Becky Clarke

Pic of Becky 2021

Becky Clarke

Senior Lecturer

My profile

Biography

I joined the Sociology department at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2014 as a Senior Lecturer. I teach across the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, focussing on issues of punishment, justice, gender and harm. Through my teaching, research and wider work I am seeking to collectively examine and challenge inequalities and injustice. My current research interests include the gendered and racialised experiences of penal and welfare policies, processes of ‘othering’ and criminalisation, and the construction of knowledge (and ignorance).

Prior to arriving at Manchester Met, I spent much of my career working as an applied researcher in the criminal justice system. Initially working as a Research Assistant in prisons, I then joined the local Greater Manchester Probation Service in 2001. Recruited to undertake an evaluation of the women’s programme delivered out of the Pankhurst Centre in Manchester I stayed within the Probation Service for over 12 years. In 2010 I took up the strategic role as Head of Research and Policy, leading a research, policy and practice unit providing strategic support to the service, alongside externally commissioned research and evaluation. 

Since joining MMU I continue to work with this applied and interventionist focus, collaborating with individuals, families, communities, campaigners and delivery organisations (most recently JENGbA, Women in Prison, Clean Break and the Care Leavers Association), as well as Members of Parliament, policy makers, and NGOs. This collective approach to critical social research has led to important legal, policy and practice interventions in the criminal justice system.

This commitment to working with others to surface and challenge inequalities and injustice is what drives both my teaching and research. Connecting these aspects of my work - bringing real life policy problems into the classroom and taking students out into the applied context to feel the tensions for themselves - is at the heart of my pedagogical approach.

Academic and professional qualifications

2014 - 2017 Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Manchester Metropolitan University)

2000 - 2001 MSc Forensic Psychology (Manchester Metropolitan University)

1997 – 2000 BA (Hons) Psychology (University of Manchester)

Get in touch

0161 247 3461
401 Geoffrey Manton Building

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

I teach across the Criminology and Sociology Programme. I am currently co-unit leader for the following units

- Level 5 Criminology and Crim-Soc Core Unit ‘Crime, Deviance and Control’

- Level 6 Optional Unit (full programme) ‘Delivering Justice for Women’ 

I am also involved in supporting delivery of other units and teaching initiatives including:

- Level 4 ‘Punishment and (in)Justice’ 

- ‘Crim Gogglebox’ - a TV and film club with facilitated discussion, enabling students to explore key tensions in delivering justice and issues of injustice through character and stories.

Clarke, B. (2021) From lockdown film club to ‘Crim Gogglebox’: Can watching ‘cool crime shows’ foster learning and a sense of student community? In Annual Creative HE Collection 2021

- ‘Classroom in the Community’ - delivering sessions to our undergraduate students in local community settings, creating closer connections to the issues they are exploring and opportunities to spend time in projects and organisations they may wish to work in the future.

I also supervise Undergraduate and Postgraduate dissertation projects.

Supervision

Current Supervisions

Craig Fletcher (Kathryn Chadwick DoS): The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002: The Impact on
Desistence and the Legitimacy of Punishment. Completed 2021.

Research outputs

My research interests are broad, but framed by a number of distinct yet connected
debates listed below.

- The gendered experience of penal and welfare policies.

Critically evaluating narratives of criminalised women and working collaboratively to reveal the voices of women in contact with the CJS. The significance of institutional intervention in women’s lives, as a result of  penal and welfare policies.

Key recent publication: Stories-of-Injustice-women-and-JE.pdf (barrowcadbury.org.uk)

- Processes of ‘othering’ and criminalisationHow these processes apply to particular (often vulnerable or marginalised) groups and communities  interactions of gender, race, class, age. The mechanisms for this process and how relates to criminalisation and punishment.

Key recent publication: (Re)producing Guilt in Suspect Communities: The Centrality of Racialisation in Joint Enterprise Prosecutions | International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy (crimejusticejournal.com)

- How knowledge (and ignorance) is constructed and used

The relationship between knowledge, politics and structures of power. If and how ‘we’ can engage in critical social research. The significance of positionality and the potential for research situated in academic institutions in contributing to and linking sites of struggle.

Key recent publication: Becky Clarke, Kathryn Chadwick and Patrick Williams “Critical Social Research as a ‘Site of Resistance’: Reflections on Relationships, Power and Positionality” | EG Press

Press and media

I have contributed to a range of media, including news online, in print, radio and television. Here are some examples:

Ban police gang lists - they are racist and unjust | Becky Clarke | The Guardian

A review of the controversial joint enterprise law is long overdue | Law | The Times

Woman’s Hour - Is Joint Enterprise being used unjustly? A career in virology. A true crime quest. My life in shoes - BBC Sounds

I have also co-commissioned and appeared in documentary film reflecting our ‘Dangerous Associations’ research:

Dangerous Associations - a documentary - HOME (homemcr.org)