Partnerships Manager and Research Associate, Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion
I am a Social Science Researcher, specialising in human geography and sociology. My research is broadly concerned with lived diversity, socio-cultural inequalities, and place. As a Partnerships Manager and Research Associate at the Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion, I contribute to interdisciplinary research in various areas related to economic and social inclusion.
Before the University of Sunderland, I worked as a Lecturer in Human Geography at Durham University, contributing to research and teaching. Additionally, I worked as a Co-Investigator (Co-I) and research associate (RA) on various grant-funded research projects in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University and LSE Cities, London School of Economics.
I also have policy-oriented research experience as a quantitative research officer in the Migration and Borders Analysis team at the Home Office in London.
Research
1) Diaspora and cities.
2) Migration, asylum seekers, and refugees.
3) Urban multiculture, racism, and Islamophobia.
4) Youth marginality and precarity.
Current and recent research projects include an examination of the impacts of Covid-19 and lockdown on asylum seekers and refugees in the UK, which was supported by a UKRI Covid-19 grant (Co-I), an interdisciplinary project Refugee Youth and Public Space, supported by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA), and a project examining Muslim youth and political participation in Scotland.
A list of my publications can be found on Google Scholar.
Publications
Article
Benwell, M, Hopkins, P and Finlay, Robin (2023) The slow violence of austerity politics and the UK’s ‘hostile environment’: Examining the responses of third sector organisations supporting people seeking asylum. Geoforum, 145. pp. 211-9. ISSN 0016-7185
Benwell, M, Hopkins, P and Finlay, Robin (2023) The slow violence of austerity politics and the UK’s ‘hostile environment’: Examining the responses of third sector organisations supporting people seeking asylum. Geoforum, 145. p. 211. ISSN 0016-7185
De Backer, Mattias, Felten, Pascale, Kirndörfer, Elisabeth, Kox, Mieke and Finlay, Robin (2022) ‘Their lives are even more on hold now’: migrants’ experiences of waiting and immobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social and Cultural Geography, 24 (10). ISSN 1470-1197
Finlay, Robin (2021) Entangled histories of place and reconfigurations of diasporic home: Al-Andalus history and the Moroccan diaspora in Granada, Spain. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 47 (3). pp. 604-617. ISSN 0020-2754
Finlay, R and Hopkins, P (2019) Young Muslim women's political participation in Scotland: Exploring the intersections of gender, religion, class and place. Political Geography, 74. p. 211. ISSN 0962-6298
Finlay, R and Hopkins, P (2019) Resistance and marginalisation: Islamophobia and the political participation of young Muslims in Scotland. Social and Cultural Geography, 21 (4). pp. 546-568. ISSN 1464-9365
Finlay, Robin (2017) A diasporic right to the city: the production of a Moroccan diaspora space in Granada, Spain. Social and Cultural Geography, 20 (6). pp. 785-805. ISSN 1464-9365
Hall, S, King, J and Finlay, R (2016) Migrant infrastructure: Transaction economies in Birmingham and Leicester, UK. Urban Studies, 54 (6). ISSN 0042-0980
Hall, S, King, J and Finlay, R (2015) Envisioning Migration: Drawing the Infrastructure of Stapleton Road, Bristol. New Diversities, 17 (2). pp. 211-72. ISSN 2199-8108
Reports, briefing/ working papers
Finlay, Robin, Hopkins, P and Benwell, M (2021) “It’s like rubbing salt on the wound”: the impacts of Covid-19 and lockdown on asylum seekers and refugees. Project Report. Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Book
De Backer, M, Hopkins, P, Van Liempt, I, Finlay, R, Kirndorfer, E, Kox, M, Benwell, M and Horschelmann, K (2023) Refugee Youth: Migration, Justice and Urban Space. Bristol University Press, Bristol. ISBN 978-1529221008