I have experience in investigating public participation and the institutional spaces of the engagement of marginalised social groups in public societal practices. I am particularly interested in intersectionality, identity and inclusive public spaces in both their physical and digital forms. I am passionate about promoting a fair and equitable public realm and a people-focused space design. In 2021-22, I led a participatory research project commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation and funded by Glasgow City Council that investigates refugee and asylum seeker communities’ engagement in civic forums with focus on the relationship between social inclusion and mental health and wellbeing. The project website is https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/programmes/refugees/voices-and-visibility

Additionally, I was awarded a grant via the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network Scotland Hub (hereafter BA ECRN Scotland) Seed Fund competition. The project was titled Health and Place: Developing a Co-Created Research Design for Inclusive and Sustainable Blue/Green Spaces and worked in collaboration with the University of West Scotland. More details on the project are available on https://healthandplace8.wordpress.com/. I also engaged as a Co-I in PRIME research funded by the UKRI that investigates protecting minority ethnic communities from online harms led by Heriot-Watt University. The project website is https://www.primecommunities.online/.

Other research interests:

. Identity and inclusion in public spaces in both their physical and digital forms and the impact of this on mental health and wellbeing.

. Refugee and asylum seeker communities, and black and minority ethnic communities’ engagement in civic forums and societal practices with focus on the relation between social inclusion and mental health and wellbeing.

· Immigration laws and social justice in Scotland to promote health and wellbeing, with focus on vulnerable, and protected groups.

· Planning governance and institutional development, with focus on urban development decision-making process in terms of who and how these decisions are made within a specific political, economic, and social context.

· International development policies and their impact on the processes of urban development in the countries of the Global South, with focus on community empowerment.

· Informal networks of urban development and community structures in rapidly urbanised contexts in the Global South.