'Accidental leadership' and radical hope: Black women in public services

In this event, Dr Guha will share insights on 'accidental leadership' and radical hope from the lived experiences of Black and racialised women at different stages of their leadership journey within public services in the UK. This will stem from an introduction to, and delineation of findings from, her Medical Research Council funded project with Dr Katherine Allen, University of Suffolk on addressing the postcode lottery of domestic abuse and sexual violence services across the England and Wales.

Following on from this, the audience will be introduced to emerging and established leaders from a pioneering and growing Community of (Leadership) Practice for Black and racialised women within public services. Finally, the event will include conversations with Dr Emma Murray, Associate Professor and Director of the UKRI-funded Social Sciences Research Lab at ARU Chelmsford on how research can explore, document and amplify what justice, healing and radical hope can look like in the lives of marginalised communities and individuals.

Dr Mirna Guha is a political sociologist and an intersectional scholar, with a PhD in International Development from the University of East Anglia. Her research specialisms include gendered violence, gender and development, and social (in)justice in the lives of marginalised communities globally. In the UK, she uses mixed methods to research the domestic abuse vulnerabilities and leadership of Black and other racialised women, with a view to transform institutions and services in historically underserved regions for racially marginalised victims-survivors. Her research on the domestic vulnerabilities of Asian women in Cambridgeshire led to the start of Cambridgeshire’s first specialist service, the Dahlia Project, for Asian women, through a Home Office-funded collaboration with Peterborough Women’s Aid.

In early 2024, Dr Guha was awarded a Medical Research Council-UK Prevention Research Partnership funded VISION grant for a project titled ''Nothing about us without us’: Investigating the impact of the leadership of global majority women on domestic abuse service provision in East England'. This project, includes a collaboration with the University of Suffolk, has established a regionally pioneering Community of (Leadership) Practice for 35 (and growing) Black and racialised emerging and established women leaders, and established a blueprint to transform and diversify public services to increase equity and access for racially minoritised victims-survivors of violence, harm and exclusion across the UK.

Event presented as part of the Cambridge Festival.

[LS 13.02.26]

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Host or Publisher Anglia Ruskin University - Community Engagement