Research projects

As a hub of innovative and inclusive research, the centre is proud to be a part of collaborative research and to facilitate opportunities to explore race and racism in relation to other power dynamics such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship status, employment status, sexual orientation, health, age, location and more, which are relevant and significant to the real-world context. 

Our current funded projects for the 2021-2022 academic year include:

Textures of Blackness in the Midlands: Excavating Regional Archives of Black Culture and Politics

In May 2019, the SLRC was awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. The PhD studentship, in collaboration with Serendipity Arts, supports work that aims to unearth, explore and think innovatively about the co-production of archives designed to map, reflect and (re)present histories of Black cultural and political life in the Midlands.

Grassroots Struggles, Global Visions: British Black Power, 1964-1985

Supported with a £250,000 grant from the AHRC, this two-year research study is a collaboration with the University of Manchester to deliver the most comprehensive study to date about the historical development and significance of Black British Power outside of London with focus on three other significant regions: Greater Manchester, Nottingham and Leicester.

Creating Black Joy: Black Visual Culture, Community Care and Collective Artmaking

The Creating Black Joy project is supported by a ‘Right to the Discipline grant’ from the Antipode Foundation, and arises following the global Black Lives Matter and anti-black policing protests in 2020. It creates a digital platform for visual artists and filmmakers to exhibit their work and aims to disrupt the circulation of images of Black trauma on social media through the presentation of art which represents Black Joy. It will demonstrate how Black diasporic artists and communities survive and find beauty amongst and for themselves despite ongoing cycles of mediated and real violence.

Visit the website to find out more about Creating Joy

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Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in 18 – 40-year-olds: A Multifactorial Management Intervention to Address Multimorbidity in Early-Onset T2D in Adults (The M3 Research Programme)

Funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and based at the University of Leicester, this five-year project seeks to address the underrepresentation of adults with early-onset type 2 diabetes in clinical research. The project aims to; develop and test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a new type of care specifically for early-onset T2D, utilise existing partnerships with people with early-onset T2D, healthcare professionals and stakeholders from different backgrounds and demographics, inform the M3 intervention design, conduct in-depth research studies into life with early-onset T2D and improve engagement with diabetes support and healthcare services by making care more accessible.

SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the Impact to Teaching, Learning and Mental Wellbeing for Secondary Students in Leicester City

Funded by DMU Local+, this project aims to examine how secondary school students, teachers and parents responded to the Covid-19 lockdown measures and the impact these changes had to teaching, learning and mental wellbeing among secondary students in Leicester city. The findings of the research will inform a set of recommendations made to Leicester City Council and inform strategies that will address pre-existing inequalities and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in relation to education and mental wellbeing.

Previous research projects:

Preserving the History of Leicester’s African Caribbean Communities

In collaboration with DMU Special Collections, DMU Local and Leicester’s African Caribbean Centre, the SLRC is providing DMU student volunteers with an opportunity to help preserve the histories of Leicester’s African Caribbean communities.

Through the project, students are learning how to organise, package and describe photographs and materials from the past 50 years, providing them with the skills needed to create an archive for the community and researchers. In year one (2019-2020), 14 students participated in the 11-week project that will eventually contribute to the development of a future exhibition and community archive.

Students learning how to create a community archive on the Preserving the History of Leicester’s African Caribbean Project