Ava Kanyeredzi

Dr Ava Kanyeredzi is a lecturer, researcher, and published author specializing in violence and abuse against African and Caribbean heritage women in the UK. She serves as research/evaluation lead for the Black Church Domestic Abuse Forum (BCDAF), developing domestic abuse resources for Black Majority Church leaders while conducting BA/Leverhulme-funded research on abuse awareness within these communities.

She earned her PhD from London Metropolitan University (formerly University of North London), where she investigated racialized experiences of victim-survivors of violence/abuse within the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU), building on her undergraduate studies at the same institution.

Her research centers on how racialised 'controlling images' silence Black women and hinder help-seeking behaviors, conceptualizing a 'continuum of oppression' to describe cumulative abuse impacts across life-courses. Applying Black feminist theory, she examines intersections of race, gender, socioeconomic factors, and faith in abuse contexts, with documented cases of child sexual abuse, multiple-perpetrator rape, and domestic violence within Black British communities.

Through the BCDAF, she co-developed the 'Walk in the Way of Love' training toolkit for church leaders and organized a 170-delegate launch event attended by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner. Her BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant project investigates domestic abuse awareness in Black Majority Churches through focus groups and interviews, emphasizing faith spaces as critical support environments for victim-survivors.