Events

Past Events

-CSEL has partnered with A & M Consultancy, Helen Bamber Foundation, Afghan and Central Asian Association, Trilateral Research to increase understanding of the impact of digital technology on the asylum process with a particular focus on highlighting the voice of those with lived-experience of seeking asylum.  To promote awareness within the sector and co-produce a focus for subsequent actions a roundtable event was held at Senate House, London on 14th February, 2025.

-Prof. Jill Marshal is presenting at upcoming conference ‘Remembering the past to reimagine the future’.  The conference theme is Activism, Change, and Feminist Futures: Remembering the Past to Reimagine the Future.

In keeping with CSEL’s mission to interrogate the traditional claim that good law requires detachment, impartiality and objectivity, and that emotions should not be involved in the creation, interpretation, practice and its enforcement, we have joined with: The LEX Network, Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network (VAWGRN), Feminist Legal Research and Action Network (FRAN), in hosting an annual feminist conference on 7-8 November 2024 at the School of Law and Social Justice, at the University of Liverpool.

The international feminist movement has undoubtedly made significant advances over the past few decades and improved the lives and rights of (some) women. We cannot, however, claim that we live in a post-feminist world when women’s rights and lives are under threat globally. The evidence speaks for itself. Violence against women is at epidemic proportions and people are subjected to gender-based violence based on who they love. The conference invites us to ‘think’ how we can continue to challenge injustices and reflect upon the suffering of the past in order to reimagine an inclusive feminist future, connecting to the themes of law and emotions at CSEL.

-As part of the ImpleMendez project Amina travelled to Liverpool to join a two day conference in September, 2024.  ImpleMendez is a multinational working group aiming to enable wider implementation of the ‘Mendez principles’ of effective interviewing to end practices which have led to unethical interrogations.  ImpleMendez – COST Action CA22128

-Zoe Given-Wilson participated in a roundtable on Trauma narratives, migration coordinated by Dr Birgul Yilmaz, Univeristy of Exeter and held in Athens, Greece in September 2024.  Zoe spoke about CSEL’s research into cross-cultural communication and use of intrepreters in asylum interviews.

-On Friday 6th October 2023, CSEL together with the Helen Bamber Foundation, were pleased to host an event titled Fair and Fast: Maximising the benefits and safeguarding against the risks of AI in asylum decision-making. As pressure builds to address ‘backlogs’ of asylum claims and process claims with increasing speed, artificial intelligence (AI) based solutions are being adopted in the business of seeking asylum. They may speed up elements of the decision-making process but there may be other implications for the process or outcome of decisions.   This event is held with those working in the areas of AI and asylum to consider the implications of these technologies on the fairness and robustness of decisions making, clinical and legal support.

-On Wednesday 19th October 2022, CSEL together with the Gender Institute, was pleased to host Professor Miranda Horvath to speak on Operation Bluestone – Transforming Police Investigations of Rape and Other Sexual Offences. Operation Soteria Bluestone combines academic learning with professional practice, bringing together leading academics from across the UK to work alongside police officers. The research informed pillars pinpoint specific areas for improvement which will form part of the new national operating model for investigating rape and other sexual offences: 1) suspect-focused investigations; 2) disrupting repeat suspects; 3) victim engagement as procedural justice; 4) promoting better learning, development and wellbeing for police officers; 5) using data more effectively in RASSO investigations and 6) Digital forensics (Hohl & Stanko, 2022). In this talk Professor Horvath , Pillar 1 lead, will outline the underpinning evidence base for suspect focussed investigations as well as providing insights into how we have conducted deep-dives in 5 constabularies to establish where they are with how they investigate rape.

-On Thursday 5th May 2022, CSEL was thrilled to premiere a new short film aimed at helping asylum seekers and refugees navigate the UK system. This video was made in collaboration with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Life Seekers Aid. The project was funded by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Public Engagement and Unbound Philanthropy. Involved in production were Yulia Hauer Visuals  Home (yuliahauer.com) and Pen Mendonca Graphic Facilitator  Pen Mendonca | Graphic Facilitator, Cartoonist, Artist. The video can be viewed here, please share it widely!

CSEL Annual Lecture – Professor Gísli Gudjónsson CBE

On Tuesday 8th February 2022, CSEL were delighted to host Professor Gísli Gudjónsson CBE who delivered our 2022 Annual Lecture. The lecture was titled “The battle for justice in cases of false confession: an international perspective”; you can access a recording of the talk here.

 

 

 

 

CSEL Seminar: Refugee status decision making

On Tuesday 22^nd June, CSEL’s Professor Amina Memon and Dr Zoe Given-Wilson organised a seminar on the challenges in refugee status decision making. This included a presentation by Professor Hilary Evans-Cameron followed by a group discussion to identify how best to guide research and practice in the area.

