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Dr Monica Thomas

Research student

School of Social Sciences

Overview

Monica Thomas is an ESRC funded PhD researcher at Cardiff University. Her research focuses on Black mothers’ experiences in and after imprisonment. Her research interests include black feminist thought, critical race theories, social and racial justice, narrative methodologies and other qualitative approaches to research methods. She also has experience working as a family support worker in a local prison and volunteering for a charity who support women involved in the Criminal Justice System. 

Monica was one of the co-founders of the Migration, Ethnicity, Race & Diversity research group (MEAD), co-convening the group from December 2019 to July 2021

Research

Conferences
SOCSCI Doctoral Conference. 2019. Experiences of Mothering amongst Black Women in Prison [Research Poster]. 14 June 2019.

MEAD Launch. 2019. The Blame Game: The Construction and Portrayal of Black Victims in British Crime Reports [Research Poster]. 11 December 2019

MEAD Webinar. 2020. Unlocking Stories and Conducting Race Conscious Research [Presentation]. 8 April 2020

SOCSCI Doctoral Conference. 2020. Getting on to Get Out [Presentation]. 27 July 2020

SOCSCI Doctoral Conference. 2021. Restricted Mothering [Presentation]. 28 June 2021.

The Black Criminology Network. 2021. "Straight Away I Was Aware That I Was Black": Narratives From Black mothers In and After Prison [Presentation]. 28 November 2021.

Capabilities and Carers Conference. 2022. Narrative Methods: Centring Black Mothers' experiences of imprisonment [Panel]. 27 April 2022.

Teaching

I have an Associate Fellowship (AFHEA) qualification to teach in higher education. 

My previous experience includes teaching on the following modules: 

  • Prisons and Prisoners (Third year module - Cardiff University)
  • Offending and Victimisation (Second year module Cardiff University)
  • Qualitative Research Methods (Second year module - Cardiff University)
  • Foundations of Contemporary Criminology (First year module - Cardiff University)
  • Developing Scholarship in the Social Sciences (First year module - Cardiff University)
  • Crime, Violence and Harm (First year module - Bath Spa University) 

I also have experience marking on undergraduate assesments, marking third year dissertations as well as supervising Masters dissertations. 

I have also deseigned and delivered workshops titled 'Let's Talk About Race' to secondary school students.