Dr. Ava Kanyeredzi
Senior Lecturer
Mental Health and Social Change Research Group, School of Psychology
Dr. Ava Kanyeredzi teaches on the BSc and MSc Forensic Psychology and Clinical and Community Psychology programmes.
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Room 3.32
Water Lane
Stratford
London
E15 4LZ - a.kanyeredzi@uel.ac.uk
My work draws on intersectional feminist, critical and community psychology approaches, where I use visual, participatory and action research methods with a keen interest and passion to work with people from groups who are under-researched or marginalised. I have a strong track record of working in partnership with health service and third sector organisations, to lead and develop robust, effective and impactful research projects. I have been involved in a number of collaborative research projects exploring patients and staff experiences of forensic psychiatric spaces and intimate relationships during periods of detention. Currently, I am the research and evaluation lead for the Black Church Domestic Abuse Forum (BCDAF www.bcdaf.org.uk) an interdisciplinary collaboration of academics, practitioners and faith leaders aiming to support church communities to better respond to domestic abuse.
Overview
1. "Spirit and Solace: Black churches and domestic abuse"
Women in faith communities take longer to seek support for domestic abuse. This study aims to identify the experiences, challenges and requirements of Black majority churches to effectively respond to domestic abuse. Black majority churches are churches of any denomination where most of the congregation are of African and/or Caribbean heritage and have an over 100 year history within the UK supporting members experiencing discrimination, including recent migrants. Despite their prolific presence and estimated 500,000 membership, we know less about how they respond to domestic abuse as they are minimally included in studies carried out in the UK. Heightened reports of domestic abuse during the Covid-19 pandemic ‘Lockdown’ further indicates the role of churches in community coordinated responses. An online survey, interviews and focus groups will provide data to promote effective responses, early intervention and multi-agency working within Black majority churches to assist victim-survivors in spaces where they feel safe. BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants SRG2021\210837 (£9,917).
2. Black Church Domestic Abuse Forum
I am research and evaluation lead for this collaboration of church leaders, advocate, academics, layers, journalist and advocates convened in 2016 with the aim to empower Black majority churches to better respond to reports of domestic abuse. The one day domestic abuse training is based on the ‘Walk in the Way of Love’ toolkit that we adapted to the Black majority church context. Attendees are invited to complete a questionnaires before and after the training course with follow up support from the training team who are also church leaders. This is followed by a telephone questionnaire six months afterwards to assess changes and impact of the training on the church environment and response to domestic abuse. Funded by donations (£4000) and pledged £2000, per church trained, by The Cinnamon Network.
3. Emotional Cost of Violence and Abuse research
This project explores researcher motivations, processes and experiences during data collection and interpretation on violence abuse victimisation studies and aims to develop a toolkit for research students and supervisors. Funded by Independent Social Research Fund (£4000) (PI Dr Fiona Vera Gray, Durham University with Co-researchers: Dr Maria Garner, London Metropolitan University, Swati Pande and Dr Joanne Wilson).
Collaborators
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Reader & Lecturer
Dr. Ian Tucker, Dr Laura McGrath
Research
Publications
Professional Activities
- PY4005 – Researching with Small Samples
- PY5011 – Clinical and Community Psychology
- PY6304 – Forensic Psychology and Criminal Conduct
- PY6311 – Psychology Identity and Society
- PY6344 – Clinical and Community Praxis
- PY7158 – Applied Research Methods