To watch a recording of Professor Evans-Cameron’s talk, click here.

 

New Podcast: Professor Amina Memon featured on The Know Show

CSEL’s Co-director Professor Amina Memon recently appeared on The Know Show, a podcast dedicated to making research accessible for everyone. She spoke to Hussain Ayed about using memories as evidence in police investigations.

 

To listen to this fascinating conversation, click here.

 

Deception Experts: General acceptance and consensus (or lack of) among the scientific community,  10th February 2021

On February 10th, Professor Amina Memon (CSEL, Royal Holloway) and Timothy Luke (University of Gothenburg) hosted a fantastic event to discuss deception detection, including talks from the following speakers:

Dr Saul Kassin:  Human Lie Detection: Errors that Incite Wrongful Convictions

Dr Bruno Verschuere The Verifiability Approach to deception detection: A meta-analysis and a preregistered direct replication

Professor Amina Memon & Julia Teufel: Detecting lies in the blink of an eye – the concept and problems of artificially intelligent border guards.

Dr Timothy Luke: Deception Experts: General acceptance and consensus (or lack of) among the scientific community.

 

The talks for this event have been recorded. If you wish to watch them, please click here.

 

Sexual Violence and Criminal Justice: Approaches in Psychology, History, and Literature, 03 March 2021

CSEL’s Co-director Professor Amina Memon will be speaking at a special In Conversation Event run by SHaME as part of the launch of their Writer in Residence Programme. She will be joined by their Writer in Residence Winnie M Li, and SHaME Principal Investigator Professor Joanna Bourke.

 

For more information and to register for the event, click here.

 

 

CSEL’s Co-director Professor Jill Marshall will be presenting a paper in the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Director’s Seminar Series, March 2021

Professor Jill Marshall will be presenting a paper on Georges Perec and reimagining the human condition in the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Director’s Seminar Series in March 2021. The full programme of these online events for this academic year can be found here. The details for Professor Marshall’s talk are below:

Tuesday, 16th March 2021, 1700 GMT
(Re)Imagining the Human Condition through Covid-19

Law, Every Day Spaces and Objects, and Being Human

Click here to book.

 

Being Human Festival: Afghan Women Small Spaces Café, 18th November 2020

Join women from the Afghanistan & Central Asian Association, Professor Jill Marshall  and Nicola Antoniou for the Being Human Festival to learn about human rights law’s purpose, problems and potential, through artwork, sewing and discussions after a short presentation. To sign up, click here.

 

 

CSEL’s Annual Lecture

CANCELLED. DUE TO BE RESCHEDULED IN AUTUMN 2020.

CSEL are delighted to announce that Professor Gísli Gudjónsson will be our special guest at our 2020 Annual Lecture. Gísli will be delivering a lecture titled “The battle for justice in cases of false confession: an international perspective”. More information can be found here.

We hope many of you will join us for this special event.

Figuring out Feeling: International Conference – Université de Paris 1st-2nd July 2020 funded by HARI (Royal Holloway), Larca & Université de Paris

CSEL PhD student member, Polly Hember is co-organising this exciting event. Figuring out Feeling is an international, interdisciplinary conference exploring the place of emotion in the arts and literature of the anglophone world (19th-21st c.), as well as in our own practices of creation, teaching and research — with an emphasis on the ambivalent, elusive, troublesome aspects of feeling.

Our full call for papers is available here (the deadline is 31st January). Please email figuringoutfeeling@gmail.com with any questions or thoughts. The project can also be followed on twitter @figuringfeeling.

 

8^th IARS International Institute Annual Conference

CSEL Student member, Heidi Maiberg spoke on the youth panel at the IARS International Institutes Annual Conference on 29 January 2020. Her talk focused on the role of religion in the process of deradicalisation and/or disengagement, based on research carried out for her MA thesis. Heidi interviewed 21 specialists from seven different countries (Finland, Sweden, the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Estonia) and found that in the majority of cases religion and/or ideology is not among main factors why people engage and/or radicalize. Whilst there were exceptions Heidi’s research found that overall religion and/or ideology is often secondary in the process of radicalisation and/or engagement.

The IARS International Institute is an organisation that conducts independent action-research using methods which are user-led and peer-reviewed to empower young people, with special emphasis on those with fewer opportunities and from disadvantaged backgrounds.

CSEL’s Zoe Given-Wilson spoke at the 40 year celebration of Irish Association of Law Teachers

Zoe’s talk was titled ‘Taking care: Vicarious Trauma and burnout from working in law’ and took place at the event in Limerick on 22-24 November 2019.

