Luan Cassal

I am an Honorary Research Fellow in Education at the University of Manchester, where I did my PhD.

My PhD thesis discusses how discourses of childhood engage and regulate legal gender recognition in the UK. My supervisors were Prof Erica Burman (MIE), Prof Jackie Stacey (SALC), and Dr Deborah Ralls (University of Newcastle). I passed my viva with no corrections in 8th August 2024.

I currently work as a Lecturer in Psychology at University College Birmingham (UK) and am a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Association.

My pronouns are he/him.

• Gender, sexuality, and race
• Queer and trans studies
• Childhood studies
• Discourse analysis
• Education and social care
• Professional practices in psychology
• Groupwork

I strongly believe the University of Manchester has a role in promoting social justice and transformation. I have been engaged in projects and programmes in Social Responsibility (SR), Knowledge Exchange (KE) and Widening Participation, such as:

• LGBT+ History Month: Decolonising education and trans pedagogies at SEED  (2022, SR)
• Supporting the Monitoring Centre of LGBTI+ Violence in Favelas in Rio de Janeiro (2022, KE)
• Manchester Access Programme (2021, WP)
• Widening Participation Fellowship (2021-2022, WP)
• Dissemination about LGBTIQ+ experiences of Covid-19 in Brazil and the UK (2021, KE)

Between January and June 2023, I was a Research Assistant for the project BeeProud, led by Dr Ola Demkovicz, and part of the BeeWell Programme at Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester. Since July 2023, I have been an Honorary Research Fellow for the same project.

Since July 2023, I co-lead the research project Queering Migration, Migrating Queer Studies with Dr Artemis Christinaki (Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester).

In 2021, I was a Research Assistant for the project "Queer experiences of disasters, intersectionality, and the spatial dimension" at HCRI-UoM, analysing LGBTIQ+ experiences during the first wave of Covid-19 in Brazil and the UK. In 2022, I was a Research Assistant at MIE-SEED, supporting the Education & Psychology Research Group, and analysing data for the  Director of Social Responsibility and Associate Director for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

I convened the Discourse Unplugged Research Seminar between 2020 and 2022.

Before joining the University of Manchester, I researched gender and sexuality in schools, practices in educational psychology, public policies for the LGBTI+ population, and LGBTIphobic violence in Brazil. You can check some of my publications through the links above.