Dr Rachel Stuart
Lecturer in Criminology and Deviance
Marie Jahoda 150
- Email: rachel.stuart@brunel.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1895 265148
Research area(s)
I am particularly interested in the impact of sustained institutional violence against the Gypsy/ Traveller community; innovative research methodologies; digital forms of sexual commerce; necro-politics and necroresistance; ultra-realism; zemiology and the study of social harms; intersectional criminology.
Research Interests
Traveller oral histories; research design; institutional violence; systemic violence against Traveller women; police violence against marginalised women.
I am attached to the Institute for Communities and Society.
Research grants and projects
Research Projects
Grants
Funder: British Academy
Duration: January 2022 - December 2022
This report presents the findings of an in-depth, qualitative study of digital poverty from the perspectives of two hyperlocal communities in the UK seaside town of Margate. Specifically, the study examined members of the Roma and Creative Diaspora.
Funder: NHIR
Duration: July 2021 - July 2022
Routes: New ways to talk about Covid-19 for better health. Focus on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and migrant workers
Funder: Doctors of the World UK (London, GB)
Duration: October 2019 - October 2020
The UK's 'Inclusion Health' agenda, which advocates social justice approaches to health inequalities, identifies sex workers as a priority population . However, current commissioning guidelines do not fully account for sex workers' diverse needs and the structural factors that compromise their health . Sex workers report widespread stigma in health services but are rarely consulted on their development, despite growing emphasis on community involvement in health
Funder: NIHR
Duration: February 2017 - October 2020
Sex workers are at disproportionate risk of violence, sexual and emotional ill-health harms that are linked to sex work criminalisation. In the UK, indoor female sex workers are 2.6 times more likely to experience recent client violence if they have ever been arrested/in prison, irrespective of work location, migrant status and drug use
Project details
2023- Co-Investigator. Department of Health and Social Care commissioned. Dialogue, Evidence, Participation, and Translation for Health (DEPTH) research group to explore the impact of COVID-19 in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and among migrant workers.Participatory qualitative research with members of these communities to co-produce insights into COVID-19 and public health responses, particularly focusing on testing, contact tracing, and vaccination.
2022- PI. BA funded report on Digital Poverty in Margate: a study of two hyperlocal communities. Working with colleagues Professor Ashley Braganza, Dr Vassilis Charitsis and Professor Meredith Jones we examined digital poverty from the perspectives of two hyperlocal communities in the UK seaside town of Margate. The study examines members of Margate’s Roma community and its Creative Diaspora, drawing from interviews with individuals from these communities to better understand specific lived experiences of digital poverty within the changing context of Margate.
2021- PI Doctors of The World commissioned report. The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative research
2020- Co-Investigator . NHIR commissioned study. The East London Project. A research project to see how removing police enforcement practices against sex work could affect sex workers’ safety, health and access to services in East London.