Kate Alexander
Profile
Contact
- k.alexander.1@research.gla.ac.uk
PhD Topic
The experience of fathers in immigration detention in the UK
Supervisors
Biography
Kate joined the School of Law as a part time doctoral researcher in 2016.
She is the director of Scottish Detainee Visitors, a small voluntary sector organisation that supports people detained in Dungavel IRC and influences policy on detention.
She was previously a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, working on an NSPCC-funded study examining the experiences of children in organised sport. As a Principal Research Officer at Greater London Authority, she conducted research on homelessness and special housing needs.
Research Interests
I work with people affected by indefinite immigration detention. In the course of my work I have met many fathers separated from their children by detention and have witnessed the distress it can cause. Their experience has not been the primary focus of any research to date and my research aims to address that gap.
My PhD will explore the impact of immigration detention on fathers. It will examine the extent to which men’s status as fathers is considered in decisions to detain; how men’s understandings of the concepts of ‘fatherhood’ and ‘fathering’ are affected by their detention; how fathers maintain and/or adapt their relationships during their detention, and how they seek to rebuild their relationships after release and/or removal.