6 Last checked 3 July 2020

I am a Senior Research Fellow (Asylum and Migration) in the Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research. Working also as a Practitioner Manager at WomenCentre UK, I have more than 20 years of experience developing collaborative, participatory and creative projects with women and families seeking asylum, refugees and new migrants. My expertise has developed through long-term research and direct professional practice, service delivery and management with migrant and refugee organisations. Focussing broadly on gender, migration, asylum and refugee studies, I am particularly interested in how migration is understood and experienced by women. I have published and presented widely on these topics, including co-editing “Feminist Narrative Research: Opportunities and Challenges” (Palgrave Macmillan 2017). 

I am the Co-I for ‘Corona Chronicles - Children researching their everyday lives, education and relationships during the coronavirus pandemic (CHEER).’ Led by Professor Helen Lomax, this research explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the everyday lives, education and relationships of primary school children aged 9-11 (UK school years 5 to 6). Find out about 'Corona Chronicles' and access videos and resources enabling children to research their everyday lives and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

I am one of the Research Leads, shared and alongside Dr. Anna Davidson and Dr. Grainne McMahon, with Feminist Spaces. This project brings together feminist, anti-racist, embodied practices of creating safe(r) spaces and arts activism to resignify space and to perform everyday acts of resistance with voice and action. This research has built a collaborative, capacity-releasing network by pairing up UK and European-based projects of resistance with a range of allied projects in less economically developed countries. Please see our website. We are currently working on Making Spaces which explores feminist responses and survival strategies in the Covid-19 pandemic. Our projects partners include the Racial Justice Network (West Yorkshire) and RAPAR (Manchester).

• Feminist narrative methodologies

• Concepts of vulnerability and resistance

• Participatory, visual and creative methods

• Narrative constructions of asylum and migration

• Policy and practice related to asylum

Membership

United Nations Network on Migration Expert Database from the Migration Research Hub by IMISCOE; British Sociological Association; Leeds Migration Research Network; and WomenCentre.

Click Here to see all postgraduate research opportunities with Dr Kate Smith