Rosa Pouakouyou
DPhil Student - Keble College
rosa.pouakouyou@keble.ox.ac.uk
Research Topic: Creating a Sense of Self: Black feminism, class and diasporic identity in late 20th century Britain
Supervisors: Meleisa Ono-George and Lyndsey Jenkins
My doctoral project examines what the relationship between migration, class, race and gender within the Black Women’s Movement reveals about Black Britain, and wider British society. It focuses on three understudied regional contexts - South Wales (Cardiff and Newport), Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh), and England (Birmingham) - each shaped by significant post-war migration but characterised by distinct industrial, social and political landscapes. Through a comparative analysis of these contexts, this project explores how migration and class shaped Black women’s identities, feminist activism and ideas of belonging, and how regional experiences influenced the priorities, practices and development of the Black Women’s Movement. In doing so, this research seeks to broaden our understanding of British feminism by placing Black women’s diverse experiences at the centre of histories of social justice and social change in modern Britain.
This research is generously funded by the Oxford Graduate Scholarship in partnership with the Talbot Fund.
