Dr Maria Hudson
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Email
mhudson@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 873981
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Location
EBS.3.46, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
Spring Term 2024: Tuesday 10am-12pm and Thursday 12.50- 13.50 (by appointment)
Profile
Biography
I am currently Director of Equality Diversity and Inclusion and a member of the Senior Management Team at Essex Business School. I joined Essex Business School on 1st March 2016 following several years working independently as an employment and social policy researcher and analyst. Prior to this I spent nearly ten years working as a social researcher at the Policy Studies Institute, University of Westminster. My research background has generated extensive experience of managing research projects from design through to completion. Over the years, my research interests have remained largely connected to the study of inequalities in work, labour markets and wider society. I have undertaken a wide-range of research projects for numerous sponsors; for example, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Department for Work and Pensions, Acas, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Low Pay Commission. I have also taught at several universities in the UK, most recently in the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London and in the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science, University of Cambridge. Since joining Essex Business School my research activities have focused on the management of difference, contributing to understanding of the persistence of inequalities and inequities and how inequitable employment outcomes might be addressed. I have led two impact orientated Acas funded research projects. The first was on the management of mental health at work, drawing on the findings to co-organise a workshop for Essex based employers on the promotion of positive mental health. I followed this up by facilitating an action learning set for a small group of employers in Essex and Ipswich, with a focus on critical reflection, the sharing of better practice and the promotion of positive mental health. The second project explored the role of staff race networks in addressing inequalities. My current writing includes critical examination of the identity work undertaken by staff networks. I am also managing editor for a handbook on precarious work, forthcoming in 2024, which considers the situated context (macro, meso and micro) and the consequences for workers. Since October 2022 I have been a mentor for a Postdoctoral researcher from the University of Cyprus as part of the Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) postdoctoral programme. The YUFE project is entitled 'COVID 19, mental and physical health: an exploration of the gendered impact on career decisions and sustainability'. Research grants Funder - ESRC IAA Impact Fund (Awarded under the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account) • Sharing better practice in the management of mental health at work with employers in the county of Essex (£14,986, September 2017 – October 2018) Funder – University of Essex IAA Active Engagement Fund • A management of mental health at work employer workshop for public, private and voluntary sector organisations in the county of Essex. Principal Investigator. (£1,966, December 2016 - February 2017). Funder - ESRC, Research Seminars Competition: • Research seminar series on Ethnicity and Employment in the Private Sector. Principal Investigator. (£15,000, completed 2005). Funder – ESRC • The New Dynamics of Working: A Scoping Study (Consultancy to University of Southampton Work Futures Research Centre, £7350, completed 2013). Funder - JRF: • In-work Poverty, Ethnicity and Workplace Cultures. Co-led. (Sub-award £32,500, completed 2013) • Ethnicity and Poverty expert distillation paper: An exploration of the evidence base on the role of employer attitudes and behaviour leader. Principal Investigator. (£5000, completed 2011). • Cohesion in Bradford: disadvantage, solidarity and recession, Principal Investigator (£49,965, completed 2011); • Understanding Social Cohesion: Everyday Interactions in Diverse Communities, Principal Investigator (£79,783, completed 2007). Funder - ACAS: • The Role of Staff Race Networks in Addressing Inequalities, Principal Investigator. (£19,995, completed March 2022) • The Management of Mental Health at Work. Principal Investigator. (£13,045, completed November 2016) • Diversity: the experience of discrimination on multiple grounds. Principal Investigator (£10,000, completed 2011) • Qualitative Research on Unrepresented claimants’ and employers’ views of the Acas Individual Conciliation service in Race Discrimination claims. Principal Investigator (£41,973, completed 2007). Funder – National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs. • The evaluation of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills funded Student-led Enterprise Strategic Growth project. Principal Investigator. (£16,830, completed 2015) City Bridge Trust • London’s Educational and Employment Trends. Principal Investigator. (Consultancy £5,600, completed 2012) Funder – HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC framework projects led) • Migrant Workers’ Understanding of Tax Credits. Principal Investigator. (£82,665. Completed 2010) Funder Department for Work and Pensions (DWP framework projects led): • Evaluation of Provider-led Pathways Outcome Based Contracting. Principal Investigator. (£96,931, completed 2010) • People with Mental health conditions and Pathways to Work. Principal Investigator. (£134,000, completed 2009). Funder – Trades Union Congress • Casualisation and Poverty. Principal Investigator (completed 2015) • Organising Representing and Supporting Vulnerable Workers. Principal Investigator (completed 2006) Funder - European Commission (FP6 Programme) • Network on Ethnicity and Women Scientists. UK project leader. (completed 2007)
