Justice, Communities, Activism and Conflict (JCAC) Research Group
The Justice, Communities, Activism and Conflict (JCAC) Research Group aims to create an interdisciplinary and vibrant research culture, supporting research networks and bringing together researchers, both local within LSBU and beyond.
JCAC members include, but are not limited to, colleagues in Criminology, Politics, International Relations, Sociology and Law. We engage with key themes including social justice, activism, harms and resistance, including those positioned to localised, national and global conflict. We also focus on criminalised and/or marginalised individuals and groups, especially those who are already vulnerable and experiencing inequality.
JCAC members seek to work with and be guided by communities in diverse settings, who bring their valuable lived experiences to an intersectional understanding, enabling us to engage with research and policy that includes being guided by the principles of participatory, activist and non-hierarchical methodology.
Current research interests of members include but are not limited to: vicarious trauma experienced by women probation officers working with women, racialised policing in London schools, music within the penal setting, and decolonising the curriculum, particularly within disciplines such as criminology, where its history is entwined with racialised Othering.
JCAC engages regularly through seminar discussions, inviting guests and holding public events. Previous events have included a symposium entitled ‘Policing in Crisis?’ enabling the lived experiences of different communities to be heard. We are currently preparing an event entitled Law & Activism due to take place in 2025 that speaks to the heart of many of our members driving principles in joining social justice with academia and working with and for communities.
Our group develops research and public engagement across some of the following themes
- The dynamics of resistance within settler colonial states and the intersection of law and violence.
- Activist criminology and the importance of co-productive knowledge
- History of female activism, female networks and women’s social movements in Britain and Ireland.
- Decolonising Criminology in HE.
- Town planning law and community and social structures exacerbating inequality
Recent publications/research:
Beaumont, C., Colpus, E. and Davidson, R. (2025). Everyday Welfare in Modern British History: Experience, Expertise and Activism (p. 381). Springer Nature. Access podcast here: Women’s Grassroots Activism Podcast Series - History Hub
Dr Francisco Calafate-Faria, “Local, Indigenous, Quilombola and Traditional Communities and the construction of the 'Lithium Valley' in Minas Gerais, Brazil: Empowering silenced voices in the energy transition (LIQUIT)”, BA funded From July 2024 to December 2025. Events include:
- January - February 2025: speaking at a public hearing at the state legislative assembly concerning the proposal for a «n environmental protection area to make way for lithium mining projects
- September 2024: Participation and organisation of two events in the 7th International Colloquium of Traditional Peoples and Communities in Montes Claros-MG, Brazil.
Weizman, E., Browne, B. & Matchain, J. 16 March 2025 (Accepted/in press) in Third World Quarterly: Unpacking the crackdown on Palestine solidarity activism in the UK in a post October 7th reality
Other publications:
Davanna, T., Miller, E., Ojimba-Baldwin, P. and Shepherd, B. (2025). Decolonising Criminology: A Toolkit for Inclusive Practice. In Decolonising Criminology: A Toolkit for Inclusion (pp. 105-139). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Davanna, T. (2024) ‘The under-criminalisation of the Hunting Act 2004 and the intersection of criminal selectivity, policing and classism’, Journal of Justice, Power & Resistance, July, pp.1-18
Waller, C. (2023) On-Road Inside: Music as a Site of Carceral Convergence. In Exploring Urban Youth Culture Outside of the Gang Paradigm (pp. 115-133). Bristol University Press.
Cristiano, F., Dadusc, D., Davanna, T., Duff, K., Gilmore, J., Rossdale, C., Rossi, F., Tatour, A., Tatour, L., Tufail, W. & Weizman, E. (2023) ‘Criminalisation of political activism: a conversation across disciplines’. Critical Studies on Security, 11(2), pp.106-125.
Shepherd, B. (2022) Women working with women - vicarious trauma in the probation service, Probation Institute.
Rossi, F. (2021). The failed amnesty of the ‘years of lead’ in Italy: Continuity and transformations between (de)politicization and punitiveness. European Journal of Criminology, 20(2), 381-400.
Upcoming events
April events:
A One-day symposium and book launch on Friday 11 April to celebrate the recent publication of Professor Cait Beaumont’s co-edited collection Everyday Welfare in Modern British History, (Palgrave, 2025, open access). You can download the book here:
Everyday Welfare in Modern British History: Experience, Expertise and Activism | SpringerLink.
Previous events
On Thursday 20 March 2025, we were delighted to be co-sponsors of the event: Silencing, Repression and Persecution: Palestinians in Israel during the Genocide in Gaza, held in the BLOC Cinema, ArtsOne Building, Mile End Road London E1 4PA
On Wednesday 13 November 2024, we were delighted to have been joined by Raphael Schlemback *(University of Brighton) for his book discussion: Spycops: Secrets and Disclosure in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.