Rachel Seoighe

Rachel Seoighe is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent's School of Social Sciences. She is a criminologist whose work focuses on state violence, resistance, memory, and abolition from a decolonial, feminist perspective. Her academic roles include being SSPSSR's Athena SWAN champion and EDI lead, founder and leader of the division's Reflexive Teaching Working Group, and co-chair of the Visual and Sensory Research Cluster.

Her research interests span several interconnected areas:

• State violence and resistance, particularly in the context of Sri Lankan state crime and denial
• The Tamil justice struggle and memory activism in the diaspora
• Abolition feminism, women's imprisonment, and the closure of Holloway Prison
• Border criminologies, "race" and racialization
• Postcolonial and decolonial thought
• Social and transformative justice
• Environmental justice and community responses to issues like sewage pollution

Dr. Seoighe's research follows a transdisciplinary approach aligned with scholar-activist and creative methodologies. Her recent work includes the Flow.Walk.Drag. project exploring community responses to sewage and water-borne bacteria in Margate and Liverpool. She is co-founder and director of Hearth Consultancy Ltd and Tend Toward Justice CIC, which provide support for social justice organizations and conduct social research.

Her scholarly contributions demonstrate a consistent focus on understanding systems of power, state violence, and community resistance. The trajectory of her work shows an evolution from examining post-war Sri Lanka to broader explorations of carceral systems and abolitionist futures, with a strong commitment to methodological innovation that bridges academic research and activist practice.

Dr. Seoighe is actively involved in several organizations beyond her university role:

• Chair of trustees for Beauty out of Ashes
• Trustee for Women at WISH
• Consultant and researcher for Tamil Information Centre

As an educator, she teaches a popular module on State Crime and Resistance at the undergraduate level and convenes a course on Prisons and Penal Policy at the postgraduate level. Her teaching is informed by her research and activist commitments, emphasizing critical perspectives on state power and social justice.