inclusion Archives

Empowering racialised women in European academia: Collaboration across borders

Across Europe, the persistent underrepresentation of racialised women in academia — understood as women positioned within racial categories through historical and social processes of racialisation that produce symbolic and material hierarchies shaping their experiences — reflects deep-seated structural inequalities rooted in colonial histories, racial hierarchies, and gendered exclusions. The project “Exploring Wellbeing and Progression Experiences among Racialised Women in Postgraduate Education” investigates how early-career researchers (ECRs) who identify as racialised women navigate these complexities within higher education institutions in England, France, Portugal, and Spain.

The project Exploring Wellbeing and Progression Experiences among Racialised Women in Postgraduate Education is supported by EERA Network 33: Gender and Education. It grew out of two related initiatives: the COST Action VOICES (CA20137, Making young researchers’ voices heard for gender equality), and the UCL-funded Global Engagement project examining the lived experiences of Black women in postgraduate education in England and France through an intersectional lens.

Building on these foundations, our project set out not only to analyse these racialised women’s experiences in academia, but also to build capacity among racialised women researchers by creating transnational spaces of exchange, reflection, and empowerment.

The project was carried out by a multidisciplinary and transnational research team, bringing together scholars with extensive expertise in gender, race, and higher education.

Professor Victoria Showunmi of University College London, UK (Team Lead)
Dr Anne-Sophie Godfroy of École Normale Supérieure – PSL, France
Dr Edna Falorca da Costa of University of Minho, Portugal
Dr Marian Blanco Ruiz of Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain.

Their collaboration exemplifies the project’s commitment to cross-border learning and to fostering inclusive research practices within European academia.

Politics, power, and post-colonial past

The project is situated within a critical political moment. Across Europe, right-wing populist movements continue to gain ground, often combining anti-gender rhetoric with nativist and xenophobic ideologies. Within this climate, racialised women scholars from former colonies face overlapping challenges – negotiating academic careers while contending with the residual power of colonial structures and the cultural expectations of “belonging” in European higher education.

“The transnational comparison across very different national contexts, more or less sensitive to reflexivity on racial inequalities, allows common patterns of exclusion and shared strategies of resistance to emerge”.

Anne-Sophie Godfroy

Researcher in France

By drawing comparisons across four post-imperial national contexts, the study explores how histories of empire continue to shape institutional cultures. Taking inspiration from Fradera’s (2018) work on the ongoing relationship between former empires and colonies, the project examines how racialised women ECRs relate to colonial/decolonial culture and how they interpret their academic identities through it.

Rethinking identity – Intersectionality as a starting point

Rather than treating race as an afterthought to gender, the study asks: how is gender itself constructed through the lived experiences of racialised women? Intersectionality — understood as an analytic framework that elucidates how multiple dimensions of identity, including but not limited to gender, race, social class, sexual orientation, and disability, intersect and mutually constitute one another — serves as the project’s principal analytical lens, drawing upon Black feminist and postcolonial theoretical traditions.

Women in higher education are not a single story; intersectionality ensures we see the full narrative. Only by acknowledging the complexity of their identities can we create truly inclusive and transformative academic spaces.

Victoria Showunmi

Lead Researcher of the project

This sentiment encapsulates the project’s central aim of linking personal experience with structural analysis.

The project’s theoretical foundation combines Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, hooks’ Black feminist critique of representation, and Mohanty’s decolonial analysis of feminism (2003), highlighting how race, gender, and history intersect in academic life. These ideas are placed in dialogue with European reflections on universalism and citizenship by Balibar (1997),Diagne (2013), and Fassa, Lepinard, and Roca Escoda (2016). This exchange exposes the gap between Europe’s universal ideals and institutional realities, where “sophisticated racism” (Showunmi & Tomlin, 2022) persists beneath claims of neutrality and meritocracy.

Voice as method – Listening, trust, and shared space

At the heart of the research were focus groups held in each country throughout 2025, bringing together 24 postgraduate participants. These sessions were designed to create safe, reflective spaces where participants could articulate their experiences and develop new ways of discussing race and discrimination. A carousel approach was adopted, where researchers travelled between the four countries and observed how national contexts shaped both academic life and the language of inclusion.

The focus groups encouraged participants to move beyond isolation and build a shared sense of solidarity. Common themes emerged: the burden of “representing diversity,” the invisibility of racialised women in leadership, and the emotional labour of navigating majority-white academic environments. Yet there was also a strong thread of resilience – participants described finding strength through community, mentorship, and shared purpose.

Collaboration as capacity building

One of the project’s most significant achievements lies in its collaborative methodology. The transnational partnership between universities in England, France, Portugal, and Spain created a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange. Each team brought distinct disciplinary perspectives and cultural insights, ensuring that the research was both locally grounded and globally relevant.

