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Staff Profile

Dr Bethan Harries

Senior Lecturer

  • Telephone: 0191 208 3257
  • Address: Room 4.111
    Henry Daysh Building
    Newcastle University
    NE1 7RU
Background


I joined Newcastle Sociology in 2019 having previously worked at the University of Manchester. I worked as an immigration lawyer in Bradford for several years and as an international election observer before joining academia.

My research interests are very broadly in youth, urban citizenship, race and nationhood. I am especially interested in how young people talk about, negotiate and resist race and racism (Talking race in young adulthood) and how austerity intersects with race and nationalism.

Current research is concerned with how devolution and the independence movements in Wales and Scotland interact with, and are affected by, shifting narratives of nationalism and understandings of citizenship and carry the potential to shape new forms of inclusion and exclusion. I sit on the advisory board for University of Wales Press book series, 'Race/Ethnicity Wales and the World'.

I am a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an honorary fellow of the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity.  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 


Research

CURRENT PROJECTS

Experiences of ageing amongst racially minoritized women in Newcastle (2023- ongoing)

Funded largely by the University’s social justice fund, this project engages with a wide range of local partners with the aim to make Newcastle a better city to grow older in for all women.

We are working closely with the Elders Council to expand understanding of the needs of marginalised groups and to improve their engagement and their network’s membership to better reflect the diverse communities they represent. The project combines creative arts approaches with more traditional research methods to bring attention to the experience of ageing amongst racially minoritized women (aged 50+ years) in Newcastle. The creative methodology and the community development work that has built up trust and creative relationships between organizations has enabled this project to achieve exciting collaborations and participation. The project has so far culminated in a written report and an exhibition of collages created by three groups of Chinese and South Asian women and has produced a set of recommendations for the Elders Council, the Local Authority and local NGOs. 


PREVIOUS PROJECTS

Learning from 'left behind' places: everyday hopes and fears for the future after Brexit in England, 2019-2021, funded by an ESRC Governance After Brexit Grant

This project aims to investigate the everyday hopes and fears for the future after Brexit, from the perspective of residents of four electoral wards in North Tyneside, London and Manchester. The project aims to provide more in-depth, granular information about the way in which Brexit intertwines, or not, with the everyday preoccupations of residents of urban areas that have been hard hit by post-industrial, social and economic changes, and government policies of austerity.

 

Race, nation and devolution, 2017-2020, funded by the Hallsworth fellowship scheme

This work examines how different forms of devolution contribute to and are affected by shifting narratives of nationalism and understandings of citizenship and carry the potential to shape new forms of inclusion and exclusion.

Working with anti-racist networks and community organisations, it also explores the complexities of challenging race in Wales and Scotland.

 

Older BME people’s experiences of health and social care in Greater Manchester: Lessons for practice and policy, 2018-19, funded by the Manchester Statistical Society Campion Fund

This work draws together existing census and survey data and original data gathered through a series of focus groups across Greater Manchester to explore older BME experiences of health and social care. It is driven by concerns around disparities in health, especially in later life and the absence of attention paid to this in relevant policy areas.

  

The lived experience of race over time, ESRC Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE)

This project is based on an extensive range of research in Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Newham with residents, community organisations and members of local and national government.  For more info: www.Ethnicity.ac.uk 

 

Conversations about radicalisation

Conversations about radicalisation is a collaboration between young people, school staff, interdisciplinary researchers, and creative artists, that focuses on developing an inclusive and open discussion about how schools approach extremism that speaks to, and is led by, young people. The outputs of this project, including narrative art, video, lyrics and posters, co-produced by the participants, will challenge current approaches.

For more information: http://www.law.manchester.ac.uk/cccj/research/projects/policing-security-and-citizenship/conversations-about-radicalisation/

 

Talking race in young adulthood, funded by the ESRC

This project draws on ethnographic research with young adults in Manchester and engages with ideas of the post-racial to explore how young adults make sense of their identities, relationships and new forms of racism in a neoliberal city. It explores how and in what ways race remains a salient dimension of social experience and presents news ways of thinking about how we live with difference, by analysing the relationship between racism, generational identities and the spatial configurations of a city.




 

Postgraduate Supervision

I am interested in supervising research students on projects related to ethnicity, race and racism; nations and nationalism; memory and nostalgia; migration; youth identities and urban studies.

I also welcome visiting PhD students from other institutions on the same kinds of topics.


Previous PhD students:

Natalie Ann Hall. (2021, ESRC funded) Taking back control: The online political engagement of pro-Leave non-digital-native Facebook users.


Previous Visiting PhD students:

Man Xu, Chinese Muslims and the relational economy of transnational trade brokerage, University of Toronto


Current PhD students:

  • Brightman Makoni (ESRC funded) The Production and Policing of New Categories of Migrants: Zimbabwean migrant families and the UK Health and Care Worker Visa Scheme
  • Sophie Lively (ESRC funded) Narrating Masculinities: Racism, nationalism and belonging amongst working-class men in Tyneside
  •  Harris Paraskevopoulos (ESRC funded). Migrants at work: How legal status and regional geography affect migrant labour market experiences in the UK.




Teaching

Postgraduate teaching

I am currently the Degree Programme Director for of our MA Programmes (Sociology; Sociology and Social Research; Gender)

I am the Module Leader for MA dissertations and I teach on the MA module, 'Global Sex, Global Race'.

From 2025/26 I will be leading the MA module, 'Inequalities: issues and intersections' and co-leading 'Engaging with Research'



Undergraduate teaching

I am the Module Leader for the Stage 3 module, 'Racism and Society'.


I also supervise research projects at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Publications