Sequestered Communities in Britain: Collaborative Research and Funding

You are invited to join a series of interdisciplinary workshops exploring the theme of “Sequestered Communities in Britain”. This project, funded by the Interdisciplinary Innovation Fund (Research Communities, University of Westminster) and led by Professor Tarik Sabry, asks two key questions:

1. How can we use an intra-college, interdisciplinary forum to broaden the notion of “sequestration” beyond its sociological origins (see Giddens, 1991) to research and address the current lived experiences of people in UK total institutions, such as prisons, nursing homes, foster care homes and other under-examined sequestered spaces?
2. How can we, at the University of Westminster, use the arts (as a human and cultural right) to give voice to and enhance the lived experiences of sequestered communities in Britain?

Sequestration, as we understand it, is not a single-domain phenomenon. It operates simultaneously at the level of institutional architecture (prisons, care homes, detention centres), governance and law (regulation, rights, safeguarding), social structure (inequality, race, disability, migration and class), lived experience (identity, stigma and isolation), and increasingly through digital mediation (surveillance and algorithmic sorting). An interdisciplinary approach will enable the social sciences to analyse structural exclusion, institutional logics and lived experience; law and criminology to interrogate regulatory frameworks, rights, duty of care and accountability; the arts to develop non-extractive methodologies that foreground voice, representation and institutional dialogue; and architecture to address the spatial and aesthetic dimensions of sequestration.

25 September 2026

Workshop 3: Collaborative Research and Funding Pathways for Research on Sequestered Communities in Britain

Venue: Zone 29 – 29 Marylebone Road, U3, U3.01 Events Space (11893)
Time: 11.00 am–3.00 pm
(Lunch included)

This workshop will be led by Justine Kenyon, who will introduce relevant funding opportunities and discuss strategies for developing effective research proposals.

Workshop participants will be invited to circulate two to three short concept outlines in advance, outlining a research question, a potential site of engagement and a proposed creative method. During the workshop, participants will work in small interdisciplinary groups to collaboratively develop a draft research concept, including:

• A core research question;
• A one page research rationale;
• An outline of the community or institutional setting;
• A proposed arts-based or creative intervention; and
• Potential funding streams and external partners.

Professor Tarik Sabry will review and provide feedback on the draft proposals.

We warmly encourage colleagues from across the University to participate in one or more of these workshops. We hope this series will foster new interdisciplinary collaborations, generate innovative approaches to researching and engaging with sequestered communities, and lay the foundations for future funding applications and research projects.