of staff expertise on Magna Carta, one example being the article written by Dr Matt Clement (Senior Lecturer in Criminology) on the occasion of the last Magna Carta Day (15 June 2022) – see here. Additionally, the College has held an annual Magna Carta Lecture since 2005.

The Magna Carta lecture series covers themes of rights and liberties, and the granting of fair justice and individual freedoms under the law. Past speakers have included academics, justices, politicians and other professionals. The Magna Carta Lecture series is made possible by the generosity of The Magna Carta Trust and Runnymede Magna Carta Legacy.

Following an online delivery in 2021, the Royal Holloway Magna Carta Lecture returned to a live audience on Monday 6 June, at Middle Temple Hall in central London. The Middle Temple was itself a fitting venue for the lecture - the Hall dates back to the early 1600s and having survived fires and bombs remains home of one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to Call their members to the Bar of England and Wales.

The 2022 Magna Carta Lecture was delivered by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor. Appointed in 2020, Charlie Taylor spent much of his career as a teacher and was formerly Chair of the Youth Justice Board. Reporting directly to the Secretary of State for Justice, he e leads HM Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales, which provides independent scrutiny of the conditions for and treatment of prisoners and other detainees.

The title of his presentation was “The importance of good prisons in a criminal justice system”. Noting that the prison population is now at record levels, Charlie Taylor described how "a sort of post-Covid torpor seems to have infected many prisons" with little education or work available and most prisoners locked in their cells for most of the day with nothing to do apart from watch daytime TV. He argued that if prisons are to play their role as a "key part of the justice system that is trusted by the public to keep them safe" there must be an emphasis on rehabilitation with close links between prisons and the community.  The event was chaired by Executive Dean for Law and Social Sciences, Professor Matthew Humphreys.

Mr Taylor’s comments about how the most effective prisons can balance incarceration with rehabilitation, and the effect of the pandemic prison lockdowns on inmates, were picked up by a number of news outlets including The Guardian, Sky News, and The Times. The recording of the speech is available on the Events pages and the transcript is available via HMIP.

The event was attended by a large group of students and academics. A full report of the event is also available here. Professors Rosie Meek and Nick Hardwick were instrumental in securing the participation of Mr Charlie Taylor in the event, thanks to their ESRC-funded project on Secondary Analysis of Data collected by HMI Prisons. Professor Nick Hardwick said: "It was good to see so many people attending the lecture despite the tube strike on the day and Charlie Taylor's lecture could not have been more fitting for the Magna Carta theme. It cut to the heart of the issues of crime, punishment and the rule of law which are at the centre of our work today"

This year’s Magna Carta Lecture was held in support of the work of the Royal Holloway Legal Advice Centre, which provides current Law students with hands-on work experience offering free legal advice, to address unmet needs, to our local community, under the supervision of practising solicitors. Students also engage in outreach projects and clinics including working in partnership with Creighton & Partners Solicitors to provide free legal advice services to prisoners at HMP Coldingley on family law matters.

Research

• Research led by Dr Emily Glorney on school exclusion was influential for the debate at the Multi-Agency Summit – see here.
• Robert Jago has been appointed as associate editor of Nursing Ethics, the leading journal in nursing ethics.
• The project First RespondXR: Digital vulnerability of immersive training for first responders (where Prof Jill Marshall took part as a co-I) is now complete – see here.
• Karl Mason has been working with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the charity Research in Practice (Dartington Trust) in relation to Safeguarding Adults and Discriminatory Abuse policy and practice.  Karl has been invited to join an advisory group and co-author a literature review on the subject. He will also deliver a webinar for the LGA and knowledge exchange work-shops for 90 practitioners in July 2022.
• Prof Rosie Meek launched the ESRC-funded project “Secondary analysis of data collected over a 20 year period by HM Inspectorate of Prisons”– see here.
• Finally, Dr Eugenio Vaccari has completed the project on the treatment of local public entities in distress. The results of this project have been presented at the recent INSOL International Colloquium in London.

