Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
The author recounts in this chapter the positive impact that building connections and networks has made to his journey in academia so far. He describes how he has found support in supervisors, student societies, fellow Somali students, and academic networks, leading to new avenues in his career, as well as the confidence and insight to pursue these avenues. Based on his reflections, he offers guidance to undergraduate students also considering paths in research. Throughout the chapter, the author comments on the importance of networks that provide inclusive spaces for members of the Black community and how this has personally inspired and driven him.
The author recounts her experiences undertaking PhD research on Black British and Black Caribbean women’s experiences of NHS work-based education and its impact on their professional identities. She charts her career journey teaching in the NHS and outlines how this directly influenced her subsequent research. She details how her PhD supervisors (who were both White women) supported her intention to break from the conventions of a ‘normal’ PhD thesis and present the women in her research as characters in fictional settings. The author explains that this non-conventional approach was important for making her academic work accessible to non-academics as well as contributing to the discourses on systemic inequities. At multiple points in the chapter, the author highlights that support from academic mentors, colleagues, the women who shared their stories with her, and the arts community was crucial for developing her research in a way that contributed to social activism.
After coming across the potential of higher education through an outreach programme for underserved schools, the author was inspired by the accounts she heard from Black academics. In this chapter the author reflects on how this encouraged her on her higher education journey. Along the way, however, she encountered isolation as she moved through institutions that did not reflect diverse communities. She raises the conflict of wanting to encourage other Black students into higher education while acknowledging the hostility Black people still face in these institutions. Focusing on the support that has helped her, the author recalls how vital the exposure to wider support networks, and the visibility of Black academics, was to reinforcing her sense of belonging as a Black, disabled woman in these educational institutions. She specifically highlights how accessing financial and material support for her disability was essential to completing her undergraduate studies and pursuing her PhD.
