Three SSP students selected to present their research to eight countries across five continents

Congratulations to SSP students Fiona Powell, Reuben Johnson and Eartha Heptinstall who will be presenting their research to an international audience in eight countries, across five continents.

The International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR) is an annual, two-day academic conference that uses video-conferencing technology to provide undergraduate researchers with a unique opportunity to present and discuss their own research in real-time across the globe.

ICUR challenges undergraduate students to rethink their work in an international context. As a forum, it requires presenters to consider the perspective of students from different backgrounds, and to anticipate what may be shared across cultures and local contexts. This challenge translates to research questions as well, encouraging students to examine global and regional trends in their research field, and how these might conflict with local concerns and specificities.

Recent BA Social Policy and Sociology graduate Fiona Powell will be presenting her research on the first day of the conference, entitled:

‘A place of our own: examining the lived experiences of 18-24 year olds in Leeds negotiating access to housing and the impact of vulnerability upon housing precarity'

Fiona argues that one of the biggest challenges facing young people today is finding safe affordable housing. Her research focusses on the lived experiences of students that have experienced diverse housing pathways and have vulnerabilities not recognised by policy e.g. familial poverty and/or mental health issues. She will discuss her findings from a mixed method empirical study.

Final year BA Social Policy and Sociology Reuben Johnson will then present his research entitled: ‘Employability and Confidence: Strategies for Students’.

Reuben has researched student perceptions of proposed curriculum interventions universities offer, before comparing this to research within a South African institution. He will discuss his analysis in relation to student confidence and examines how cultural differences may affect ideas of student confidence, as well as whether or not there are relevant policy implementations that can be borrowed from other countries by UK institutions.

BA Social Policy and Crime student Eartha Heptinstall, who graduated in July, will present her research on:  

'The British Criminal Justice System: an investigation into the absence of race ˜Whiteness and White privilege in training programmes for lawyers'

Eartha’s research was conducted in response to the 2017 Lammy Review, which highlighted the persistent and disproportionately negative outcomes experienced by BAME individuals within the criminal justice system (CJS). Eartha recommends that a curriculum that incorporated discussions on race, Whiteness, and White privilege, and the development of personable skills such as empathy, would have (at least) three identifiable benefits.

Find out more about the International Conference of Undergraduate Research