Appointments
University of Essex
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Departmental Ethics Officer, University of Essex, Essex Business School (2/1/2019 - 13/9/2021)
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Director of Equality Diversity and Inclusion, Essex Business School, University of Essex (19/6/2023 - present)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Equality and Diversity
* The management of mental health and well-being at work (including narratives of institutional disablism and individual responsibility) * Ethnicity, ‘race’ and employment; discourses of institutional racism; intersectionally sensitive approaches * Dynamics of informality, formality and power in workplace cultures * Inclusion and employment rights, responsive regulation and public policy
Precarious work and livelihoods
* Relationship to health and wellbeing and capability failure * Food poverty, employment insecurity and pathways to sustainable livelihoods * Low paid workers and barriers to/enablers of labour market progression
Organisational learning, social justice and moral economy
* Communities of practice and action learning * Partnerships with civil society and the mobilisation of change, community unionism. * Social divisions, work(place) inclusion, exclusion and discourses of social cohesion
Qualitative research methodologies
* Action research; co-production * ‘Layered’ case studies * Biographic narrative interpretative methods, lived experiences, life course *Ethnography * Grounded theory
Current research
Sharing Better Practice in the Management of Mental Health at Work with Employers in the County of Essex (funded by ESRC/University of Essex Impact Acceleration Account Impact Fund)
The Management of Mental Health at Work (funded by Acas)
Food Poverty, Job Insecurity and Working Conditions (funded by TUC)
In-work poverty, Ethnicity and Workplace cultures (funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
Conferences and presentations
Stories of empowerment, resistance and identity work – relational reflexive accounts of academic engagements with policymakers and practitioners
Invited presentation, Work Employment and Society Conference 2023, Work Employment and Society Conference, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 14/9/2023
The identity work of Staff Race Network members: collective story-telling, resistance, and the relational building of organisational capability for change?
Invited presentation, Work Employment and Society Conference 2023, Glasgow University, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 13/9/2023
Intersectionality in the study of work and industrial relations: Unpacking intersectionality in order to understand a low paid worker’s story
Invited presentation, British Universities Industrial Relations Association Conference 2023, Equality and Diversity in Work and Employment BUIRA Study Group workshop, Bristol, United Kingdom, 6/7/2023
Addressing Inequalities: How effective is staff race network activism?
Work, Employment and Society Conference 2021, Virtual/online event, 25/8/2021
The potential for Employer (Critical) Action Learning to support the wellbeing of HR managers
CIPD Essex and Ipswich Branch Annual Event, Virtual/online event, 17/11/2020
Mental Health at Work and HRM: Engaging with stigma and the production and reproduction of social inequality
British Academy of Management 2019, British Academy of Management, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 5/9/2019
Reflections on the potential of Employer (Critical) Action Learning in fostering organisational progress on equality and inclusion
Invited presentation, Keynote presentation, EDAMBA 2019, EDAMBA 2019, Oxford, United Kingdom, 3/9/2019
Hudson M (2018) Understanding ethnic minority and migrant worker disadvantage in UK public sector employment in semi-rural areas: implications for fulfilling the potential of the socio-economic duty in Scotland. Presention to Centre for Migration Studies, University of Essex, 29th January.
Invited presentation, Centre for Migration Studies, Internal Seminar, Colchester, United Kingdom, 29/1/2018
Hudson, M (2017) 'Promoting Positive Mental Health'.Presentation to CIPD Essex and Ipswich BranchAnnual Event, Essex Business School,16th May.
Colchester, United Kingdom, 2017
Hudson, M. (2017) 'Ethnicity and Low Wage Traps: Favouritism, Homosocial Reproduction and Economic Marginalization'. Presentation to Working Life research seminar series, Royal Holloway University of London, 3rd May.
Egham, United Kingdom, 2017
Hudson, M (2017) Improving the management of mental health at work: challenges, organisational responses and recommendations from an Acas research report. Presentation to Promoting Positive Mental Health at Work: a workshop for Essex based employers in the public, private and voluntary sectors. University of Essex (Colchester Campus), 23rd February. An event funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Active Engagement Fund.
Colchester, United Kingdom, 2017
Hudson, M. (2016) 'The Management of Mental Health at Work'. Presentation to Acas breakfast briefing/ launch eventon 'Managing Mental Health at Work', British Academy, Westminster, London, 16th November.
London, United Kingdom, 2016
Hudson, M. (2016) 'Precarity, health and wellbeing: insights from foodbank service users'. Presentation to Work Employment and Society Conference on 'Work in Crisis'. Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, 7th September.
