Personal Statement
Senior Lecturer/Derby Research Fellow for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Theme of 'Slavery & Unfree Labour', and Co-Lead for Decolonial Research with the Centre for Studying International Slavery (CSIS), developing anticolonial research approaches to research.

Leona's expertise is in social policy areas of 'risk', 'harm', 'prevention' and 'repair'. She has a longstanding professional background in equality and human rights, and was the global lead for Vulnerable Populations research at the Finance Against Slavery & Trafficking (FAST) initiative, United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York, 2021-2024.

She has led numerous interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects with academic, civil society and community partners centring lived experience to explore the impacts of a range of national and international social policy issues including safeguarding in research (UK Collaborative for Development Research); counter terrorism/children; children/race hate crime; COVID-19 lockdown policy; 'modern slavery' (UN University Centre for Policy Research) and reparatory justice (health inequalities/legacies of racial slavery).

She is co-founder of Barriers to Black Academia, New Visions of Black Health (NewViBH), External Evaluation Expert for EU Creative Europe decolonial heritage project Contested Desires Constructive Dialogues and part of UNESCO Global Dialogues for Reparatory Justice.

Leona teaches and supervises students across the Faculty and is based in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology from 2026/27.

Research Overview
Leona's focus is on coproducing meaningful and policy-relevant research which addresses and/or safeguards against negative impacts on marginalised populations

RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Critical perspectives on risk, harm, prevention and repair/justice in Social Policy
- Power and ethics in international social research/qualitative research (especially related to International Development/UN Sustainable Development Goals)
- Human rights/social justice (including race and gender inequalities)
- Reparatory research/ research for 'public good'

CURRENT RESEARCH
2025 present, AHRC Music Futures Collaborator (EDI) - interdisciplinary project led by Professors Richard Koeck and Mat Flynn, aiming to transform diversity and sustainability in the music ecosystem within the Liverpool City Region Music Futures website .
2024 - present, Principal Investigator (PI) 'New Visions of Black Health' cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional research group focused on reparatory practices in research and heritage (Research Culture Fund, IAA)
2024 - 2026, Consultant External Evaluator ECCOM/ EU Creative Europe Decolonial Heritage project CDCD
2019 - present Co-founder Barriers to Black Academia initiative to address the severe under-representation of Black academics, especially in studies of slavery, as a form of reparative justice Barriers to Black Academia (IAA fund)

PAST RESEARCH
2024-2025, Knowledge Partnership Lead for CSIS and Church of England Racial Justice Unit knowledge partnership
2025, PI 'Contestations and Dilemmas: Curating and Researching Racial Violence' Roundtable, National Museums Liverpool/UoL Collaboration Fund
2025, Co-I British Science Festival event 'Colonialism, Race & Health: Visions of Black Health and Healing' with Dr Annabel Sowemimo [British Science] (https://britishsciencefestival.org/looking-back-to-the-british-science-festival-2025/?_gl=1*1gw5lg0*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTMzNDIyOTMxOS4xNzkwNTkwNTY3*_ga_04721ZTLF8*czE3OTA1OTA1NjckbzEkZzAkdDE3OTA1OTA1NjckajYwJGwwJGgw)
2021 - 2024 PI multiple NORAD funded research projects related to vulnerability to 'modern slavery and human trafficking' [NORAD] (https://unu.edu/cpr/project/finance-against-slavery-and-trafficking)
2021, Project Lead for CSIS Barriers to Black Academia Symposium
2020, PI Colonial Virus risk and racialisation in COVID-19 risk prevention narratives in South Africa, Kenya and Ghana (ODA Fund)
2019-20 International safeguarding consultation and guidance for UK Collaborative on Development Research UKCDR
2019 - 2020 Co-I Safeguarding in Modern Slavery, AHRC Anti Slavery Knowledge Network [AHRC] (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/politics/research/research-projects/akn/akn-safeguarding/#d.en.1453941 )
2018 - 2019 PDRA British Academy, Clothes, Chocolate and Children: realizing the transparency dividend (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/politics/research/research-projects/clothes-chocolate-children/ )
2016 - 2017 Research Associate British Academy, The Role of People and Place in Neighbourhood Identity: Belonging and Social Inclusion