Relationships, Research and Reflections: A PhD student “Speed-Networking” event

CSEL and the Rights and Freedoms Research Cluster from Royal Holloway’s Deptartment of Law and Criminology held it’s first afternoon of PhD “speed-networking” on 21 November 2019. PhD students were be able to discuss how their research impacts human relationships in wider society as well as their own relationships with their research.

More information can be found here and here. Pictures from the event can be found here.

CSEL’s Co-director Professor Amina Memon will give the University of Kent’s School of Psychology Annual Lecture 2019

Titled ‘Interviewing witnesses of crime: State of the science and future directions’, Professor Memon’s lecture will focus on police witness interview techniques. The lecture will take place on 31 October 2019.

More information about the event can be found here.

 

Book launch- Feminist Judgments in International Law

CSEL’s co-director, Professor Jill Marshall spoke at the book launch of Feminist Judgments in International Law (Hart 2019) at the London School of Economics on 19 September 2019, having co-rewrote a European Court of Human Rights judgment on Islamic headscarf bans. More information about the book can be found here.

 

 

BBC Surrey Radio Interview- Jennifer Storey 

CSEL member, Jennifer Storey was interviewed on BBC Surrey radio on 16 September. The interview was about a rise in domestic homicides in the UK over the last 5 years and Jennifer took part in a discussion about the ways that research could offer solutions. The interview can be listened to here.

 

 

Society of Legal Scholars Annual conference

CSEL’s co-director, Professor Jill Marshall presented her work on baby boxes and secret births with Anna Davies, a PhD Student at Royal Holloway, at the Society of Legal Scholars Annual conference in September 2019. More information about the annual conferences can be found here.

 

 

The Waiting Room VR premieres at The 76th Venice International Film Festival

BAFTA award-winning director Victoria Mapplebeck’s , The Waiting Room:VR  was recently in competition at The 76th Venice International Film Festival. When Victoria returned from Venice she was interviewed by BBC Click who included both the film and the VR project in their feature.  The Waiting Room VR is written and directed by Victoria and documents her breast cancer diagnosis  from a patient’s point of view, exploring what we can and what we can’t control when our bodies fail us.

The lynchpin of this VR piece is a 9-min durational 360 take, a reconstruction of Victoria’s last session of radiotherapy, which marked the end of nine months of breast cancer treatment. This experience is counter balanced by a CGI journey inside Victoria’s body. Working with 3D artists, Victoria has bought to life the medical imaging she’s collected through out treatment. Cancer cells, CT scans, mammograms and ultrasound provide a 3D portrait of her body from the inside, out.

“We have made cancer our enemy,” says Victoria, “a dark force to be fought by a relentlessly upbeat attitude.  The Waiting Room is part of a body of critical works which explore the ways in which cancer disrupts and shapes our identity. I’m aiming to challenge the objectification of the medical gaze and remind the audience of the person behind the diagnosis. It was amazing to watch The Waiting Room :VR play in the VR cinema at The Venice Film Festival  and to receive such amazing audience feedback and media coverage”. The Waiting Room film and VR project are now part of an outreach strategy which will see the  film and VR project tour  galleries , cancer centres and hospitals in 2019/20.

 

 

Law, Justice and Emotion in the Aftermath of Genocide

April 2019 marked 25 years since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. This remembrance period began on 7th April with a national week of mourning and lasted for a hundred days. Rwandans call this time Kwibuka, which means “remember” in Kinyarwanda. The commemoration period offers Rwandans a chance to remember their dead, reflect on the past and focus on building a united country. During this period, people across the world also reflect on the lessons that can be learned from Rwanda, the responsibilities of the international community and the ongoing need for vigilance in a world negotiating increasingly polarised positions, intolerance and genocide denial.

On 30th April 2019, CSEL hosted a panel discussion of special guest speakers including the Ishami Foundation
and academics, who linked together storytelling, international politics/law, Rwanda and memory, trauma. A Q and A session was also held, followed by an opportunity for further discussion over informal drinks.

This event took place at our Central London Campus on the afternoon of 30th of April at 11 Bedford Square.
Events Programme

Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law Launch & Conference

The official opening of the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law took place at our Central London Campus on the evening of 22nd of March. This reception evening included exhibitions from our CSEL members. More information can be found here- reception information.

Our opening reception was then followed by a one day conference with workshops on the 23rd of March. This include keynote lectures from Amanda Weston, QC Garden Court
Chambers and Professor Adam Brown, New School for Social Research, New York, as well as several workshops. More information on the days events can be found here- conference information.

These events took place at our Central London Campus at 11 Bedford Square.