Leeds, United Kingdom, 2016
Hudson, M. (2016) 'Precarity, health and wellbeing: insights from foodbank service users'. Presentation to Fair Work Research Centre Conference on 'Precarious Work: Causes, Consequences and Countermeasures'. Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, 21st April.
Manchester, United Kingdom, 2016
Hudson, M. (2014) 'In-work poverty, ethnicity and workplace cultures'. Presentation to Into Work Convention 2014. Arena Convention Centre, Liverpool, 8th July.
Liverpool, United Kingdom, 2014
Hudson, M. (2014) 'Ethnicity and Low Wage Traps: the importance of informal processes'. British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2014: Changing Society 'Race' and Ethnicity sub-stream. University of Leeds, 23rd-25th April.
Leeds, United Kingdom, 2014
Hudson, M. (2013) 'In-work poverty, ethnicity and workplace cultures'. Presentation to Business in the Community Race for Opportunity Champions meeting. Santanda, Regents Place, London, 10th December.
London, United Kingdom, 2013
Hudson, M. (2013) 'In-work poverty, ethnicity and workplace cultures'. Presentation to Ethnic Minority Stakeholder Group meeting. Department for Work and Pensions, Caxton House, London, 28th November.
London, United Kingdom, 2013
Hudson, M. (2012) 'The experience of discrimination on multiple grounds'. National Institute for Economic and Social Research Seminar Series, London, 20th November.
London, United Kingdom, 2012
Hudson, M. (2011) Workshop presentation on The role of employer attitudes and behaviour. Joseph Rowntree Foundation conference - Poverty and Ethnicity: Exploring the Connections. Cavendish Conference Centre, London, 18th May.
London, United Kingdom, 2011
Hudson, M. (2010) Outcome based contracting on Provider-led Pathways to Work: the Evidence. A presentation to the UK Drugs Policy Commission Payment by Results Seminar, September.
2010
Hudson, M. (2009) Workshop presentation on Tackling Racism and Building Cohesive Communities. Voice4Change England Conference on Race and the Recession. RichMix. London, 27thOctober.
London, United Kingdom, 2009
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (BE480)
Current supervision
Publications
Journal articles (6)
Netto, G., Noon, M., Hudson, M., Kamenou-Aigbekaen, N. and Sosenko, F., (2020). Intersectionality, identity work and migrant progression from low-paid work: a critical realist approach. Gender, Work and Organization. To be assigned (6), 1020-1039
Netto, G., Hudson, M., Kamenou-Aigbekaen, N. and Sosenko, F., (2019). Dominant Language Acquisition in destination countries: Structure, Agency and Reflexivity. Sociology. 53 (5), 843-860
Hudson, M., Netto, G., Noon, M., Sosenko, F., de Lima, P. and Kamenou-Aigbekaen, N., (2017). Ethnicity and low wage traps: favouritism, homosocial reproduction and economic marginalization. Work, Employment and Society. 31 (6), 992-1009
Netto, G., Hudson, M., Noon, M., Sosenko, F., de Lima, P. and Kamenou-Aigbekaen, N., (2015). Migration, Ethnicity and Progression from Low-Paid Work: Implications for Skills Policy. Social Policy and Society. 14 (4), 509-522
Brown, W., Deakin, S., Hudson, M. and Pratten, C., (2001). The Limits of Statutory Trade Union Recognition. Industrial Relations Journal. 32 (3), 180-194
Evans, S. and Hudson, M., (1994). From collective bargaining to ‘personal’ contracts: case studies in port transport and electricity supply. Industrial Relations Journal. 25 (4), 305-314
Book chapters (5)
Ray, K., Hudson, MH. and Phillips, J., Belonging and entitlement: Shifting discourses of difference in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods in the UK. In: Majority cultures and the everyday politics of ethnic difference: Whose house is this?. Editors: Petersson, B. and Tyler, K., . Palgrave Macmillan. 114- 21
Hudson, MH., Phillips, J. and Ray, K., (2009). Rubbing along with the neighbours’: Everyday Multiculturalism in a Diverse Neighbourhood in the North of England. In: Everyday Multiculturalism. Editors: Wise, A. and Velayutham, S., . Palgrave MacMillan. 199- 215
Hudson, MH., (2002). Disappearing Pathways and the Struggle for a Fair Days Pay. In: Job Insecurity and Work Intensification. Editors: Burchell, B., Ladip, D. and Wilkinson, F., . Routledge. 77- 91. 9780203996881
Hudson, MH., (2002). Flexibility and the Reorganisation of Work. In: Job Insecurity and Work Intensification. Editors: Burchell, B., Ladipo, D. and Wilkinson, F., . Taylor & Francis Group. 39- 60. 9780203996881
Hudson, MH., (2000). Flexible Workers and the Changing Boundaries of Work: Theory and the Practice. In: Changing Boundaries in Employment. Editors: Purcell, K., . Bristol Academic Press. 76- 103. 0951376276
Reports and Papers (26)
Hudson, M., Aryal, S. and Hammer, A., (2022). Addressing Inequalities: The Role of Staff Race Networks, ACAS Research Partnership Project Report
Hudson, M., (2016). The Management of Mental Health at Work.
