Dr Aviah Day

Overview

Biography

My research is informed by my work and activism of domestic violence meaning that my work integrates theory and practice with the express goal of furthering social justice. This maps across my academic, teaching and activist commitments.

Before academic life I held a number of front-line domestic violence service roles, including working as an Independent Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocate, Refuge Worker and National Domestic Violence Helpline Worker. I am also a member of Sisters Uncut – a national direct-action collective fighting cuts to domestic violence services and state violence, as well as the London Renters Union – a members led tenants union.

Research

Research overview

My research takes the innovative approach of applying intersectionality to domestic violence policy, in particular examining how survivors from a range of backgrounds experience partnerships between domestic violence services and the criminal justice system. The intersections of ‘race’, disability, migration status, class and gender are analysed, revealing that some survivors are made more vulnerable to criminalisation and immigration enforcement through such partnerships. Undertaking a critical analysis of ‘carceral feminism’ my work proposes prison abolition and community-based, decolonial alternatives to the criminal justice system such as transformative justice and community accountability.

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

2

Current doctoral researchers

• DOROTA JENKINS

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Aug 2020 onwards

  Title of thesis:

  Barriers to reporting domestic violence and the community's (un)willingness to cooperate with the police within the Polish community in London

• SHANNON SAHNI

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2021 onwards

  Title of thesis:

  Exploring Womens Victimisation and Agency in Drug Dependency Through a Spatial Lens

  Description:

  This thesis challenges existing understandings of women who use drugs as either helpless victims or as empowered agents. Drawing on feminist scholarship, frameworks of intersectionality and spatiality, and the voices of women who use or have used drugs themselves, this project explores experiences of both agency and victimisation in the context of drug dependency.

Publications