Decolonisation, EDI and Research Projects

Panel: Embedding Decolonisation and EDI themes into Research projects

organised by Dr Laura Fernández-González for the EDI - CoASSH team.

Lincoln, 26 November 2025. DCB2102 10.30 - 12.30

In this panel three scholars will discuss the ways in which they have embedded or informed their research project and practice through decolonisation and EDI themes.

10.30 am: Professor Sarah Barrow (University of East Anglia) ‘Women of Influence’: Ethics, Emotions, Ethos and Logistics - Learning from Creative Participatory and Interdisciplinary Fieldwork with Indigenous Women

This presentation highlights ‘Women of Influence’, a multi-layered, interdisciplinary project that deploys creative methods (from poster design to filmmaking and podcasting) to facilitate collaborative work towards supporting the leadership development of the young women of OMIASSEC (a non-profit organisation that defends the rights of indigenous women of the central Amazonian region of Peru).

The project, through online workshops (during Covid years) and in-person participatory fieldwork, is by its nature incremental and longitudinal, with at its heart a commitment to intergenerational, decentred knowledge exchange, including between the female community elders - the main bearers of ancestral knowledge - and younger women aiming to reclaim that knowledge and mobilise it for the survival of their communities and cultures.

While Sarah co-ordinates the work, she is privileged to count on the long-term collaborative expertise, friendship and energy of partners from academic, civil society, film and arts organisations in Peru.

For further information about this project see: www.women-of-influence.co.uk

Professor Sarah Barrow's profile can be consulted here: https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/sarah-barrow/

11 am: Dr Sureyya Sonmez Efe (UoL School of Social and Political Sciences)' Photovoice Methodology and Representation of Refugee Women: Nuanced Understanding of Lived Experiences of Maternal Care Services in Türkiye'

This presentation focuses on a reflexive ethical and research process of the photovoice method exercised for data collection to understand refugee women’s experiences of maternal care services in Türkiye. The ecological model (Thurston and Vissadjee, 2005) suggests an intersectional illustration of the complexities of interactions between maternal care of refugee women, key determinants of health and well-being and outcomes. This model addresses the vulnerabilities of refugee women defined by the UNHCR that is multi-faceted. While previous research predominantly uses quantitative methods and comparative studies to analyse the health and the well-being of refugee women in Türkiye (Demirci et al. 2022; Erenel, 2017; Turkay et al, 2019; and Yucel et al., 2021), a more nuanced analysis of refugee women lived experiences of maternal services in Türkiye is needed to illustrate the vulnerabilities of these women through their ‘voices’.

The presentation addresses two areas of the research: (a) the complexities stemming from refugee women’s social position and legal status in the host country and how social determinants of health (WHO, 2010) impact their experiences of maternal health and wellbeing; (b) what are the benefits and challenges associated with a photovoice method for collecting data for illustrating health and wellbeing of refugee women. Critically engaging ‘stakeholders’ ethics approach (Neale, 2013), the paper reflects on the photovoice method used in a qualitative inquiry of this research, how ethical strategies are considered and implemented in the research-design stage and in the field where the unanticipated challenges may raise. The researcher’s reflections demonstrate the novel aim of the representation of a vulnerable group with photovoice with the need to take seriously all decision-making throughout the research process including confidentiality of participants and authenticity of information and stories (Wiles, 2013).

Sureyya highlights her reflections of the photovoice method combined with interviews with 28 refugee women and participant observations of 6 healthcare centres in Türkiye. She will also illustrate the importance of co-production during the participatory workshops to address the issues that refugee women experience in health system as well as to find solutions as a collective aim.

Dr Sureyya Sonmez Efe's profile and bio can be found here: https://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/2581765b-f12f-450c-a24d-e5a0a359ae70

11.30 am Dr Mahdieh(Maddy)Zeinali (Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln): (Re)constructing an Entrepreneurial Identity: Migrant Women’s Journeys to Becoming Entrepreneurs in Peripheral Areas of the UK

This presentation explores how gender, ethnicity, migration trajectories, and previous employment experiences shape the entrepreneurial journeys of Central and Eastern European migrant women living in Lincolnshire — one of the UK’s least integrated rural areas (Policy Exchange, 2016). Drawing on 21 life-story interviews, the research investigates how these women negotiate belonging and (re)construct their entrepreneurial identities within local contexts often marked by social exclusion and limited structural support (Ryan, 2017; De Lima, 2015).

Framed through the concepts of differentiated embedding (Ryan, 2018), and informed by intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1991; McCall, 2013), the study reveals how entrepreneurship becomes both a means of reclaiming pre-migration identities and an avenue for renegotiating post-migration selves. Migrant women navigate multiple forms of marginalisation and hostility, balancing familial responsibilities, linguistic and cultural barriers, while mobilising efforts to engage with communities and create hospitable places within their businesses.

Entrepreneurship, for many, represents a pathway toward self-assertion, social participation, and community connection — a form of agency that challenges prevailing narratives of “necessity entrepreneurship” (Massey, 2000; Elo, 2016). By capturing these narratives, the research highlights how local resources, family support, and community relationships can enable migrant women to reassert their agency and identities as entrepreneurs.

Maddy’s work contributes to decolonising understandings of migrant women’s entrepreneurship by foregrounding lived experiences, relational identities, and the influence of peripheral geographies in shaping diverse, situated pathways to economic and social embedding.

Dr Mahdieh(Maddy)Zeinali's profile can be found here: https://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/ddab12b8-1a5d-4790-a85b-70e317c4a02c

The photos included here with permission are from Professor Sarah Barrow's project: www.women-of-influence.co.uk