Rachel Sharples

Dr Rachel Sharples (BA Comms (CSU); PhD (RMIT) is the senior researcher in the Challenging Racism Project (CRP) and affiliated with the Diversity and Human Rights Research Centre in the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University. Rachel’s research interests are interdisciplinary, spanning anthropology, sociology, ethnic and racial studies, communications, cultural studies and politics. Key areas of research involve displaced persons, refugees and migrants in local and global settings, the construction and projection of ethnicity, culture and identity, and statelessness, citizenship and belonging. With a focus on the projection of identity, she also explore forms of narrative, cultural and artistic expression and oral story telling. Rachel plays a key research role in the development and dissemination of research material relating to a number of CRP projects, including racism and anti-racism, bystander anti-racism, Islamophobia, and racism in digital platforms such as social media and the sharing economy services. Rachel's book 'Spaces of Solidarity' was recently published by Berghahn Books.