Dr Akile Ahmet is the head of Inclusive Education at the LSE, Eden Centre for Educational Enhancement and the leads the LSEs Inclusive Education Action Plan.
Akile’s research background is in Human Geography and Sociology where she has developed innovative and underrepresented research projects on spaces of power and resistance in higher education, and social justice. She has worked on three key research projects in this field: ‘Progression and Diversity of Social Work Students across eight different UK Universities’ and ‘Race in the Academy’ and ‘Decolonisation: meaning and action’.
Akile has bridged her teaching and research so that knowledge garnered from research projects is always used to improve the teaching delivery, curriculum design and impact at the institutions in which she is working. This has resulted in having direct impact with policy makers in the United Kingdom. Akile has led two national research projects with external stakeholders. In 2008 after completing her PhD, Akile worked on a Department of Health funded project titled ‘Progression and Diversity of Social Work Students in England (DH, 2011)’. The project explored the experiences of social work students marginalised background. The project’s wider pedagogical impact was on teaching, learning, and practice through providing evidence-based approaches which advocate for diversifying the curriculum teaching and delivery.
In 2016, Akile was appointed the lead researcher at LSE on a project entitled ‘Race in the Academy’. The research focused on the experiences of race and racism of both postgraduate students and staff of colour studying and working Russell group institutions.
Alongside her work on higher education and race, Akile has worked on health and social care policy focussed projects with the Runnymede Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the findings from this research are currently available here. This research led to successfully securing funding from the ESRC for their prestigious seminar series in 2012-2014 entitled Ageing, Race and Ethnicity.
Selected Publications:
Recent peer reviewed publications:
Ahmet, A. (2021) ‘Stop the pain: black and minority ethnic scholars on diversity policy obfuscation in universities’ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal
Ahmet, A. (2020) ´Who is worthy of these walls? Postgraduate students, UK universities, and institutional racism’ AREA
Recent Blog posts
Ahmet, A. (2020) ‘What exactly are inclusive pedagogies’ LSE Higher Education Blog
Ahmet, A. (2020) ‘Moving beyond the talk: Universities must become anti-racist’ LSE Impact Blog
Reports
Khan, O., Ahmet, A. and Victor, C.V. (2015) Poverty and Ethnicity: Caring and Earning, Report to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/caring-and-earning-among-low-incomecaribbean-pakistani-and-somali-people
Bernard, C., Fairtlough, A., Fletcher, J. and Ahmet, A. (2011) ‘Progression and Diversity amongst social work students’ A report for the Department of Health.
Book chapters
Ahmet, A. and Victor, C.V. (2015) ‘Understanding definitions of care and caring amongst ethnic minority older people: the role of ethnicity, culture and religion’ ed (Titus Helim) Is God Back, Routledge, London
Ahmet, A. (2006) ‘Young men of mixed descent at home’ in Blunt, A. and Dowling, R. Home . Routledge, London
Ahmet, A. (2003) ‘Gender and bodily performance in the space of the department store: conducting ethnographic research’ in Blunt, A. et al (eds) Cultural Geography in Practice. Arnold, London.