Centre for Applied South Asian Studies (CASAS)

Members

Patron:Lord Bhikhu Parekh

Dr. Roger Ballard, Consultant Anthropologist and Director of CASAS, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Hindu and Sikh Jullunduris, Azad Kashmiris
Issues: The formation of ethnic colonies in UK; the dynamics of transnational and transjurisdictional kinship networks; popular religious ideas and ideologies
Applications:

Ethnic plurality and the law; ethnosensitive service delivery.

 
Dr. Bridget Anderson, University of Oxford, whose specialist interests include
Communities: all migrants working in domestic work in private households including South and South East Asians and Africans
Issues: immigration law, undocumented migration, employment, gender, organising
Applications:

caring and reproductive labour

Dr. Marzia Barzani, University of Roehampton, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Rajastan, Diaporic islam in Pakistan and the UK
Issues: Political elites and the rituals of Kingship; the rituals of preganancy
Applications:

Ethnicity and service delivery.

 
Ranji Devadason, University of Bristol, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: British-born South Asians, other British minority groups and the ethnic majority
Issues: employment, cultural boundaries, work/life balance
Applications:

employment policies, assessing the extent of advantage and disadvantage experienced by minorities in relation to the ethnic majority

 
Dr. Shirley Firth, Independent Scholar
Communities: South Asian (Indian Subcontinent) religious communities
Issues: Death and bereavement, health issues, palliative care, including religious and spiritual care of the dying
Applications:

Health and social work; education

 
Dr. Katy Gardner, University of Sussex, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Sylhetis
Issues: The dynamics of family and kinship
Applications:

Care for the elderly; new reproductive technologies 

 
Professor Ron Geaves, Liverpool Hope University, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: South Asian Muslims, Sufi tariqas, Hindus and Sikhs
Issues: The transmigration of religious communities from the subcontinent to Britain; identity formation amongst South Asian communities; religion and ethnicity; representation of South Asian faith communities 
Applications:

Religious education, accurate representation of South Asian faith communities

 
Dr. Seán Mcloughlin, University of Leeds, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Pakistanis and 'Azad' Kashmiris
Issues: Religion and ethnicity; multiculturalism and identity politics; Islamic movements, organisations and mosques, education and Muslim schools, gender and generation
Applications:

Education; political representation; religious discrimination and Islamophobia

 
Professor Werner Menski, School of Oriental and African Studies, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi
Issues: Law, legal pluralism, ethnicity, marriage, divorce, dowry, maintenance, adoption, child law, immigration
Applications:

Law, immigration control, public policy

 
Tahirah Parveen, Cognitive Psychotherapist Greater Manchester West Mental Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Communities: Across the board, but with particular concern for members of UK-based South Asian communities
Issues: Development of ethnosensitive skills in the delivery of professional practice
Applications: Psychotherapeutic treatment of emotional disorders

 

Professor Eleanor Nesbitt, Warwick University, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Sikhs, including Bhatra Sikhs; Punjabi and Gujarati Hindus; South Asian Christians
Issues: Religious nurture of children; identity formation of young people; religious education and representation of South Asian faith traditions and communities

Applications:

 

 Religious education, pastoral care in schools, how faiths/cultures are represented in professional training.
Dr Mary Searle-Chatterjee,Manchester Metropolitan University/University of Manchester, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Indian, Pakistani
Issues: Religious nationalism, gender issues, caste
Applications:

Ethnicity and the law, education

 
Dr Prakash Shah,Queen Mary, University of London, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: South Asians, Africans, Caribbeans
Issues: Immigration, asylum, nationality, mental health, education, crime and criminalisation, racial harassment and violence, and families
Applications:

Law

 
Dr. Alison Shaw, University of Oxford, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Pakistanis
Issues: Family, kinship and marriage; health and illness, especially reproductive health
Applications:

Antenatal services and genetic counselling

 
Dr. Jacqueline Suthren Hirst, University of Manchester, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Indian
Issues: Education and gender

Applications:

 

 Religious education and issues of representation; implications for initial teacher training and in-service training
Dr. Robin Wyatt, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: South Asians in South Asia and in the UK
Issues: Marital breakdown; domestic violence and wives' unnatural deaths; 'cultural crimes' such as dowry-related abuse, forced marriage and honour killings.

Applications:

 

 Fieldwork and applied research solutions to guide policy formation
Dr. John Zavos, University of Manchester, whose specialist interests include:
Communities: Indian, Pakistani
Issues: Politics and religion; use of history in the context of religious nationalism

Applications:

 

 Political analysis; education