This collaborative design became a form of capacity building in itself, as the discussion sessions brought together racialised ECR women who shared a common feeling and space, highlighting their expertise and visibility within their institutions. The script had an iterative design, meaning that interesting findings from one discussion group were implemented in the next, thus developing a model that illustrates how inclusive research practices can foster personal development while promoting collective understanding.

By empowering racialised women ECRs and their allies, the project helped participants develop new tools for addressing racial and gender-based inequalities. These included:

Strategies for self-advocacy
Ways of confronting microaggressions
Approaches to mentoring that centre on empathy and inclusion.

Participants reported that these skills translated into stronger engagement in their academic and professional environments.

Strengthening the European research community

The project’s outcomes extend beyond its participants. By incorporating the lived experiences of racialised ECRs, it enriches the European research landscape with perspectives that have often been marginalised. It challenges established narratives about who “belongs” in academia and what counts as legitimate knowledge.

Moreover, the collaboration strengthens EERA’s Gender Network by expanding its focus to include racial and postcolonial dimensions of gender inequality. Through links with initiatives such as COST Action CA20137 VOICES, the project connects individual empowerment with institutional change. This alignment fosters greater coherence across European research networks committed to diversity and inclusion.

The project also offers valuable insights for policymakers and institutions. By understanding how exclusion operates differently across contexts, universities can design more effective equity measures—ensuring that diversity initiatives move beyond symbolic gestures to produce tangible outcomes.

From research to reflection

This project demonstrates how research can serve as both analysis and intervention. The collaborative process not only generated empirical findings but also built networks of trust, understanding, and shared purpose among scholars across Europe. In doing so, it illustrates how capacity building can begin with listening: by valuing the lived experiences of those at the margins, research becomes a means of collective empowerment.

The findings will continue to inform ongoing dialogue within EERA’s Gender Network and beyond. Plans are underway to develop future projects that build on this foundation, fostering intersectional and transnational approaches to inclusion in European academia.

Ultimately, this study reminds us that collaboration across borders –and across difference – is not just a research strategy, but a necessary step towards transforming academia itself.

Key Messages

– The project examines how racialised women in postgraduate education across England, France, Portugal, and Spain experience wellbeing, academic progression, and structural exclusion within higher education systems shaped by colonial legacies and intersecting inequalities. – Through a transnational comparative approach grounded in Black feminist and postcolonial theory, the study identifies common patterns of invisibility, emotional labour, and “diversity burden,” as well as shared strategies of resistance, solidarity, and identity formation. – By creating collaborative, safe spaces for dialogue, the project strengthens capacity building, amplifies marginalised voices, and provides practical tools for transforming European academic cultures toward greater inclusion and equity.

Prof. Victoria Showunmi

Institute of Education, University College London, UK

Prof. Victoria Showunmi is Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in Gender, Race and Identity at the Institute of Education (IOE), University College London (UCL). Her interests are gender, identity, and race through the lens of intersectionality, focusing on leadership and the lived experience of Black women and girls.

She develops fresh conceptual frameworks focusing on equity and social justice, especially the interplay between people and the sophistication of behaviours which lead to disengagement with the promotion of equality. Her work shows how culture and cultural background have the potential to disrupt power structures and lead to transformational change. She has an international profile based on the dissemination of her research through publication and teaching and was the recipient of BERA’s inaugural Academic Citizen of the Year award in 2023. This new award was created to honour a member of the wider academic community who has gone above and beyond in supporting colleagues and contributing to the wider discipline.

Prof. Showunmi is a member of the Gender and Education Executive, Past Chair of the British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society, Chair of the International Studies Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association and co-convenor of the Gender Network of the European Educational Research Association.

Dr. Anne-Sophie Godfroy

University of Paris-Est Créteil, France

Anne-Sophie Godfroy is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris-Est Créteil in France. Her research interests include knowledge production and circulation, the role of science in society, responsible research and innovation, the relationship between gender and science, international comparisons, and the epistemology and methodology of multidisciplinary contexts.

Over the past decade, she has participated in several European-funded research projects on science and society, including the HORIZON structural change projects GEnderTime and ACT.

From 2021 to 2025, she chaired the COST Action VOICES, ‘Making Young Researchers’ Voices Heard for Gender Equality’. She is currently chairing the COST Innovator Grant Next Gender, which aims to build the capacity of the next generation of researchers and evaluators to engage in inclusive sex and gender research.

Dr. Edna Costa

University of Minho, Portugal

Dr. Edna Costa is an Assistant Professor at the School of Economics, Management and Political Science at the University of Minho and an integrated researcher at the Research Centre in Political Science (CICP-UM). She holds a PhD in Political Science from NOVA-FCSH (2018), with a thesis on work-family capabilities in Portugal and Spain. Her research interests focus on gender and politics, as well as youth political participation and representation, topics on which she has published nationally and internationally. She has also participated in several projects, among which, the study on “The political participation of Portuguese youth” (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), the COST Action “VOICES” on gender equality and early career researchers, and the SDSN-Portugal Work Group on “Meaningful Youth Engagement”.

Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2341-6482
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/edna-falorca-da-costa-b5457630

Dr. Marian Blanco-Ruiz

Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain

Dr. Marian Blanco-Ruiz is a Lecturer in Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain). She holds a PhD in Media Research from Carlos III University of Madrid. Her research is grounded in feminist and gender-based approaches to media studies, with a focus on gender representations, digital and symbolic violence, and the impact of emerging technologies on youth, minors, and women’s mental health.

She has also participated in several projects, among which, is the leader of the project “The pressure of the ‘perfect mother’: the influence of digital media on women’s perception and mental health during motherhood and early childhood.” She is a member of the Core Group of the COST Action VOICES (2021–2025) and co-editor of the journal Communication and Gender.

Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7920-5978
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianblancoruiz/

References and Further Reading

Balibar, É. (1997). Racisme et universalisme. Raison Présente, 122, 63–77. https://www.persee.fr/doc/raipr_0033-9075_1997_num_122_1_3401

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

Diagne, S. B. (2013). On the Postcolonial and the Universal? Rue Descartes, 78(2), 7–18. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275877851_On_the_Postcolonial_and_the_Universal

Fassa, F., Lepinard, E., & Roca Escoda, M. (2016). L’intersectionnalité: enjeux théoriques et politiques. La Dispute. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311577224_Intersectionnalite_enjeux_theoriques_et_politiques

Fradera, J. (2018). The Imperial Nation. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167459/the-imperial-nation?srsltid=AfmBOopzeD1qDM_CvZu4YYz6yoii8HUGk1d4scxfn559XtdjxgBndK0K

hooks, b. (1981). Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743264

Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smp7t

Showunmi, V. & Tomlin, C. (2022). Understanding and Managing Sophisticated and Everyday Racism. Rowman & Littlefield.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382720644_Understanding_and_Managing_Sophisticated_and_Everyday_Racism_Implications_for_Education_and_Work

Why we must listen to migrant children: School belonging in a hostile environment

by Dr Thi Bogossian | BERA, Emerging Researchers' Group, NW 25 Research on Children's Rights in Education

It seemed like a regular school room, with colourful posters on the walls, a small table with pencils and books, and two blue chairs tucked behind a large desk – but for hydrous [1], a 9-year-old boy from Poland, it meant belonging. It was a space where he felt secure, where he could get help with his English, and where staff showed him care and attention that made him feel seen. In a world that often felt confusing and unwelcoming, this room became a quiet anchor, a place where he could just be a child, not “the foreign kid”.

My research showed that schools can act as powerful spaces of inclusion and belonging for migrant children – what I describe as an oasis within wider hostile political environments. In a time when migration and diversity are increasingly politicised, recognising and supporting these inclusive spaces is more urgent than ever.

An image taken by a child showing a room in a schoool with bright images on the walls.

Image by hydrous

A hostile environment

Image of a small wooden pavillon in a school playground.

Image by Luna

Across the UK and Europe, migration is being framed as a problem. From intensified border controls in Germany to stricter citizenship requirements in Italy through securitised language and policy in the UK, the environment has become deeply challenging for migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and their families. Anti-immigration rhetoric is no longer confined to the far right; even centrist and liberal parties have adopted exclusionary discourses and policies in an effort to appeal to nationalist sentiments.

Children are not immune to these dynamics. Migrant children, in particular, are caught in the tensions between their lived experiences and the public narratives about who belongs and who doesn’t (Richey, 2023). While politicians and media outlets often discuss migration in abstract terms, real children are navigating these social currents daily, in classrooms, in playgrounds, and in their journeys to and from school.

This development is especially significant given that, across the European Union, children with a migrant background represent a growing proportion of the population. While around 10% of the general EU population was born outside the EU, among children, the proportion with at least one foreign-born parent is closer to one in four. This generational shift underscores the growing importance of fostering belonging, inclusion, and identity in schools. As classrooms become increasingly diverse, education systems must adapt to ensure that all children, regardless of background, feel recognised, valued, and supported.

The role of schools

A coloured pencil drawing by a child showing children playing under a rainbow

Children often talked about the importance of playing and being with friends
Drawing by Mistral

In this context, the role of schools becomes critical. For children, schools sit at the intersection of family and society and are often the first space where migrant children socialise with members from outside their ethnic group. Educational institutions have the potential to buffer against hostile discourses by fostering empathy, inclusion, and intercultural understanding, offering opportunities for children to anchor their belonging in formal, social, emotional and symbolic dimensions (Popyk, 2023). Multi-ethnic school environments, in particular, allow migrant children to experience their backgrounds as ordinary (Tajic and Lund, 2023), rather than exceptional.

