Rachel Seoighe

Dr Rachel Seoighe’s work is concerned with state violence and resistance. Working from a decolonial, feminist perspective, her research examines power, agency and memory across two distinct contexts: the legacies of civil war in Sri Lanka and the closure of London’s Holloway Prison.

Dr Seoighe’s research is informed by and actively contributes to activism and civil society resistance. She works closely with Tamil human rights organisations and her research on Sri Lankan state denial, atrocity and conflict memory contributes to accountability efforts and the struggle for justice. The politics of abolition and decarceral feminism animate her work on women’s imprisonment. She is currently collaborating with Dr Carly Guest, Islington Museum and other partners on a project about the closure of Holloway Prison. The project explores the memory and meaning of Holloway as a lived space, contributing to the emerging field of ‘carceral geographies’, which explores the spatialities of punishment and the emotional impact of confinement.

Dr Seoighe also writes, teaches and thinks about border criminologies, ‘race’ and racialisation, and social and transformative justice.