Overview
Dr Monica Thomas recently completed her ESRC funded PhD at Cardiff University. Her thesis focused on Black mothers’ narratives during and after imprisonment, as informed by a Black feminist criminological approach. More broadly, her research interests include black feminist thought, critical race theories, narrative methodologies, participatory methods as well as other critical and creative approaches to research.
During her PhD, Monica co-founded the Migration, Ethnicity, Race & Diversity research group (MEAD) at Cardiff University, which she co-convened from December 2019 to July 2021.
Publication
2023
- Thomas, M. 2023. “Just because I’ve gone to prison, my mum hat doesn’t switch off”: An analysis of Black mothers’ narratives of imprisonment and life after release. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
2020
- Thomas, M. 2020. Should schools be colorblind? [Book Review]. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 6(3), pp. 431. (10.1177/2332649220922156)
Erthyglau
- Thomas, M. 2020. Should schools be colorblind? [Book Review]. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 6(3), pp. 431. (10.1177/2332649220922156)
Gosodiad
- Thomas, M. 2023. “Just because I’ve gone to prison, my mum hat doesn’t switch off”: An analysis of Black mothers’ narratives of imprisonment and life after release. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
Research
Conferences
SOCSCI Doctoral Conference. 2019. Experiences of Mothering amongst Black Women in Prison [Research Poster]. 14 June 2019.
MEAD Launch. 2019. The Blame Game: The Construction and Portrayal of Black Victims in British Crime Reports [Research Poster]. 11 December 2019
MEAD Webinar. 2020. Unlocking Stories and Conducting Race Conscious Research [Presentation]. 8 April 2020
SOCSCI Doctoral Conference. 2020. Getting on to Get Out [Presentation]. 27 July 2020
SOCSCI Doctoral Conference. 2021. Restricted Mothering [Presentation]. 28 June 2021.
The Black Criminology Network. 2021. "Straight Away I Was Aware That I Was Black": Narratives From Black mothers In and After Prison [Presentation]. 28 November 2021.
Capabilities and Carers Conference. 2022. Narrative Methods: Centring Black Mothers' experiences of imprisonment [Panel]. 27 April 2022.
Thesis
Funding sources
Teaching
Monica has gained her Associate Fellowship (AFHEA) qualification to teach in higher education.
Her previous experience includes, but is not limited to, teaching on the following modules:
- Prisons and Prisoners
- Offending and Victimisation
- Qualitative Research Methods
- Foundations of Contemporary Criminology
- Developing Scholarship in the Social Sciences
- Crime, Violence and Harm
- The Criminological Imagination
- Advanced Criminological Theory
She also have experience marking undergraduate assesments, as well as supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations.
