Research and practice
Cutting-edge academic and policy research
The Human Rights Centre is internationally recognised for the breadth and depth of its research projects.
The projects hosted by the centre operate at the interface between the theory and practice of human rights, bringing together experts from different disciplines and making concrete differences at the international, national, and local level.
Our research addresses a comprehensive range of pressing and important human rights challenges, including the right to health; freedom of religion; armed conflict and humanitarian issues; business and human rights; transitional justice; digital verifications and big data; local human rights challenges; issues surrounding mental health and autonomy.
Explore our research hubs, networks, clusters, and projects
![Nelson Mandela with his future wife, Graça Machel, during their visit to Colchester Campus in 1997.]()
"This is a very famous university that has been involved in the fight for human rights around the world"
Interdisciplinary research clusters
These interdisciplinary research clusters enable academic research staff with shared research interests, but working across different departments and faculties, to come together to share and receive feedback on research, as well as to develop shared research activities.
The clusters aim to support:
- inter-disciplinary research collaborations, including funding proposals
- inter-disciplinary research exchange activities, e.g. workshops to receive/provide feedback on work
Learn more about our interdisciplinary research clusters
Research clusters provide new opportunities for a greater number of Human Rights Centre members to come together and benefit from engagements. The clusters will engage members from across the University. Currently, the Human Rights Centre has 128 members across 15 departments at the University of Essex.
Research themes
The clusters focus on selected themes which a significant number of our members have research interests in, but where we do not have existing extensive collaborative networks, such as the projects and units.
How will they be run?
Each cluster will be run by coordinating committees. This will be composed of academics with expertise in the cluster theme, as well as Human Rights Centre core team members. The coordinating committees will determine the activities of the clusters around their broad purposes. Each cluster will hold 1-2 open research exchange and activity/coordination meetings per term; engage in ongoing coordination around sharing information about other events and opportunities, and develop inter-disciplinary funding applications.
Establishing research
The clusters, including through funding applications, may lead to the establishment of new projects within the Human Rights Centre, focused on more specific research questions than the broad focus of each cluster, but the clusters would continue to operate if projects are established. The clusters can also provide opportunities to coordinate and share expertise in terms of teaching on the relevant theme.
Research projects
The Human Rights Centre is proud to be home to a variety of incredible research projects. Our inspiring and dedicated academics cover a breadth of human rights issues from investigating in situations of armed conflict, to the role of national human rights institutions.
Explore our current research projects and past research projects below, including those within our Human Rights Clinic.
Current research projects
Past research projects
Research publications
The research publications produced by our members significantly influence the theory and practice of human rights across the globe. New books and journal articles are being continuously produced within our interdisciplinary academic community. Below is a selection of some of the most recently published books by our members.
Highlighted recent publications
Dr Koldo Casla (Essex Law School), The Social Right to Property: Social Function and Human Rights (March 2026)
Anuj Kapilashrami (School of Health and Social Care), Neil Quinn and Abhijit Das, Advancing Health Rights and Tackling Inequalities: Interrogating Community Development and Participatory Praxis (May 2025)
Jorge Parra Norato, Professor Sabine Michalowski (Essex Law School) and Tatiana Piñeros Rodríguez, Principales implicados: La selección de los máximos responsables y partícipes no determinantes en la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, lecciones del Caso 03
Dr Sabina Garahan (Essex Law School), Detention and the Right to Liberty: Addressing Gaps in Protection at the European Court of Human Rights
Professor Carla Ferstman (Essex Law School), Conceptualising Arbitrary Detention: Power, Punishment and Control
Professor Lorna McGregor (Essex Law School), Detention and its Alternatives Under International Law
Dr Matthew Gillett (Essex Law School), Prosecuting Environmental Harm before the International Criminal Court
Professor Colin Samson (Department of Sociology and Criminology), The Colonialism of Human Rights: Ongoing Hypocrisies of Western Liberalism
Professor Peter Beresford (School of Health and Social Care) Participatory Ideology: From exclusion to involvement, (Bristol, Policy Press, 2021)
Professor Renos Papadopoulos (Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies), Involuntary Dislocation: Home Trauma, Resilience and Adversely Activated Development (Routledge, 2021)
Nina Peršak and Dr Anna Di Ronco (Department of Sociology and Criminology) (eds.) Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility (Routledge, 2021)
Cristian Correa, Shuichi Furuya and Professor Clara Sandoval (Essex Law School), Reparation for Victims of Armed Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
