Dr Margarita Aragon

Overview

Biography

Margarita is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Psychosocial Studies. She completed her PhD in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2013. Before undertaking doctoral study, she worked in community-based racial justice organizations in the U.S. for a number of years, and has also worked in youth work organizations in the U.K.

Her research interests lie in the sociological theorising of racism and its imbrications with gender and disability. Her work examines the scientific and popular discourses through which racial knowledge has been produced and circulated, as well as the legal and extra-legal violence through which racialized boundaries have been enforced.

She has previously taught at Goldsmiths, as well as the University of East London.

Office hours

Please contact me for an appointment.

Qualifications

• PhD in Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2013

Professional activities

Editorial Board Member, Immigrants and Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora

Peer reviewer, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Peer Reviewer, Ethnic and Racial Studies

Research

Research interests

• Racism and 'race'
• Gender and masculinities
• Disability
• Criminal justice and histories of incarceration
• Histories of racist violence and resistance

Research overview

Focusing primarily on the 19th and 20th centuries,  Margarita's research investigates how colonialism and transatlantic slavery have shaped the multi-ethnic, multiply racialized landscapes of the Americas and the UK. Her current project seeks to understand the historical relationship of disability and racism, particularly in the context of the incarceration of people deemed to be intellectually disabled in the early 20th century. Though historic in perspective, her research seeks to contribute to ongoing public debates around issues of inequality and criminal and social justice.

Research Centres and Institutes

• Department Representative, Birkbeck Institute for Gender and Sexuality Studies

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in any of my research areas: historical or contemporary construction of intersectional inequalities, including racism, gender and disability; criminal justice and practices of incarceration; histories of violence and resistance.

Teaching

Teaching modules

• Theories and Sites of the Psychosocial (PSSL040S7)
• Independent Research Module (SSPA085D7)
• Sociology for New Worlds (SSPA152S7)

Publications