Funding

• Prof Barn, R.: UK Future Leaders Fellowship Grant – “Hair and Care: Black Children and Young People’s Experience of Belonging and Exclusion in Social Care and Education”, Total award £1.57 million; RHUL £75,045;

• Prof Meek, R and Prof Hardwick, N: ESRC grant worth £240,000 for the project “Unlocking Voices from Behind Prison Walls”;

• Dr Glorney, E: £5,000 from Civic University RF for the project: “The impact of Covid-19 on offending behaviour and policing practice”;

• Dr Travaglino, G.: ERC-StG grant worth €1,499,810.00 for the project “Investigating the Legitimization of Criminal Governance: Group Comparisons and Within-Individual Dynamics”;

• Dr de Oliveira, L. and Dr Vaccari, E. secured a PhD scholarship for a research project in ADR and insolvency law - see here;

• Several members of the staff submitted grant proposals, and we hope to share many more success stories here in the next issues. In the meanwhile, you can find all our ongoing externally-funded projects here. 

Selected Publications

- R Barn, D Sandhu & U Mukherjee, ‘Re‐imaging everyday routines and educational aspirations under COVID‐19 lockdown: Narratives of urban middle‐class children in Punjab, India’ (2022) Children & Society

- E Glorney & N Rhoden, ‘Permanent school exclusions in Surrey: What works to keep children and young people in education?’ (1 Mar 2022)

- A Gupta & S Tarr, 'Practitioner responses to children and young people involved in forced marriage' (2022) 31(3) Child Abuse Review

- N Hardwick, J Marriott, K Mason & M Steinbrecher, ‘Human Rights and Systemic Wrongs: National Preventive Mechanisms and the Monitoring of Care Homes for Older People (30 Mar 2022) Journal of Human Rights Practice

- N Hardwick, R Meek & P Crossey, ‘A society of captives locked down: a study of Her Majesty’s Prison "The Mount" during the COVID-19 pandemic’ (2022) Prison Service Journal

- J Kelman, R Gribble, L Palmer, J Harvey & D MacManus, ‘How Does a History of Trauma Affect the Experience of Imprisonment for Individuals in Women’s Prisons: A Qualitative Exploration’ (6 May 2022) Women and Criminal Justice

- LVP de Oliveira & M Spangenberger, ‘The Brazilian Cooperation and Facilitation Investment Agreement as a model for Latin America?’, in S el Droubi and CJ Flores Elizondo (eds), Latin American Perspectives to International Investment Law: A Mosaic of Resistance (Manchester UP 2022)

- J Marshall (ed.), Personal Identity and the European Court of HR (Routledge 2022).

- J Marshall, ‘International Criminal Law, Everyday Spaces and Feminist Legal Theory’ (2022) International Criminal Law Review

- K Mason, A Biswas Sasidharan, A Cooper, K Shorten & J Sutton, 'Discriminatory abuse: time to revive a forgotten form of abuse?' (2022) 24(2) The Journal of Adult Protection 115-125

- K Mason, C Cocker, & T Hafford-Letchfield, 'Sexuality and Religion: From the Court of Appeal to the Social Work Classroom' (2022) 41(1) Social Work Education 77-89

- K Mason, 'The Policy Context' in A Cooper & M Preston-Shoot (eds), Adult Safeguarding and Homelessness: Understanding Good Practice (Jessica Kingsley Press 2022)

- C Nirta, 'Reframing Marginality in Trans Politics, Towards an Ethics of Differentiation' in AM Brighenti, The New Politics of Visibility (Intellect Books 2022)

- L O’Connor, ‘Agile Emotion Practices: Findings from an Ethnographic Study of Children and Families Social Work’ (2022) British Journal of Social Work

- A Richards, ‘Conceptualisation of Terrorism’, in D Muro & T Wilson (eds), Contemporary Terrorism Studies (OUP 2022)

- T Sinnamon, ‘Eyeing up the reformers – should England take inspiration from Canada’s Uniform Benevolent and Community Crowdfunding Act and the US Crowdfunded Donation Protection Act?’ (2022) 36(1) 1 Trust Law International 26;

- G Travaglino & M Ozeki, ‘A comparison between the UK and Japan on the effects of individualism/collectivism on the succession of group norms’ (Apr 2022) The Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology;

- E Vaccari and JLL Gant, ‘The UK Preventive Restructuring Framework after Brexit: Acknowledging EU’s Supremacy?’ (2022) Herstructurering & Recovery Online (HERO) W-002 

Prof. Jill Marshall

Professor Jill Marshall is a full time Law Professor in the Department of Law and Criminology. Her work focuses on women’s human rights, privacy, expression, and sexual violence in conflict and includes analysis of international law, global justice and human rights in their complexities of real life situations.

