UCL Thomas Coram Research Unit

Spaces of Inclusion: Localising Global Strategies to Tackle Inequality An event funded by UCL’s Grand Challenge of Inequalities

🌍 How does space shape inequalities & how can global strategies work locally?
Join Lauren Andres (PVP Inequalities theme) & experts discussing links between climate, migration, urban marginalisation & gendered vulnerabilities.
📆 18 March, 17:30–20:30
👉https://bit.ly/4roHykx

Research on children & families highlights how complex everyday life can be.

Policies are designed around systems & services. But families experience them through housing, childcare, migration status, income & relationships – all at once.

Research helps bring that reality into policy thinking.

These themes cut across our work on early years, migration, inequality and public services. Connecting evidence to lived experience leads to better decisions.

Policy & practice on donor conception in the UK have shifted dramatically. How do these changes shape identity, belonging & lived experience?
Join us for the TCRU/Coram Annual Lecture with Dr Sophie Zadeh & panellists.
Register: bit.ly/47lBG42
#FamilyPolicy #DonorConception
@uclpolicylab.bsky.social

Large families and the forgotten children in contemporary family research Join this event to hear Dr Stephan Köppe explore the role of large families in social policy research.

Are large families being overlooked in today’s social policy debates?
This Thursday's seminar explores why families with three or more children still matter, and how welfare systems shape their lives.
12-1pm
bit.ly/4l6Y9aS
#SocialPolicy #FamilyCommunitiesSociety
@sriucl.bsky.social
@ioe.bsky.social

Important framing from @centreformh.bsky.social on prevention and early support for families.

Evidence from early years and family wellbeing research consistently shows that early investment can reduce longer-term pressures on services and support better outcomes.

Faith, homosecularism and LGBTIQ+ asylum in the UK This seminar brings together findings from a qualitative study with LGBTIQ+ refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK.

How do faith and sexuality shape asylum journeys?
Our seminar this week explores the experiences of LGBTIQ+ people seeking asylum in the UK and examines how religious belief can both complicate claims and provide strength and community.
#LGBTQResearch #Asylum
bit.ly/4rXDdFi
@ioe.bsky.social

We’re the Thomas Coram Research Unit. Our work focuses on children, families and the social changes shaping their lives. We connect high-quality evidence to policy and practice.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share how our work supports decision-making across key policy areas.

Narratives of the silent: Exploring women's stories in South African communities How do we as a society live with silences? How are untold stories shaped by social silence?

Whose stories remain unheard?
Join TCRU's Bianca Parry this week where she'll look at women’s experiences in South African communities and what feminist research can teach us about listening, ethics and power.
#SocialResearch #GenderAndSociety
bit.ly/4ttqhbO
@sriucl.bsky.social
@ioe.bsky.social

@lseinequalities.bsky.social

Caregiving at the Centre of Empire and the Contemporary World Order, 1930-2023 Exploring the vast and blurred domains of paid and unpaid caregiving, from 1930-2023 in South Asia and beyond.

Thursday’s seminar asks why caregiving is central to understanding empire & today’s world. New research traces how paid & unpaid care shaped labour, migration & political change across South Asia & beyond.
5 Feb, 12–1pm, Gordon Sq
#SocialResearch #socialInclusion
bit.ly/3ZH6AQe
@ioe.bsky.social

Impact of arts-based participation in research: Projects on health inequalities in Tower Hamlets This event will discuss two recent ActEarly studies in Tower Hamlets, which included working with research participants on arts-based generation of data and expression of findings.

How can arts-based participation reshape research, and its impact?
This week’s TCRU seminar explores creative, participatory methods in projects on health inequalities in Tower Hamlets.
29 Jan, 12–1pm, Gordon Sq
bit.ly/3YUCqIX
#ArtsInResearch #SocialResearch
@sriucl.bsky.social
@ioe.bsky.social

Volunteering for development? Insights from youth social action and learning in the Philippines How does volunteering challenge or reinforce the identities of ‘Southern’ youth volunteers from ‘vulnerable’ backgrounds, and which barriers shape their participation?

What does volunteering really mean for young people in the Global South? Dr Chris Millora looks beyond familiar narratives of volunteering & explores how youth social action can both challenge & reinforce inequality
12:00-13:00, Gordon Sq
bit.ly/3LC0T2M
#SocialResearch #Inequalities
@ioe.bsky.social

Sex is dying out. This is why it matters Intimacy should be freer and easier than ever, whether for procreation or recreation. Yet at every age the data is stark

In the Telegraph, @ktwamley.bsky.social reflects on how Covid lockdowns disrupted young people’s transition into intimacy - with anxiety and missed social experiences shaping longer-term changes in relationships.
bit.ly/3ZcVh1Q
#intimacyAndCare
@sriucl.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social

The price of truth: Finance, misinformation and the battle for reality How did truth lose its grip? Why do citizens mistrust science, fall for conspiracies, and elect authoritarian populists?

