We are delighted to announce that Thalia Assan, has successfully passed her PhD viva with minor corrections. In her thesis, entitled: ‘The Politics of Friendship in the Lives of Black Girls and Girls of Colour in Scotland’ Thalia examines the politics of friendship in the lives of Black girls and girls of colour in Scotland. Her work explored the ways that friendship is affected by, contends with, and challenges structural inequalities and power relations. Thalia engaged young people using an ethnographic approach, drawing on participant observation, creative methods (such as mapping and writing) and in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Thalia has already begun the important work of writing and publishing her findings. This includes a recent publication in a special issue of Children and Society on Conceptualising and Researching Child and Youth Activism titled ‘Once you bond… you want to create social change’: Interpersonal relationships in youth activism.

Thalia has also set up an Instagram account where she shares her findings in an accessible manner: https://www.instagram.com/gfsc_research/

Thalia’s external examiner was Dr Katherine Davies, her internal was CRFR co-director Dr Shruti Chaudhry. Her supervisors were Professor Mary Holmes and Dr Niamh Moore.

Congratulations, Dr Thalia Assan!
We wish you all the best in your future research.