Together with colleagues from other UK universities, she was recently awarded an EPSRC, SPRITE+ research grant of approximately £30,000 for the project First RespondXR: Digital vulnerability of immersive training for first responders. SPRITE+ is an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Digital Economy NetworkPlus, that stimulates new directions for research relevant to security, privacy, identity, and trust.

The project focused on the use of virtual and augmented reality immersive 3D technology (Extended Reality - XR) by police services. Significant reductions in policing resources mean police increasingly using XR to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their training services. XR has become a prominent support for training and operations. Yet, in the rush to exploit its benefits, the potential digital vulnerabilities that may be exposed have yet to be properly examined. The project analysed the digital vulnerabilities likely to emerge from mainstreaming immersive extended XR in such training. Professor Jill Marshall and researcher Marina Heilbrunn explored the legal implications of XR’s use by the police. In a blog post published here, she observed that the wide use of these technologies may result in unlawful practices and potentially affect public trust in the police.

The project outline and outcomes are available here.

Prof. Anna Gupta

Professor Anna Gupta is a full time Professor in the Department of Social Work. Her work focuses on child protection, poverty and inequality, social work with black and minority ethnic children and families, including unaccompanied migrant youth, and work in the family courts.

As part of a consortium of researchers led by Prof Iyiola Solanke (University of Leeds), she was awarded £2.5 million in funding from the UKRI ESRC for the project Co-POWeR: Consortium on Practices for Wellbeing and Resilience in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Families and Communities.

The project explores the intersectional nature of forms of exclusion and disadvantage on the lives of different Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic families and communities across the UK during the pandemic, with the aim of highlighting policies and practices that promote wellbeing and resilience.

Professor Gupta is a co-Investigator WP 2 – Children, Young People and Their Families with Prof Claudia Bernard (Goldsmiths) and Prof Monica Lakhanpaul (UCL). WP2 primarily uses qualitative methods, including creative and participatory approaches with young people, focus groups and interviews with parents/carers, community groups and professionals.

Once completed, Co-POWeR will provide evidenced recommendations to key audiences (healthcare stakeholders, policy-makers, local government and social services), targeting policy and behavioural change, and raising awareness to support BAMEFC to live well and in confidence under COVID-19. Recommendations will stress how policy can improve to ‘build back better’, supporting BAMEFC to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to future shocks. 

As part of the Co-POWeR consortium, Prof Anna Gupta was involved in the presentation of this research at a Westminster event in June 2022. This event was organised by MP Naz Shah on behalf of the Women’s Budget Group.

The project is expected to be completed by August 2022. More information is available here.

Dr. Giovanni Travaglino

Dr Giovanni Travaglino joined the Department of Law and Criminology in 2021 as a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Psychology. His research interests include organised crime and criminal governance; political behaviour, political violence and radical action; vicarious dissent and social banditry.

Dr Giovanni Travaglino was awarded almost €1.5 million in funding from the European Research Council – Starting Grant (ESRC – StG) for the project Investigating the Legimitization of Criminal Governance: Group Comparisons and Within-Individual Dynamics (SecretPower_ERC). This will be fulfilled by the UKRI.

Criminal groups such as mafias are embedded in the communities’ local fabrics. The project ‘SecretPower_ERC’ will pioneer a new multimethod approach addressing how the legitimization of criminal governance is fostered by ideologies, values and identities, and their interplay with macro-level factors. SecretPower_ERC will transform the scientific understanding of criminal governance and provide evidence for substantiating policy recommendations and educational interventions.

For updates about the project, please follow @SecretPower_ERC or email Dr Giovanni Travaglino at giovanni.travaglino@rhul.ac.uk.

Teaching Updates

The Departments of Law and Criminology and Social Work provide research-focused, intellectually stimulating degree courses for students wishing to undertake studies in law, criminology, sociology, psychology and social work.

Our degree courses reflect the latest developments in those areas. In their modules, students examine real-life situations and have the opportunity to undertake industry placements.

As they progress through their degrees, students become equipped with the knowledge, skill and experiences essential to advance their future careers.

Supportive Learning

Students undertaking a degree in our Departments benefit from an inter-disciplinary environment.

