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Bridget Byrne

Prof

Personal profile

Biography

Bridget is director of the ESRC Centre - CoDE (Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity and Inequality) and is currently directing a large project examining the impact of Covid19 on racialised and minoritised groups (www.ethnicity.ac.uk).

Bridget has published three books which follow the evolution of her research interests. Her first book White lives: the interplay of 'race', class and gender in everyday life (Routledge) was joint winner of the BSA Philip Abrams Award 2006. In 2014 she published Making Citizens: public rituals and private journeys to citizenship (Palgrave). In 2019 she published All in the Mix: Race, Class and School Choice with Carla De Tona (MUP). 

She was also the lead editor of Ethnicity, Race and Inequality in the UK: State of the Nation published by Policy Press which is open access and can be downloaded here: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/22310

Bridget has also published multiple peer reviewed articles in the area of race, class, gender, school choice, citizenship and place and been interviewed on national and local radio and written several blogs and opinion pieces. 

Research interests

Bridget's main research interests are in the area of race, class, gender, citizenship and the cultural industries.

Her book White Lives. The Interplay of 'race', class and gender in everyday life (Routledge 2006) was based on extensive research on the construction of white identity in Britain, looking at the experience of white mothers of young children in two areas of London. This also involved examining the changing constructions of British and English national identities.

Making Citizens: Public Rituals, Celebrations and Contestations of Citizenship, (Palgrave, 2014) was based on research funded by Leverhulme Fellowship and a small grant from the British Academy. It examined the representations of nation and migration in citizenship ceremonies across the UK and in Australia, Canada, the USA, the Netherlands and Ireland. It also explored new UK citizens' experiences of migration and perceptions of whether they were welcomed to the UK.

In an ESRC-funded project Bridget (working with Carla deTona) examined parental approaches to secondary school choice in order to explore the ways in which space and locality impact on identity, in particular through research on the racialised and classed nature of school catchment areas. Alongside various articles, this research is published as: All in the Mix: race, class and school choice (MUP, 2019)

Bridget is director of CoDE (Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity and Inequality), funded by the ESRC. She is currently involved in projects which examine the making of race in the cultural and heritage sector.

Further information

Additional information:

Interview on Radio 4 Thinking Allowed: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nvjhp

Other teaching information

Supervision areas:

Phd students (past and present):

  • Rachel Finn (graduated 2008) (Gender and South Asian identity in the US).
  • Gertrude Wafula (graduated 2009) (Gender and HIV in Kenya).
  • Shaida Nabi (graduated 2012) (British Muslim identity and student activism).
  • Lorraine Pannett (graduated 2011) (Making livable life in Diaspora: how women refugees make new lives in Manchester).
  • Abril Saldana-Tejeda (graduated 2012) (Women and paid domestic workers in Mexico).
  • Bethan Harries (graduated 2013) (Young people’s identity and ethnicity).
  • Gwyneth Lonergan (graduated 2016) (The Impact of Local Geographies and National Discourses in the Activism of Migrant Women.)
  • Alina Rzepnikowska (graduated 2016) (Comparative study of experience of Polish migrants in Barcelona and Manchester)
  • Chinelo Njaka (graduated 2017) (Mixed race identification and the census).
  • Karis Campion (Mixed race experience across time in Birmingham)
  • Dieuwertje Dyi Huijg (Agency and intersectionality)
  • Julia Koniuch-Enneoka (Mixed race adoption)
  • Kunnaya Wimooktanon (Thai study abroad students and experiences of return)
  • Ali Silas (Mormon masculinity in Mexico)
  • Denisse Sepulveda Sanchez (Mapuche experiences of social mobility in Chile)

Current teaching:

Undergraduate courses:

  • SY1402 British Society and Culture in a Globalising World

Postgraduate courses:

  • New Developments in Theories of Gender and Sexuality
  • Gender and postcolonial theory

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Areas of expertise

  • HM Sociology
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Class
  • National Identity
  • Qualitative methods

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Manchester Urban Institute
  • Cathie Marsh Institute
  • Creative Manchester
  • Healthier Futures

Keywords

  • Ethnicity
  • Nation
  • Citizenship
  • Whiteness
  • Globalisation
  • Identity
  • Qualitative Research Methods
  • school choice
  • race and education

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