We’re starting 2026 with a big question: why has truth lost its grip?
Our first seminar (15 Jan) explores how finance shapes misinformation, credibility, political narratives & democratic life.
12:00-13:00, Gordon Sq.
bit.ly/4qPmsf6
#Sociology #SocialResearch
@sriucl.bsky.social
@ioe.bsky.social

And that’s a wrap!
This terms Seminar Series closed with Prof. Eva Lloyd - a brilliant session. We've an exciting line-up for next term, including sessions on truth & finance, youth volunteering, arts-based research, caregiving & expert witness practice.
More details in Jan!
#ResearchThatMatters

@ioe.bsky.social @sriucl.bsky.social

Great to see TCRU colleagues featured in UCL’s Grand Challenge of Justice & Equality Impact Report!

@ktwamley.bsky.social, Prof Ann Phoenix, Mette Berg & Eve Dickson contributed to key case studies tackling inequality and justice. #TCRUResearch
bit.ly/3XD8IaR
bit.ly/4pTLhWL
bit.ly/4amr9Iv

Asylum, Housing, and Community In this episode, host Ethne James Souch speaks with Professor Mette Louise Berg, Dr Judith Spirig, Faith Nyamakanga, and Nelson Gomez about the lived realities of asylum housing in the UK, and the wid

🎙️ New ep: Asylum, Housing & Community
Host Ethne James Souch talks with Mette Louise Berg, Judith Spirig, Faith Nyamakanga & Nelson Gomez about asylum housing in the UK—how policy, privatised systems & ideas of “deservingness” shape everyday lives.
🎧 https://bit.ly/4p2aIFA

Working with creative or participatory methods?
If you use creative, community-led or participatory methods, our toolkit offers methods, case studies & tips for work with migrants & underserved communities. Featured as a @ucl-global.bsky.social case study.
tinyurl.com/2p9kd5rf
tinyurl.com/2r6aufrj

@nhs-elft.bsky.social @towerhamletsnow.bsky.social @sriucl.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social

TCRU's joint Healthier Wealthier Families in East London project was recently nominated for @events.hsj.co.uk Reducing inequalities & improving outcomes for children & young people Award. Fantastic recognition of work with partners across East London. Congrats to the whole team! tinyurl.com/stw95bvb

Why tackling child poverty needs more than increasing family incomes Understanding what life looks like for those affected by child poverty is essential if policy is to deliver genuine change…(read more)

Ahead of the UK budget announcement @tcru-ucl.bsky.social research is illuminating children’s lived experiences of poverty to better inform policy and practice.

"By listening to children and families... we can help shape fairer, more supportive environments"
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2025/11/...

For many Bangladeshi asylum seekers, the UK system makes proving credibility difficult - creating long-term uncertainty that infiltrates every aspect of daily life. Hear Ashraf Hoque discuss this on 27 Nov.
tinyurl.com/2f2b96wb
#BelongingAndIdentity #Asylum
@sriucl.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social

Mixed heritage in the family: Racial identity, spousal choice, and childrearing Join this event to hear Professor Miri Song analyse the dynamics of mixed-heritage families across generations.

What does it mean to raise a mixed-heritage family?
Join Professor Miri Song on 20 Nov, 12–1pm, as she explores racial identity, partner choice and childrearing across generations.
bit.ly/3JTrlnp
#BelongingAndIdentity #ResearchThatMatters
@sriucl.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social

Naga Munchetty - With Emma Vardy - BBC Sounds Emma Vardy features news, experiences, and big name interviews from around the UK.

TCRU's Charlotte Faircloth’s point @bbc5live.bsky.social : gentle parenting isn’t breaking marriages - it’s the shift to recognising children’s emotional needs & modern parental pressure. And, yes we’re animals, but copying primates is maybe… methodologically unsound. 38mins in
tinyurl.com/2zrwnnwc

Great to see TCRU’s @susiebowerbrown.bsky.social work highlighted for #TransAwarenessWeek. Her research is making a real difference to understanding the experiences of trans and non-binary parents across the UK.
#LGBTQResearch #GenderDiversity
@sriucl.bsky.social

Amplifying knowledge about arts-based research methods Dr Humera Iqbal (UCL Social Research Institute) and Professor Monica Lakhanpaul (UCL Population Policy and Practice) used UCL-Wits University Strategic Partner Funds to further arts-based research.

New @ucl-global.bsky.social case study highlights arts-based research by @humeraiqbal.bsky.social & Monica Lakhanpaul with Wits University, coinciding with tonight’s Visualising Migration panel. Exploring creativity, belonging & resilience.
bit.ly/47APYP2
bit.ly/479Qe6d
#Migration
@ioe.bsky.social

Whitechapel Market - vibrant fruit and veg stall.

The Fair Food Futures UK exhibition moves this week!
Created with families in Tower Hamlets & Bradford, it shares powerful photos & stories of food, dignity & belonging. Now showing at Whitechapel Town Hall from 11 Nov.
bit.ly/47xTo53
#FairFoodFutures #FoodInsecurity

Spotlight on... Katie Gaddini Katie Gaddini, Associate Professor of Sociology, explores the lives and politics of right-wing Christian women in America. A UKRI Research Fellow at Stanford and former social worker, she brings a glo...

TCRU’s Katie Gaddini in the spotlight!
@drkatiegaddini.bsky.social explores the lives and politics of right-wing Christian women in America – bringing a global, human lens to women’s roles in society. Book due 2026!
bit.ly/3Lqhd6k
#Sociology #GenderPolitics
@ucl.ac.uk @ioe.bsky.social