My PhD thesis explored how children with a migrant background in post-Brexit England perceived their school environment. Conducted at a multi-ethnic primary school about 30 miles from London, the ethnographic study involved 15 Polish children aged 9–11, using participant observation and creative, child-centred methods, including drawings, photo voice, and Persona Dolls. It revealed that while broader society was increasingly hostile to immigrants, schools can provide safe, inclusive spaces that nurture children’s sense of belonging and support their identity development.

Through my research, I found that children place deep value on small, everyday gestures that acknowledge and respect their cultural backgrounds – whether it’s a teacher learning a few words in their native language or seeing their national flags proudly displayed on classroom walls and learning materials. The children praised the school’s ethos of inclusivity and identified racism as something more commonly encountered in other educational settings. They also spoke about the importance of friendship as a way to counter hostility and discrimination. Of course, not all schools succeed in creating such environments, and some can even reproduce marginalisation and inequalities (Tereschenko et al., 2019), but my research highlights how, in some cases, schools can provide much-needed spaces of safety, recognition, and support.

The missing voices of children

What is often missing from public debates is the perspective of migrant children themselves. We talk about them but rarely listen to them. And yet, their insights are vital, not only for creating inclusive school environments but also for informing broader conversations on migration, education, and children’s rights. Schools, as everyday sites of encounter and negotiation, offer valuable lessons for society on how to foster tolerance, challenge xenophobia, and better understand the lived realities of migration.

Final thoughts

Schools can serve as spaces of belonging in the context of increasingly exclusionary politics, offering migrant children recognition and inclusion. To strengthen this role, further research is needed on how education systems can meaningfully engage with and reflect migrant children’s voices, ensuring their experiences inform policies and practices.

Key Messages

Migration has become increasingly politicised across Europe, with anti-immigration attitudes, discourses, and policies creating a hostile environment for migrant children.
Schools can act as buffers of resistance, fostering belonging through inclusive pedagogies and practices.
Listening to migrant children’s voices is essential for shaping inclusive education policies and practices. Their perspectives can inform wider efforts to build more tolerant and cohesive societies.

Dr Thi Bogossian

University of Warwick, UK

Thi Bogossian (they/them) recently completed a PhD in Sociology at the University of Surrey (UK) and is currently based at the University of Warwick. With research interests in childhood and youth, education, migration, and gender, they bring previous experience as a school teacher and are now building a research and teaching profile in higher education.

Thi is actively engaged in international and comparative research and has contributed to global policy initiatives in the field of education

References and Further Reading

[1] I gave children the opportunity to choose their pseudonyms. In the assent form, hydrous did not capitalise his name and I decided to respect his decision.

Bogossian, T. (2024). Polish schoolchildren in post-Brexit England: Performativities, identities, and sense of belonging. [PhD]. University of Surrey. DOI: 10.15126/thesis.901242

Eurostat, Statistics Explained. (2025) EU population diversity by citizenship and country of birth. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_population_diversity_by_citizenship_and_country_of_birth. Accessed on 05-Aug-2025.

Gaál, F. (2025). Germany ramps up border checks. Deutsche Welle. https://www.dw.com/en/tighter-borders-germany-ramps-up-checks/video-72606467. Accessed on 05-Aug-2025.

Moench, M. (2025). Italy tightens rules for Italian descendants to become citizens. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxkk0z9y05o. Accessed on 05-Aug-2025.

Orav, A. (2023). Integration of migrant children. [Briefing]. European Parliamentary ResearchService. PE754.601. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2023/754601/EPRS_BRI(2023)754601_EN.pdf. Accessed on 05-Aug-2025.

Popyk, A. (2022). Anchors and thresholds in the formation of a transnational sense of belonging of migrant children in Poland. Children’s Geographies, 21(3), 459–472. DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2022.2075693

Richey, S. (2023). Collateral Damage: The Influence of Political Rhetoric on the Incorporation of Second-Generation Americans. University of Michigan Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.11691056

Syal, R. (2025). Starmer accused of echoing far right with ‘island of strangers’ speech. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/12/keir-starmer-defends-plans-to-curb-net-migration. Accessed on 05-Aug-2025.

Tajic, D., Lund, A. (2023). The call of ordinariness: peer interaction and superdiversity within the civil sphere. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 11, 337–364. DOI: 10.1057/s41290-022-00154-5

Tereshchenko, A., Bradbury, A., & Archer, L. (2019). Eastern European migrants’ experiences of racism in English schools: positions of marginal whiteness and linguistic otherness. Whiteness and Education, 4(1), 53–71. DOI: 10.1080/23793406.2019.1584048