The Centre for Sexuality, Race and Gender Justice (SeRGJ) advances critical and interdisciplinary research that is theoretically informed and policy relevant. We are based in Kent Law School and membership is made up of interested academics and doctoral students based at the University of Kent.
At the intellectual heart of SeRGJ is the project of exploring the complex relationships between sexuality, race and gender with law and governance. Members of SeRGJ study these relationships in multiple ways in their individual research and collaborative research projects. The Centre, previously called the Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality, has been at the core of research and teaching related activities at the Law School since 2004 when it was funded by the AHRB until 2009. It established a programme of working on social justice issues relating to gender and sexuality foregrounding an intersectional approach. In recent years the Centre has hosted and worked with a range of international scholars working on and across areas of law and gender and law and sexuality as well as race and religion. These visitors have engaged with the scholarly life of KLS, worked from the Centre’s visitor office, presented their current research to colleagues and PGR students. In 2017-2018 we undertook a range of activities which continued our tradition of engaging with contemporary scholarship and supporting early career scholars. These include project exploring the disproportionate impact of austerity on BME women in the UK; equal access to (higher) education; abortion and surrogacy rights; child abuse and sexual violence; and the legal recognition of gender. SeRGJ is also home to the #DecoloniseUKC project.