World-leading research on justice and equality for transformative societal impact

Empowering Future: Shaping an Equal World through Transforming Perspectives and Generating Societal Impact

The Centre for the Advancement of Equality, Gender and Inclusion Studies (AEGIS) focuses on mentoring, sharing knowledge and contacts, data gathering (including supporting non-academic partners in building momentum for change) and reinforcing reciprocal relationships. 

Founded in March 2024 and managed the both Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Business and Law, AEGIS uses a range of disciplinary and methodological strengths from across the University to explore new research bother internally and with partners.

AEGIS contributes to learning, teaching and activities designed to generate inspiring and life changing opportunities for students across UG, PG and PGR levels. The centre provides new opportunities for students to translate learning into practice through internships, to apply knowledge to ongoing ‘live case studies’ as part of their studies, engage in debate with professionals across the centre’s network. AEGIS has established international partnerships, representing ongoing collaborations including non-academic partners that members have been engaged with generating considerable societal impact.

Our members volunteer at the University's newly launched immigration advice clinic, which reflects the our ethical commitment EDI research translated into practice.

We’ve hosted and attending events including round table evets, talks such as Women Journalists in the Philippines (July 2025), and symposiums such as Rethinking Progress on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (July 2025), and the UK- Philippines Independent Media Network Symposium. 

 

 

Partnerships and collaboration

Our ongoing local partnerships include those third-sector organisations as well as local councils and businesses, including:

  • the Female Entrepreneurs Network
  • Stop Domestic Abuse
  • Portsmouth City of Sanctuary
  • Portsmouth City Council

 

 

Gendered Conflict, Unyielding Spirit: The Cultural Power of Sudanese Women

Please join us on 21 January 2026 at 2 - 5pm GMT to mark the inauguration of our British Academy Global Professor Nafisa Bedri who will lead us in a compelling interdisciplinary symposium and live conversation exploring the powerful role of Sudanese women in the context of conflict, resistance, and cultural transformation.

This event will bring together scholars, women leaders, senior diplomats and media professionals and local Sudanese community members. Keynote speakers in addition to Professor Bedri include Dr. Zeinab Badawi, celebrated journalist and author and Richard Crowder, Head of British Office Sudan and UK Special Representative to Sudan.

The symposium intends to celebrate culture as a source of resilience and coping to challenge the hardship of conflict. Through stories, scholarship, and lived experience, we center and illuminate the unyielding spirit and enduring contributions of Sudanese women in shaping Sudan’s past, present, and future. 

Attendees will also be invited to view an exhibition of Sudanese art. To register, contact: aegiscentre@port.ac.uk

 

 

Research topics

Social/Legal Inequalities and Inclusion 

We're exploring how legal frameworks and social structures contribute to inequality and exclusion, and how they can be transformed to promote inclusion.

This research brings together law, sociology, political theory, and public policy to examine issues including systemic discrimination, marginalisation, access to rights, and inclusive governance. Through interdisciplinary research and stakeholder engagement, the strand or research aims to build practical solutions that advance equity, justice, and meaningful participation for all.

Violence against women and girls

This strand or research focuses on understanding and addressing the causes, impacts, and legal responses to gender-based violence.

Our work draws on law, criminology, anthropology, public health, and social and development policy to examine issues such as harmful cultural practices, domestic abuse, social and gender norms, and institutional responses. Through interdisciplinary research and collaboration with frontline organisations, this research aims to inform effective prevention strategies, improve support systems, and influence policy reform to protect and empower women and girls.

Gender and the Economy

We're investigating how gender shapes and is shaped by economic systems, policies, and practices.

Drawing on economics, law, and public policy, this research explores issues such as gender pay gaps, labour market inequalities, care work, financial inclusion, and economic justice. We're working to produce evidence-based research that informs inclusive economic policy and promotes gender equity in both national and global contexts.

Equality Law

This strand of research explores how legal systems address inequality and discrimination.

We focus on anti-discrimination legislation, human rights, intersectionality, and access to justice, while evaluating the real-world impact of policy and legal frameworks. Through collaborative research and engagement with civil society and policymakers, the strand aims to generate insights that shape inclusive legal reforms and promote social justice.

 

 

Recent publications

 

 

 

Members

PhD Students

PGR Students

  • Teddy Grand
     

 

 

Recent projects

  • The Role of the Women-Led organisations in strengthening the resilience of vulnerable people in Myanmar

    Leads: Professor Tamsin Bradley, Dr Zara Martin and Dr Tom Sykes

    The research documents the history of women's activism in Myanmar. We're collecting qualitative data to explore the importance of national and transnational networks in building the capacity and resilience of people on the ground to withstand and resist military oppression and the impact of climate change. This research will build on two previous projects the University of Portsmouth led in Myanmar.

    The University of Portsmouth is the lead organisation working with its partners: the Asian Institute of Technology, based in Bangkok, the Social, Economic, Gender Resource Institute Myanmar (now based in Bangkok) and Gyanbodh in Nepal.

     

  • Gendering Resilience in the Wars of Sudan and South Sudan

    Lead: Professor Nafisa Bedri

    Supported by: Professor Tamsin Bradley.

    This project captures the real‑time experiences of women and girls affected by war in Sudan. Those fleeing conflict in Sudan to South Sudan face severe challenges, including food insecurity, disease, and a lack of support in transit or settlement areas.

    Sudanese women and girls bear the heaviest burden of this largely invisible humanitarian crisis, often serving as first responders in their communities. They are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence, among other protection violations, including intimate partner violence, child marriage, and female genital mutilation (FGM), which intensify amid conflict. 

    The project collects life histories from an intersectional group of women impacted by the wars in Sudan and South Sudan, taking a real time approach in documenting how women and girls are navigating the current conflict in Sudan, We aim to produce a comprehensive political economy of how gender shapes distinctive strategies of the resilience that women draw on while surviving periods of instability and brutality.

  • Realising Girls’ and Women’s Inclusion, Representation and Empowerment (RE-WIRING)

    A Horizon Project funded by the European Commission, RE-WIRING aims to prevent and reverse inequalities, and to promote girls’ and women’s inclusion, representation and empowerment. We work to contribute to practical, sustainable and structural institutional change through an evidence-based understanding of cumulative effects of gender stereotyping and multiple forms of discrimination and disadvantages.

    The project combines insights from the institutional, experiential and symbolic levels of gender (in)equality in fields of decision-making, law and policies, work, education and media. Our overall aim is to understand what works and what does not work, and to disseminate better practices in order to improve the representation of girls and women.

    The RE-WIRING Project is a collaboration between seven institutions, namely: the University of Portsmouth (UK), Utrecht University (NL), University of the Western Cape (SA), University of Deusto (ES), University of Gdańsk (PL), Catholic University Leuven (BE), and the Centre for Inclusive Leadership (NL). The project was launched in March 2023 and is set to continue until April 2026. Portsmouth RE-WIRING Team, consisting of Prof Karen Johnston, Dr Panos Kapotas, Dr Federica Alberti, and Dr Devran Gulel, is responsible for work package 4 (WP4) which focuses on examining gender gaps in employment and enterprise. 

 

 

Contact us

Email us at aegiscentre@port.ac.uk.

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