Bev Clough

Latest blog post from our birth doula project, with update on activities so far and next steps @annanelson95.bsky.social
There is still time to submit an expression of interest for focus groups so please do share
birthdoulas.mmu.ac.uk/2026/02/17/p...

As part of our research into birth douals and medical law we are running focus groups with (1) birth doulas, (2) healthcare professionals (widely defined) involved in childbirth and (3) people who have used or seriously considered using a birth doula in the past five years. To take part you must have worked or given birth in the UK. Interviews will take place in English. (Please note, we will hold separate focus groups with each of these three groups) * If you choose to take part in this research, you will be invited to participate in a focus group discussion with 5-8 other participants. These may be online or in-person, and you will be given a chance to specify your preference on the expression of interest form. The groups will last approximately 90 minutes and will be facilitated by both of the researchers. They will take place between February-April 2026. * During the discussion, you will be asked to share your thoughts, experiences, and opinions on birth doulas, including understanding the boundaries of the role, the interprofessional dynamics in birth spaces, and navigating medico-legal frameworks. There are no right or wrong answers—we are interested in your honest perspectives. * Participation in this study is wholly voluntary. Participants will not recieve payment for taking part. * If you are interested in taking part, please fill in the expression of interest form linked below by 5pm MONDAY 23 FEB 2026. If you have any questions, please do get in touch. rd EOI FORM - LINK & QR CODE : https://forms.office.com/e/9ZREnz1SGA

We have now started the next stage of our project: focus groups with (1) birth doulas, (2) healthcare professionals involved with birth and (3) people who have used or considered using a doula during birth in the past 5 years.

Please do share with networks!

@annanelson95.bsky.social

We are delighted to share this upcoming event from the Sylvia Pankhurst Network.

Join us for an inspiring discussion exploring intersectional feminism, resistance, and transformative justice, featuring two powerful voices in activism and community work!

Details below👇

Hi Caitlin, just message me on here or email b.clough (at) mmu (dot) ac (dot) uk and I'll send over some more details

Image shows list of books for review: J. Fiala-Butora, Implementing the Right to Decide under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Supporting the Legal Capacity of All Persons with Disabilities (Bloomsbury, 2025) S. Halliday, R. Brione, J. Nicholls, Narratives of Consent and Reproductive Subjects: Tales of Invisibility (Routledge, 2025) T. Bogdanoski, After Disability Rights: Confronting Ableism at Life's Margins (Cambridge University Press, 2026) M. Sleeboom-Faulkner, Regulatory Violence: The Global Dynamics of Regulatory Experimentation in Biomedicine and Health (Cambridge University Press, 2025) L. Clements and A.L. Aiello, Understanding Parent Blame: Institutional Failure and Complex Trauma (Bristol University Press, 2025) K. Amirthalingham, Medical Negligence and the Duty to Advise: Beyond Autonomy (Bloomsbury, 2025) N. Bhatia (Ed), Technology, Health, and Law in Life and Death: Before the Cradle to Beyond the Grave (Bloomsbury, 2025) A. Krajewska & J. McHale, Reimagining Health Law, (Elgar, 2025) N. Hammond-Browning and N. Williams, International Legal and Ethical Perspectives on Uterus Transplantation (Elgar, 2025)

Aiming to read more in 2026? We have some amazing books awaiting review for Medical Law Review. Please do share with networks and PhD students- always very happy to support ECRs through the reviewing process. 📚

WEEKEND READING: What if, in trying to ‘fix’ universities, we are quietly unmaking them? - HEPI Join HEPI and Advance HE for a webinar onTuesday, 13 January 2026, from 11am to 12pm, exploring what higher education can learn from leadership approaches in other sectors. Sign up here to hear this a...

Good reading.

'How the financial problem is described is not neutral. It reflects and reinforces a particular way of understanding what a university is....If the financial situation is framed as a classic demand-and-cost problem....the obvious actions are to emphasise tight cost controls'. 1/4

We were delighted to host a book launch yesterday for Dr Senthorun Raj’s new book, ‘The Emotions of LGBT Rights and Reforms: Repairing Law’. Congratulations @senthorun.bsky.social!

Dr Cecilia Flores Elizondo in full flow discussing her project, 'Receivers of Justice in the Global Just Transition'. This event was the conclusion of a pilot photovoice study funded by an internal research acceleration grant.

Professor Waughray and Campaigners Urge End to Caste Discrimination - Metropolis

Earlier this month, Professor Annapurna Waughray spoke at a Parliamentary Briefing on Caste Discrimination, convened at Westminster by the APPG on Dalits and ACDA.