The Departments are proud of their strong culture of supporting students. All students are allocated a Personal Tutor before arrival. Together with the Wellbeing Team and Careers Services, the Personal Tutor provides academic advice and pastoral support to the students studying in our Departments.

Tailored Offer

The first two years of our undergraduate degrees are designed to give our students a solid, foundational knowledge. This allows students to explore more technical areas of law, criminology and social work in the second and years of their undergraduate degrees.

The Departments are constantly updating their offer to meet students’ demands and real-world changes. As a result, the Departments recently introduced new modules in Islamic and US Constitutional Law (law modules), as well as Sociology of Religion and Sex Work: Debates and Dilemmas (criminology modules).

Student Experience

The student experience team has been moving away from mainly managing events (as the student reps and Union have been great at organising 'back on campus' activities).

The team is now working “behind the scenes” addressing the broader enhancement of student experience with action points based on student feedback (via surveys), the development of internship opportunities for students (including the Student Skills Summer Development Placements).

The team has organised a series of successful initiatives. Dr. Jenny Korkodeilou has organised a series of social gatherings known as “Watch Together Events”. These are online meetings where the subjects covered by some movies or documentaries (such as sexual violence in Bill Cosby) are discussed with a group of academic or professional experts.

The LSS also organised a Murder Mystery Soirée.

Dr Mohammad Sabuj - LL3014 Islamic Law

In our departments, we always aim at improving our educational offer by amending our portfolio of elective modules available to our students. One of the most recent additions to our portfolio is LL3014 Introduction to Islamic Law. This module is offered for the first time in the academic year 2022/23. It is an elective module for second-and third-year law students. The module convenor is Dr Mohammad Sabuj.

This module allows the students to study a fundamental branch of law in many Muslm majority states and non-Muslim states. Yet, the relevance of this module goes beyond these countries.

In many countries, Muslims can regulate their private legal matters such as marriage, divorce, and succession according to Islamic personal law.

Students in this module will study the evolution of Islamic family and criminal law from an historical perspective. The module also examines the contemporary implementation of Islamic law. It is expected that by the end of this module, students will demonstrate a sound knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence.

Islamic law is only one of the elective law modules offered in the next academic year.

Stefan Brown

Along with colleagues in Law and Social Science, Stefan Brown (Senior Lecturer in Social Work) is running a summer school project on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). The project is funded by the summer skills development scheme which the Careers service is responsible for running. This project builds on the successful EDI summer skills development project last summer (2021).

The Summer School aims to explore the lived experience of Black and Global majority students across the School to support the development of a clearer race and equality strategy.

Six students will be recruited to join a project team. They will develop key questions for students drawn from the findings of last year’s research. The team will run some focus groups which will draw together views of students. Research training will be provided to students who are part of the team, so that they can carry out the research and complete the analysis. Findings will be written up and presented to the EDI committee.

The project also includes an audit of reading lists. Last year’s successful audit of reading lists, which was funded by the summer skills development project, exposed a marked discrepancy between the demographic makeup of LSS departments and the reading lists that frame their education. As a result of last year’s audit, teaching leads in the school’s departments reported changes to the curriculum that addressed that discrepancy.

This year’s audit will examine these changes and “map” the contours of our school when it comes to reading lists, which is one of the main vectors for inclusive practice.

Dr Eugenio Vaccari

Dr Eugenio Vaccari (Lecturer in Law) was recently awarded an Excellence Teaching Commendation for his project on Assessing students through skeleton arguments to improve engagement and diversify their transferrable skills – see here.

The purpose of this project was to introduce new learning activities and assessment techniques to reduce the risk of passive listening and selective memorising of notions in lectures and tutorials. The project was conducted among a cohort of 3^rd year LL.B. students enrolled in the elective module of LL3012 Commercial Law. The module convenor is Dr Leonardo VP de Oliveira.

The changes had been implemented to obtain a high level of participation from the learners, as well as promoting “valid, fair and transparent” assessment. Eugenio’s role in this project has been to encourage and facilitate the students’ engagement in learning activities likely to result in achieving the intended learning outcomes (ILOs). One of the module’s ILOs was “to apply legal concepts to problem scenarios (advice to clients and submissions to courts)”.

