Work-based learning, community impact and knowledge exchange project
Since January 2023, the Centre for Social Justice Research (CSJR) has partnered with a number of the UK’s leading social justice organisations to provide University of Westminster students with opportunities to develop important research and employability skills by collaborating on a variety of research and public engagement activities. Over the course of 12 weeks, students undertake training workshops and attend institutional visits to learn about the work of the partner organisation, hearing from experienced professional and lifelong campaigners about the different aspects of their work, including media and communications, policy and campaigning, advocacy and the provision of support services. After learning about the work of the partner organisation, students undertake a variety of individual and group projects designed to support and amplify our partners in their social justice work. The projects are designed to provide a supportive pathway for students interested in working in the civil society sector, with students given the opportunity to apply for paid internships over the summer with our partner organisations.
Our Partners
During the last two years, the CSJR has partnered with the following social justice organisations:
- Inquest – the only organisation in England and Wales that provides expertise on state related deaths and their investigation to bereaved people, lawyers, advice and support agencies, the media, and parliamentarians
- Women in Prison – a national charity that supports women affected by the criminal justice system and campaigns to end the harm caused to women, their families and our communities by imprisonment
- Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) – a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade
- Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) – a national network of visitor groups to people in immigration detention, committed to reducing the immediate suffering of people in immigration detention
Outcomes of the Projects
Here are just some examples of the different types of activities students have been involved in in recent years:
- Students were trained in oral history research methods and taught to use Nvivo software to code interview transcripts in preparation for the award-winning podcast series 'Unlawful Killing'
- Students helped catalogue and digitise the material archives of Inquest and Women in Prison after their transfer to the Bishopsgate Institute as part of two National Lottery Heritage Fund projects
- Students organised an interactive public exhibition designed to explore the ‘past, present and future’ of immigration detention in Britain
- Students were trained in research and archiving methods, going on to catalogue national security related documents for the University of Westminster-based research project UK Unredacted
Student Experience
‘It was truly inspiring to work with an organisation so dedicated and passionate about promoting women's rights in the criminal justice system…and it was incredibly rewarding to apply the knowledge gained in my studies to the concrete reality of Women in Prison’s work…the experience offered me the opportunity to connect with different people in the field, opening doors for my professional future’ – Irene Sangaletti, MA Global Criminology
‘I’m a person with very strong morals and ethics…I often struggle to see myself in the job market…but the internship opened my eyes and made me realise there are other career options that can also align with my values’ – Alen Melero Yerinkova, BA Politics and International Relations
‘When I was doing my undergrad degree, I never saw a whole lot of opportunities like this…I feel like this gives a lot of people an opportunity to do some groundbreaking work and learn not only about social justice, but about themselves’ – Kevon Jones, PhD in Politics
Research and Knowledge Exchange
As well as providing students with opportunities to develop skills transferable to working in the civil society sector, the projects provide opportunities for collaborative research and knowledge exchange between students, academics, and our social justice partners.
As academic lead for the Inquest project, Dr Jac St John is currently collaborating with Inquest’s heritage project coordinator, Dr Naomi Oppenheim, on an academic article in which they explore the contribution of the charity’s newly catalogued archive to social and cultural histories of state violence and criminal justice campaigning in modern Britain.
As academic lead for the AVID project, Dr Francesca Esposito, working alongside Lou Armitt, members of the Unchained Collective with lived experience of detention, and University of Westminster students, has used this collaboration to further develop her activist participatory research on the intersectional impacts of immigration detention and grassroots forms of solidarity and resistance. This involved sharing a podcasts series developed with The Unchained Collective and collaboratively designing a themed blog post series, which was published this summer on the Border Criminologies blog (see here for the introduction, followed by posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8).
The Team
The CSJR work-based learning projects are led by Dr Jac St John and Dr Naomi Oppenheim. They have been supported in the delivery of these projects by a number of brilliant project coordinators and colleagues, including Dr Francesca Esposito (CSJR), Kevon Jones and Karin Wejmo (University of Westminster PhD students), Imane Benatallah (University of Westminster alumnus), Ibtehal Hussain (Unredacted), and Lou Armitt.
We want to extend our thanks to our collaborators, without whom these projects would not have been possible: Mo Mansfield and Deborah Coles (Inquest); Nicola Drinkwater and Haley Perry (Women in Prison); Katie Fallon (CAAT); Fiona Ranford (AVID).
These projects have been supported by generous funding from the Quentin Hogg Trust.