Khursheed Wadia

Profile

I am a Professor of Sociology and have worked at the University of Warwick since 2004. I am also co-director of the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender and Course director of the MA in Gender and International Development.

Research

My research lies at the intersection of gender, ethnicity/race and politics in Europe with a focus on Britain and France. More specifically it covers the field of political participation and policy.

I am co-author (with Gill Allwood, Professor of Gender and Politics, NTU) of:

• Women and Politics in France: 1958-2000 (Routledge, 2000)
• Gender and Policy in France (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
• Refugee Women in Britain and France (Manchester University Press, 2010)

I am also co-author (with Danièle Joly, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick) of:

• Muslim Women and Power: Political and Civic Engagement in West European Societies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) which won the Political Studies Association UK WJM Mackenzie prize for the best book in political science in 2018. The French translation, La Participation civique et politique des femmes de culture musulmane en Europe, is published by the Presses de l'Université Laval (Quebec).

I am co-editor (with Dr. Gabriella Lazaridis) of:

• The Securitisation of Migration in the EU: Debates since 9/11 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)

Current and past projects

• Principal Investigator: Increasing the Representation of women from racially minoritised communities in UK local politics (project commissioned by Muslim Women's Network UK; funded by Comic Relief and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) June 2022 to May 2024
• Principal Investigator: Forced Marriage Policy in France: a Study of Inclusivity and Gender Transformation (project funded by British Academy-Leverhulme; co-investigated by Professor Gill Allwood, NTU) September 2017 to November 2019
• Principal Investigator: Doing Politics, Changing Society: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women's Activism (project funded by Warwick Impact Fund and ESRC IAA) April 2018 to July 2019. The project evaluation report can be downloaded here
• Gender and Minority Rights Cluster Lead: MYPLACE - Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement (project funded by EU Seventh Framework Programme for Research FP7) April 2011 to November 2015.
• Principal Investigator: Whose Security? Migration-(In)Security Dilemmas 10 Years after 9/11 (seminar series funded by ESRC) April 2011 to March 2013
• Co-Investigator: Women from Muslim Communities and Politics in Britain and France (project funded by ESRC) June 2007 to May 2011

Selected publications and reports

• Wadia, K. (2026) 'Immigration detention and gender equality policy in Britain 2010–2024: Coloniality drives a gender-blind approach' in A. Ballesteros-Pena, M. Bustelo, A. G. Mazur (eds), Gender equality behind bars: A feminist approach to penalty policies worldwide, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 261-291.
• Wadia, K. (2024) Increasing the Representation of Women from Racially Minoritised Communities in UK Local Politics. This report can be downloaded here
• Allwood, A. and Wadia, K. (2020) 'Forced marriage and gender transformation: feminist state and civil society networks at the local level', French Politics, 18: 132–152, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-020-00108-8 
• Charles, N., Wadia, K., Ferrer Fons, M. and Allaste, A-A. (2018) '"I'm a feminist, I'm not ashamed and I'm proud": Young people's activism and feminist identities in Estonia, Spain and the UK', Women's Studies International Forum, 67: 23-29, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.11.008 
• Charles, N. and Wadia, K. (2017) 'New British Feminisms, UK Feminista and Young People's Activism', Feminist Theory, 19(2): 165-181, https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700117723592 
• Joly, D. and Wadia, K. (2017) Muslim Women and Power: Political and Civic Engagement in West European Societies, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Winner: Political Studies Association UK WJM Mackenzie Prize, Best Book in Political Science 2018

• Lazaridis, G. and Wadia, K. (eds) (2015) The Securitisation of Migration in the EU: Debates since 9/11, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
• Wadia, K. (2015) Interpreting Activism: Gender and Minority Rights (deliverable 7.2), MYPLACE (FP7) Project
• Wadia, K. (2015) 'Women from Muslim Communities in Britain: Political and Civic Activism in the 9/11 Era’, in T. Peace (ed.) Muslims and Political Participation in Britain, London: Routledge
• Charles, N. and Wadia, K. (2014) UK Feminista: Young Women's Feminist Activism (deliverable 7.1), MYPLACE (FP7) Project
• Charles, N., Pilkington, H., Popov, A. and Wadia, K. (2013) Interpreting Participation: UK Report (deliverable 5.3), MYPLACE (FP7) Project

Teaching 2025 – 2026

Term 1: SO923 Gender, Imperialism and International Development

Term 2: SO9E5 Feminist Theories and Epistemologies: Debates and Dilemmas

PhD supervision

I am interested in supervising research in the broad area of gender and ‘race’/ethnicity studies and more specifically political and civic engagement, equalities, public policies and social transformation. I am currently supervising the following PhD students:

• Mayurakshi Dutta (with Prof. Ravi Thiara, Sociology, Warwick), PhD full-time, ESRC-funded)
• S. Mary Arokia (with Prof. Emily Henderson, Education Studies Warwick), PhD full-time, ESRC-funded
• Nooda Badghisi (with Prof. Emily Henderson, Education Studies Warwick), PhD full-time, Chancellors Scholarship-funded

 

 

 

Professor of Sociology

Office: D0.14, Social Sciences Building

Email: khursheed.wadia@warwick.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)24 765 23970

Pronouns: she/her

Advice and feedback hours: Tuesday after 3:00pm by appointment