To test this specific ILO, Eugenio structured the mid-term formative and summative coursework (30% of the final grade) in the form of a skeleton argument. Skeleton arguments are documents filed with the court and exchanged between the parties in advance of a court hearing. Their purpose is to summarise what the lawyer will say to the judge at the hearing.

Project and Inclusivity

The students were given a scenario and the grounds for petitioning the court. They were tested on their ability to carry out independent research and present their written submissions to a court. The aim of this assessment was to enhance a range of subject-specific transferrable skills (oral and written advocacy, legal research) and the employability of our students.

To prepare the students for this task, Eugenio changed the structure of some tutorials. Rather than occasions to clarify and extend the “package” expounded in the lectures, mock moots and negotiations were organised during these tutorials. Students were asked to build arguments and settle disputes based on fictitious scenarios.

Varied assessment techniques are needed to ensure that students with different learning needs are catered for. Overall, there is evidence that students engaged with the tutorial tasks, as they saw their usefulness for assessment purposes.

Student performance

The fact that students had to deal with this innovative task through collaborative group work during tutorials has increased the inclusiveness of the course.

With reference to the development of transferrable skills, the project was designed so that the assessment proved an appropriate, substantive, relevant, and useful measurement tool to assess the ILOs. The student performance on this assessment showed higher overall marks for those students, who engaged (virtually or in person) in the tutorials, and who challenged themselves by submitting a formative coursework.

Overall, 47.05% of students achieved a 2:1 or a first (mean score: 58.94%). Virtually all of them were students, who submitted the formative assessment and/or engaged with the tutorial tasks. 

Undergraduate News

• Madelaine Gray (first-year LLB with Politics) was elected to be the Editor-in-Chief of The Orbital. She was previously the Deputy Opinion Editor.
• Mollie Fagin (first-year LLB) and Madelaine Gray were awarded "Outstanding Delegates" at the 2022 National Model United Nations New York Conference.
• Shafin Hassan (first-year LLB) was elected as treasurer for the Debating Society.
• Shauna Punjabi (first-year LLB) won a gold medal in the BUCS outdoor archery finals. That’s extremely impressive, as it is a highly competitive national university championship.
• At the Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference (JSWEC) held in Leeds, current social work student Sneha Thapa and MSc alumnus Gaverne Bennett presented their student-led research project with Stefan Brown on Representation and Substantive Diversity in Social Work Education: A Student Led Research Project. 

Postgraduate News

Two LAC Ph.D. candidates, Mr Deon Chorley and Ms Isabella Da Re, successfully organised a conference on "Conflict, Political Violence and Human Rights”. This hybrid conference took place in person on 27 May 2022 and online-only on 28 May 2022.

The conference represented an excellent opportunity for Ph.D. researchers to present their work to fellow Ph.D. students, as well as to natwrok, share ideas and get precious feedback on their work.

Key speakers included Kristian Gleditsch (Regius Professor of Political Science at the University of Essex), Prof Ruth J Blakeley (University of Sheffield), and Dr Jonathan Leader-Maynard (KCL).

At the Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference (JSWEC) held in Leeds, PhD student Petra Goebbels-Koch presented findings from her study Preventing Suicidal Ideation in Care-Experienced People.

PhD Success

We are pleased to announce that earlier this year Abdullah Al-Anezi, Mary Elliott-Davies and Nali Moftizadeh successfully defended their PhD thesis.

Abdullah was supervised by Prof Frank Keatin and Prof Tony Evans. Mary was supervised by Dr Emily Glorney and Dr David La Rooy. Finally, Nali was supervised by Prof Hanna Zagefka and Prof Ravinder Barn.

Student Newsletter

Under the supervision of Dr Eugenio Vaccari (Lecturer in Law, LAC), two final-year LL.B. students have joined the editorial team of the INSOL International i-Read and took part in the drafting of the June issue of the Student Newsletter.

Ms Patricia Oei interviewed Kyle Woobey, a recent law graduate now working in the insolvency field at ReSolve, a London-based corporate restructuring, insolvency and advisory firm. In the interview, Kyle gave some advice to like-minded students and graduates interested in pursuing a career in private practice. Kyle explains how he got the job – and that’s a very interesting and unusual story!

