In July 2024, a paper of mine was published within days of the eruption of riots in Belfast, elsewhere in Northern Ireland, and England. Titled ‘Signs of dysconscious racism and xenophobiaism in knowledge production and the formation of academic researchers: A national study’, it focuses on the responsiveness of the academic community in Northern Ireland (NI) to local socio-demographic change. The findings provide insights into conditions which have influenced the thinking, practices and systems which shape academic practice, citizenry and research culture.

How the idea for the study took shape

I was motivated to understand how Northern Irish (NI) universities were responding to local change, and over time was particularly drawn to an area that seemed to get more concerted attention and advocacy from non-academics than those within higher education institutions: the treatment, positioning, experiences and histories of those not considered ‘from’ the two dominant groups. As with many, I was perplexed about why the experiences and heterogeneity of the people within such ‘othered’ groups, and the xenophobia and racism that surrounded them, were not being actively deliberated through knowledge generated within NI universities.

This motivation was deepened by The Migrant and Minority Ethnic Thinktank (MMETT). During various engagements held from 2019, questions were raised about the university’s critical function within a context that lacks functioning anti-racism regulations. As a scholar of the agency of universities and academic citizens, such concerns run through much of my international research and teaching. I am not ‘from’ the British isles (by ancestry or birth), but being Africa-born I know better than to repeat the dynamics of avoidance and self-preservation of the migrants from which I descend. Living in Belfast with my young children, meant being subjected to similar grand and petty exclusions affecting my fellow migrant residents. I was encouraged to use my academic position at Queen’s to generate knowledge for internal and public discussion.

Figure 1: From left, Eileen Chan-Hu (now Chair of the MMETT), Alfred Alboran (then Chair of the MMETT) engage with Dina on the interim findings of the study

Undertaking the study

Broadening the questions beyond a single institution, I secured the assistance of two amazing early career researchers, firstly Dr Amanda Lubit and then Yvonne Moynihan. With ESRC IAA funding, we first published a study report mapping research outputs of the two research-intensive universities – Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University – with clear indications of the subject areas where there was activity (such as ‘discrimination) and where activity had dipped (such as ‘housing’). The subject areas were those identified by the MMETT as centrally important to affected groups. To increase accessibility, an open-access repository  with information on the MMETT website was circulated to interested parties. Fellow Council members began a host of initiatives, including podcast interviews, roundtables, this website and an event held online as part of the ESRC Festival of Science that inverted assumptions of whom is an ‘expert’ knower.

Figure 2: A map composed of research papers about Northern Ireland

Funding from the British Academy enabled Yvonne to categorise research outputs by those within Northern Irish universities - considering funding, authorship, methodologies, disciplines, discourses adopted about the people/ groups studied, ethics, NGOs acknowledged etc. The interim report was utilised for report-and-respond engagements with those in the research development and invited members of NGOs.

I held semi-structured interviews with the authors of such research, with a questionnaire for anonymous participation. Their experiences stretched back over the past thirty years. Attention and funding waxed and waned. Mostly, academic citizens encountered chilly climates within society and their institutions, when attempting to produce research about those othered – co-called ‘migrants’, ‘ethnic minorities’, ‘refugees’, ‘asylum seekers’, and those ‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic’ (BAME). More extreme was when the research(er) was critical about systemic and institutional racism and xenophobia; and when researchers were identifiably ‘other’ to the dominantly-placed groups (by their surname, accent or skin-colour). Despite this, some persisted and created generative conditions for the social groups who participated in their research, and for their students. I was humbled by what I learnt about those who continue in their academic practice even when it is limited by interactional and institutional dynamics. Responses to the study report opened my eyes further to the agency of individuals and collectives in various sectors who persist in pushing for change.

Building a critical community

Figure 3: Left: Dina with Fidele Mutwarasibo (Open University), Yvonne Moynihan who did much of the day-to-day arrangements, Kishan Patel (University College London, and alumni of QUB), Paula Devine (QUB, Ark) and Chris Gillighan (University of Western Scotland).

Compelled by those who expressed a desire for critical community to sustain research and to deepen our ethicality, I invited Dr Paula Devine (ARK) and Yvonne to join me in collecting all to a ‘Local Race/ Ethnicity Research Symposium’ (June, 2024). A summary of the main concerns – about definitions used, ethical challenges and research challenges -  is in an ARK Feature and longer report. Dr Timofey Agarin is hosting the next gathering, on 1st-2nd April 2025, to explore “the impact that the oversight of everyday and explicit racism has in contemporary Northern Ireland”.

Persistent problems included the weak framing of local legislation (which thereby reduces protections and justice for those affected by hate crimes, racism and xenophobia), and the Far Right. Riots in Dublin in November 2023; public figures and institutions dangerously tolerant of hate… those amongst us with lived experience of targeting.

Then acts of hate, violence and crime hit Belfast in July and August 2024.

Reflections with humility

Proportionately, this has been a tiny insight into life in Northern Ireland, which is significantly more extreme for those outside of academia. Disgusting vitriol has been aimed at my team; bigoted perceptions and indifference shared as if somehow ‘normal’.

My deepest respect to those who have been involved in challenging the status quo within Northern Ireland, particular at personal and professional risk. 

Prof Dina Zoe Belluigi

School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work