Janine Ewen

Janine Ewen, an early career researcher based at the University of Aberdeen, is carrying out a qualitative ethnographic study via interviews.

She said the study is timely given current discussions and academic research on marginalisation in academia.

She said: “Momentum is building to revolutionise academia away from colonial practices, reflect (for real) on structural inequalities in Higher Education and to make space at the table for people who have been marginalised, pathologised or forgotten in criminological research and scholarship.

“Criminology is a scientific discipline concerned with the nature and extent of crime intersected and intertwined with the manifestations of power against the ‘powerless’.

“We know that tokenistic meanings and applications of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in academia do exist. Academia should work towards addressing the wrongs created by privileging certain voices, epistemic injustice and new ways of working with individuals and communities.

“I have requested the participation of senior criminologists, particularly those who have held a long-standing academic position in the field of criminology in Scotland.”

The study will answer the following research questions:

1. How do SCCJR criminologists view their approach to criminological research in Scotland as a nation?
2. To what extent do SCCJR criminologists engage beyond the Central Belt?
3. How do SCCJR criminologists view “geographies of knowledge” in their research?
4. How do SCCJR criminologists perceive their status in Scottish criminology?

The study is being supervised by Dr Sarah Burton, School of Social Science, University of Aberdeen. For more information, email j.ewen.20@abdn.ac.uk.