Mr Patrick Levins contributed to the June issue by writing a piece on the Economic Crime Act 2022, explaining how wealthy individuals can use shell corporations registered in tax havens for a variety of illegitimate purposes, including the transfer of profits and assets out of the UK

Congratulations to Patricia and Patrick for their contribution to the INSOL i-Read Newsletter. This will certainly stand them in good stead for their future professional or academic endeavours!

Success Stories

Our staff always look at improving student satisfaction and developing both academic and employability skills.

Recently, Prof Rosie Meek helped one of her supervisees and a recent graduate of RHUL to publish her research in JEPS, a peer-reviewed journal - see here.

Earlier in the term, Dr Jenny Korkodeilou helped one of her supervisees to complete a research report on the Higher Education (HE) Freedom of Speech Bill – see here.

It is therefore not surprising to see that some of our students received prestigious scholarships – see here and here.

We are grateful that some of our graduates shared their stories as to how a degree from our Departments helped them in achieving great results in their professional lives – see here (LAC graduates) and here (SW graduates).

Ms Jayden Bookout with the Outstanding International Student Award at the Royal Holloway Volunteering Awards 2022 – see here.

Finally, Dan Phillips (second-year Criminology and Sociology) was awarded the Mayor's Cup at the volunteer awards. The Mayor’s Cup is the most prestigious award presented to a student who has gone above and beyond to support their local community. More information on this award is available here.

Legal Advice Centre

The Legal Advice Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London, provides free legal advice and information to the local community. Our Centre is student-led, under the supervision of qualified legal professionals.

The centre has operated several sessions in the first half of 2022. However, the Centre is now closed for the duration of the summer assessment period.

Clients are encouraged to contact the Legal Advice Centre via email at LAC@royalholloway.ac.uk. Subject to availability, our staff will allocate a time slot for an in-person or online interview. Students supervised by qualified solicitors will look at the case and will provide legal advice as appropriate.

The Centre includes a Street Law Clinic. The Clinic has various out-reach projects to provide community groups with free legal workshops.

Events

The Careers Service is organising the Part-time Jobs Fair, which will take place on 28 September 2022 (11 am – 3 pm). The list of attending employers is available here.

The Careers Service also runs a central programme of employer talks and careers workshops in term time. Details of these will be updated on the Careers Portal closer to the start of term.

Recent graduates or students about to graduate can access the Careers support services for two years after graduation.

Employability

The Department of Law and Criminology partnered with ULaw and BPP to offer students scholarship opportunities for SQE/LPC bridge programs.

Students were informed about various vacation and graduation training opportunities in law firms, the Inns of Court and other places of employment, including part-time and summer employment opportunities.

Careers Service

The Careers Service provides information and support in the job application process (e.g. how to write CVs and prepare for interviews). It also organises a series of employer talks and careers workshops in term time. Details of these events are uploaded here.

One of these most recent events was the Summer Careers Fair, where more than 30 employers came to our campus to offer graduate schemes, internships, placements and other job opportunities to our students.

For the next academic year, during Enrolment Week, Careers will offer "Getting started with your degree" sessions for first year Law and for BSc students.

Careers is again planning a Government and Public Services week, a Law Week and a Health and Healthcare week.  In addition, there will be a Careers & Placements fair, which will include Law Firms.

Opportunities

Graduate and undergraduate students have access to a range of volunteering opportunities through the Royal Holloway Volunteering Platform. 

Beside the opportunities on the Volunteering Platform, Ms Jayden Brookout (CrimPsych) identified the following, additional opportunities:

- Surrey Police Ethics Committee Member: to act as trusted advisor to decision makers on a wide range of ethical and moral issues;

- Home-visiting Volunteers (Home-Start Runnymeded and Woking): to provide practical and emotional support to local families to help build confidence and the ability to cope;

- Addlestone Community Association – Researching Community Contact: to support people with special needs, alone and elderly. The volunteer will work to establish a data base of needs and requirements for residents in one of the association’s sheltered housing projects;

- Phone Befrienders for Sight for Surrey: to reduce the sense of loneliness and social isolation of people with sensory loss who rely on the services of this charity group.

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Love Your Community is a student-led project supported by Surrey County Council Litter Campaign and Runnymede Borough Council. It was run by Daniel Phillips and Aisha Mueena Mohamed Asraf (Crim. Soc.) and Amie Armitage (LL.B. with Crim.). Their project was runner-up in the National Student Volunteering Awards (in the Community Award section). Well done and thanks for your community service!