Have a read over the Metropolis news item on the November 2025 briefing below 👇

mcrmetropolis.uk/professor-wa...

We were thrilled to welcome Dr Bharat Malkani (Cardiff) for our final MLS Seminar of the semester. Bharat gave an excellent talk on “Racial Justice and the Limits of the Law”.

A massive well done to Dr Cathy Jacquiss, who passed her viva today!🎉

Cathy gave an excellent defence of her thesis, 'Hostility, Resistance and Hope: The Operation of Space and Affect in LGBTQ+ Asylum Litigation'.

Threads of Labour | 20th November 2025 An in-person & online book launch and conversation with Dr Lisa Taylor, author of 'Threads of Labour: Tapestry of an Ex-Industrial Community'.

Book Launch: Threads of Labour: Tapestry of an Ex-Industrial Community, by Lisa Taylor

Thursday 20th November 2025, 6:00pm-7:30pm (GMT). In person at The Leeds Library

Threads of Labour examines how art & industrial heritage foster cohesion in post-industrial communities.

isrf.org/events/threa...

Yes Prof Travis!

Huge congratulations to @sammorgn97.bsky.social who successfully passed her PhD viva last week! 🎉👏

The title of Sam's thesis is ‘The Production of Law Through Space and Affect: Examining LGBTQI+ Rights Strategic Litigation and Activist Practice in the Caribbean’

The Open University Moments of Rupture Online 20-21 November 2025Some legal and social changes are so profound that they create what seem to be moments of rupture: breaks between the ‘before’ and ‘after’. These moments c...

Researching a legal moment that was supposed to change everything - whether it did or not? The call for papers for 'Moments of Rupture' is open until 23 October!
Free, online conference in November, hosted by the Open Universities legal histories research cluster.
#LegalHistory #cfp

Recent blog post for BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health contextualising our birth doula project- with @annanelson95.bsky.social blogs.bmj.com/bmjsrh/2025/...

Dr Tamsin Paige giving a fascinating talk at MLS on 'Fines Do Not Make for Fine Law'.

People often express concerns that birth doulas are entirely unregulated, but the reality is a little more nuanced - as @bevclough.bsky.social & I unpack here: birthdoulas.mmu.ac.uk/2025/09/22/b...

Sharing our surveys for birth doulas and for healthcare professionals (both broadly defined) for a project with @annanelson95.bsky.social on birth doulas and medical law. Please share widely!

Surveys are now live - link are in the thread!

Sharing our surveys for birth doulas and for healthcare professionals (both broadly defined) for a project with @annanelson95.bsky.social on birth doulas and medical law. Please share widely!

Great to see our research bulletin for Spring/Summer 📚

Climate Change at the UN Security Council: Protecting Pacific and Caribbean Island States This book examines the operation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to better understand the motivating factors that underpin its activation of Article 39. Arguing that climate change shoul...

🚨 New Book Alert! 🌍📘
Ash Murphy’s Climate Change at the UN Security Council: Protecting Pacific and Caribbean Island States is out now with Routledge (2025).

A vital read on climate, security & small island states. Available here: www.routledge.com/Climate-Chan...

🚨🚨🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨🚨🚨

The United Nations is calling for the UK Government to stop the Universal Credit (PIP) Bill because it will 'deepen the signs of regression' in disabled people's human rights.

tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/...

Always a highlight of the year! So lovely to spend time writing with colleagues

Frontiers | Colourism and law in the UK: a story of colonial indifference? In this paper I explore legal and judicial responses toward skin tone and colourism in the UK. I argue that despite incidents involving colourism coming befo...

🚨New from Dr. Zainab Naqvi (MMU Law): 'Colourism and Law in the UK: A Story of Colonial Indifference?'
Published in Frontiers in Sociology (June 2025)
Available here: www.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
This powerful piece argues that UK law remains blind to colourism.
#colourism #race&law

Despite my best efforts, we are back here… if anyone is looking for a socio-legal / medical law researcher do let me know!

Particularly interested in all things #childbirth, #obstetricviolence #reproductivetechnology and #consent but absolutely not fussy at this stage 📚

This was such a wonderful session! Blown away by the brilliant research my colleagues are doing, and the engaged and reflective questions from the audience ❤️

1) You can read @senthorun.bsky.social book open access here: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-emo...

The book argues:

This morning's panel on 'Reimagining rights and identities: Critical perspectives on social justice' at the Faculty of Business and Law Research Conference 2025

Dr Jen Neller @jenneller.bsky.social
Dr Caroline Redhead
Dr Hasret Cetinkaya
Sam Morgan, PhD Candidate @sammorgn97.bsky.social