Hudson, M., (2014). Casualisation and low pay: a report for the TUC
Halford, S., Hudson, MH., Leonard, P., Parry, J. and Taylor, R., (2014). The New Dynamics of Work: a scoping study
Hudson, M., Netto, G., Sosenko, F., Noon, M., de Lima, P., Gilchrist, A. and Kamenou, N., (2013). In-work Poverty, Ethnicity and Workplace Cultures
Hudson, MH., (2011). Diversity: The experience of discrimination on multiple grounds
Hudson, MH., Davidson, R., Durante, L., Grieve, J. and Kazmi, A., (2011). Recession and Cohesion in Bradford
Smeaton, D., Hudson, MH., Deranyigala, S., Francavilla, F., Ng, M., Phillips, J. and Salis, S., (2011). Impact of BIG Funding of Community Enterprise Overseas
Hudson, MH., Radu, D. and Phillips, J., (2011). European Migrant Workers’ Understanding and Experiences of Tax Credits
Hudson, M. and Radu, D., (2011). Ethnicity and Poverty Programme Paper: The Role of Employer Attitudes and Behaviour
Radu, D., Hudson, MH. and Phillips, J., (2010). Migrant Workers’ Interactions with Welfare Benefits: A Review of Recent Evidence and its Relevance for the Tax Credits System
Smeaton, D., Hudson, MH., Radu, D. and Vowden, K., (2010). The EHRC Triennial Review: Developing the Employment Evidence Base
Hudson, MH., Phillips, J., Ray, K., Vegeris, S. and Davidson, R., (2010). The Influence of outcome based contracting on Provider-Led Pathways to Work
Hudson, MH., Ray, K., Vegeris, S. and Brooks, S., (2009). People with Mental Health Conditions and Pathways to Work
Hudson, MH., Barnes, H., Brooks, S. and Taylor, R., (2007). Race discrimination claims: unrepresented claimants' and employers' views on Acas' conciliation in employment tribunal cases
Hudson, MH., Phillips, J., Ray, K. and Barnes, H., (2007). Social Cohesion in Diverse Communities.
Hudson, MH., (2006). The Hidden One-in-Five: Winning a Fair Deal for Britain’s Vulnerable Workers
Hudson, MH., Barnes, H., Ray, K. and Phillips, J., (2006). Ethnic Minority Perceptions and Experiences of Jobcentre Plus.
Barnes, H. and Hudson, MH., (2006). Pathways to Work – Qualitative Research on the Condition Management Programme.
Barnes, H. and Hudson, MH., (2006). Pathways to Work - extension to some existing customers. Early findings from qualitative research
Barnes, H., Hudson, MH., Parry, J., Sahin-Dikmen, M., Taylor, R. and Wilkinson, D., (2005). Ethnic Minority Outreach: An Evaluation
Parry, J., Vegeris, S., Hudson, MH., Barnes, H. and Taylor, R., (2004). Independent Living in Later Life: Qualitative research
Hudson, M., Lissenburgh, S. and Sahin-Dikmen, M., (2004). Maternity and Paternity Rights in Britain 2002: Survey of Parents
Barnes, H., Hudson, M., Parry, J., Taylor, R. and Sahin-Dikmen, M., (2003). Making Second Chances Work: Final report from the qualitative evaluation of adult basic skills and pathfinder extension activities
Burchell, B., Day, D., Hudson, MH., Ladipo, D., Mankelow, R., Nolan, J., Reed, H., Wichert, I. and Wilkinson, F., (1999). Job Insecurity and Work Intensification: Flexibility and the Changing Boundaries of Work
Brown, W., Deakin, S., Hudson, M. and Pratten, C., (1999). The Individualisation of Employment Contracts in Britain.
Grants and funding
2021
Addressing Inequalities: The Role of Staff Race Networks
Acas - the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service
Addressing Inequalities: The Role of Staff Race Networks
University of Essex (ESRC IAA)
2017
Sharing better practice in the management of Mental Health at work with employers in the county of Essex
University of Essex
2016
Managing mental health at work
Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service
Contact
Academic support hours:
Spring Term 2024: Tuesday 10am-12pm and Thursday 12.50- 13.50 (by appointment)
