Joanne Butcher
Before coming to Hull, Joanne completed her MA in Political Communication at Goldsmiths, University of London, and her BA in Politics at the University of Sheffield. Her previous research has focussed on how political discourse is constructed and reinforced through the press and popular media. This led Joanne to a host of different subject areas like the beauty industry’s influence over female identity in Venezuela, the role of the British press in reinforcing gender and the third sector’s preoccupation with the image of the ‘crying child’. Joanne's passion lies in uncovering the modes in which media can fortify ways of thinking as well as exploring and promoting alternative approaches to see the world.
Wemmy Ogunyankin
Doctoral Student, Incarceration PhD Cluster
'Photographing the Incarcerated Flood Victim'
Wemmy Ogunyankin achieved her Master’s in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester in 2017 and has spent the years since working as a creative ethnographer with a special interest in womanhood, identity, Blackness and social justice. Her MA gave her the opportunity to explore the inter-relation between texts, images, sound as well as the importance of fieldwork and collaborative research. She completed work on gentrification, mental health, gender and racial stereotypes, observational cinema and ethnomusicology. In 2015, she completed a BA in Journalism Studies which launched her passion for photo and broadcast journalism and led to her work in visual anthropology.
Wemmy currently works as a poet, freelance documentary filmmaker and photographer and recently won an Arts Council DYCP grant to complete a multi-media ethnographic project called How I See Myself and How Others See Me. She had a successful exhibition in Sheffield and is looking to continue the project on an international scale. Wemmy regularly holds writing and photography workshops with various collectives and minoritised/marginalised groups as part of her collaborative practice. As a researcher, she focuses on people who are often overlooked and under-considered and prioritises challenging the canon of people as subject matter. She uses her technical knowledge to explore the relationship between visual modes of representation and social justice and is keen to explore this further through her American Studies PhD.
Mary Rehman
Doctoral Student, Incarceration PhD Cluster
'‘Shut up’: Pandemic Lockdowns and Health Inequalities, 1600 to present day'
Mary Rehman is the holder of both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in History, which she obtained at the University of Hull. Her research has largely centred around early modern British history, and she has a particular interest in highlighting the attitudes and lived experiences of individuals and communities who are often neglected in historical literature and scholarship. Her most recent project, which formed the dissertation element of her MRes, was entitled ‘Men and Brothers: Idealistic Manhood and the Problem of British Slavery’, and explored how involvement in the institution of slavery and its abolition affected the masculine identities of eighteenth-century men of both British and African origin.
Mary has also worked in partnership with Historic England and Hull Culture and Leisure, for whom she contributed to the ongoing Hull Whitefriargate Heritage Action Zone project by researching, writing-up and presenting a number of stories relating to the people who lived and worked in Hull’s historic Whitefriargate and surrounding areas between 1730 and 1830.
Belinda Sherlock
Doctoral Student, Incarceration PhD Cluster
'Creative Practice & Incarceration: Writing Maternity Diaries'
Belinda Sherlock (she/her) is a creative practitioner, dramatherapist and PhD candidate based in London and Hull. She specialises in creative and therapeutic practice in forensic settings, and with other communities and individuals with experience of trauma and marginalisation.
Belinda has a BA in English Literature (Cambridge, 2008), an MA in Dramatherapy (Roehampton, 2014) and professional diplomas in Creative Supervision (London Centre for Psychodrama, 2021) and Embodied Psychotherapy (Institute for Embodied Psychotherapy, forthcoming in 2022). She has spent 8 years working in the NHS as a creative therapist and facilitator in forensic mental health, and in 2022 completed a film project – Creating Change - with NHS staff, sharing their experiences of the workplace through theatre, music and spoken word.
Belinda also runs Playful Wellbeing - providing therapy, supervision, consultation and workshops to teams and individuals – and is a member of London Playback Theatre Company, which enables audiences to bring their stories to life through spontaneous, improvised theatre.
Belinda is excited about her forthcoming research into creative practice with incarcerated women and mothers. Her previous research has explored use of creative autobiography in secure mental health settings (2014; 2018; 2021) and in response to political events in Zimbabwe (2008). Belinda has also provided editing and consultation support to a number of publications, including Sir Lenny Henry’s memoir Who Am I Again? (Faber & Faber 2019) and children’s novel The Boy With Wings (2021).
When not working, Belinda loves doing tai chi, walking long distances, clowning, cycling and cooking.
Laura Skinner
Doctoral Student, Incarceration PhD Cluster
'Modern Slavery in Literature: Searching for the Subaltern'
Laura Skinner is a doctoral candidate in the Cultures of Incarceration Centre. She completed both her BA and MA in English at the University of Hull and, over the course of her studies, developed a keen interest in postcolonial theory, the diversification of literature, and the moral imperative not only to acknowledge, but to amplify the voices of subjugated individuals. Laura’s research to date considers the frequent misrepresentation of the women of Afghanistan, in contemporary diasporic literature, as a homogeneous, victimised group and interrogates the similarly reductive portrayal of Afghan women in a range of life-writing published post-9/11.
During her time at the University of Hull, Laura served as President of the English Society, Assistant Editor of the university’s creative anthology The Hull Scribbler, as well as Course Representative and Subject Ambassador for the Department of English. Recently, Laura was appointed to the role of Graduate Ambassador and regularly represents the university at national higher education events. She is also currently working as a Research Assistant, within the Cultures of Incarceration Centre, on a cutting-edge initiative which seeks to advance the ongoing collaboration between the University of Hull and HMP Hull by providing educational content for the prison’s pioneering in-cell television service “Hull TV”.