Professor Maria Tsouroufli
Professor in Education

Research area(s)

Social Justice with a focus on gender inequalities in education and professions: International and interdisciplinary perspectives, Gender-based violence in schools and on campus, Women in STEMM careers, Athena Swan, Widening Participation, Professional and Student Identities: Intersectional approaches, Narratology, Feminist Post-Structuralist Research Approaches

Research Interests

My research and teaching interests are in gender, intersectionality, identities and inequalities, particularly in relation to teacher, academic and medical professionals. My formation, research and employment has spanned health and medical sociology, organisation studies, education and gender and women's studies. My international and interdisciplinary research has been informed mainly by feminist post-structuralist approaches to education and medical education policy, power and resistance. I have led and have been involved in internally and externally funded research projects conducted in Britain, Europe and Australia employing a variety of methodologies (ethnography, narratology) and methods (quantitative/qualitative and mixed-method) on a wider range of equality and diversity issues. 

Project details

Active

A review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, in collaboration with PPMI in Lithuania, funded by the European Institute of Gender Equality, 23rd November 2023

'Education for non-violence and religious pluralism in the context of Ahmedabad, India' ESRC GUDTP doctoral scholarship with Dr Utsa Mukherjee and Abhishek Vyas, 2023-2026, £93,000 awarded May 2023

Completed 

1. 'Migration and the dynamics of intersectional health inequality in the UK and Germany', Interdisciplinary fund, Centre for Medicine, Health and Environment, Brunel University, £5,135, March 2022

2. 'Re-examinining social justice for teacher education', CBASS Impact Fund, 3,500, March 2022

3. 'Action research projects to support gender equality in India', British Council India, £40,000, April 2022-March 2023

4. 'A study to further Gender Equality in Higher Education in India' with Dr Ourania Filippakou, Dr Gunjan Wadhwa and Women's Studies Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India, British Council India, £220, 678, March 2021- April 2023

5. 'Rural youth identities in India: Exploring intersections of nation,gender and technology in an area of civil unrest' ESRC Post-doctoral fellowship for Dr Gunjan Wadhwa, Mentor Professor Tsouroufli , 2020-23, £107,971

6. 'What makes a school Islamic?  An exploration of the religious identity of Islamic private schools'. ESRC Doctoral fellowship for S. Haqpana £63,745,  Lead supervisor Professor Tsouroufli, 2020-23

7. ‘An intersectional approach to transnational motherhood of highly skilled migrants in the UK’ £3,407.71, Global Lives Fund, Brunel University with E. McHugh and M. Ozbilgin, February 2020

8. ‘Expanding the use of the Gender Equality Charter Mark for Primary Schools across Europe’ Erasmus Plus KA 2 Strategic Partnerships in field of education, training and youth project led by Decsy Sheffield in partnership with UoW and Austria, Croatia, Italy, Finland, Greece, Slovakia, and Hungary, grant awarded August 2018 (active until 2021), 7,500 Euro

9. ‘An investigation of the impact of gender and gender equity interventions on the work experience and career histories and trajectories of academics within schools, units and/or institutions which have received an Athena Swan award".’, G. Grimmins., Tsouroufli, M. and Thomas, K. funded by the University of the Sunshine Coast Australia, September 2018, AUS 10,000

10.  ‘Developing Gender Equality Charter Marks in order to overcome gender stereotyping in education across Europe’ UST/2015/RGEN/AG/ROLE, Action grants to support transnational projects to promote good practices on gender roles and to overcome gender stereotypes in education, training and in the workplace RIGHTS, EQUALITY AND CITIZENSHIP/JUSTICE PROGRAMME (2014-2020), led by DECSY Sheffield in partnership with UoW, Oxfam Italy, University of Florence, Anthropolis Association, Hungary and Central European University Budapest, Hungary, awarded 14th November 2016, €344,239.59

11. ‘Boys of the Black Country: An investigation into progression of disadvantaged white males from the Midlands region to UK Higher Education institutions’, Internally funded doctoral grant, University of Wolverhampton, £13,750 , 2016-2020

12. ‘Facilitating career development of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM): Towards increasing understanding, participation progression and retention through an intersectionality perspective’, Athena Swan Internally funded doctoral grant, University of Wolverhampton, £13,750, 2016-2023

13. ‘Evaluation of outreach networks for widening participation’, with C. Leathwood (PI) at London Met University and J. Stephenson, Sheffield Hallam University, funded by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), UK, November 2014, £108,192 

14. ‘Evaluation of the White British Working-Class Achievement pilot,’ with J. Osgood (PI) at London Metropolitan University, funded by Camden city council, February 2014, £20,000

15. ‘Gendered identities in health care education’, C. Rees, L. Monrouxe, M. Tsouroufli, Higher Education Academy (HEA) doctoral grants, UK, November 2012, £56,922 

16. ‘International student identities and inclusion in Higher Education’ ,Department of Education pump priming research fund, University of York, UK, July 2010, £1,000 

17. ‘Creating citizenship Communities through new approaches to learning’, with Professors Davies (PI), G. Hampden-Thompson, and Vanita Sundaram, University of York and the National Foundation for Educational Research, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation (EFF), UK, November 2010, £75,259

 18. ‘Foundation doctors’ perceptions of their preparedness to practice’ funded by the Association for Medical Education (ASME) Small Grants Scheme, UK, January 2008, £2,000 12. ‘A survey of consultant medical teachers’ perceived training needs resulting from Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) and the European Working Time Directive (EWTD)’, funded by Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, UK, 2007, £4,300 

19. ‘Consultant Medical Teachers’ narratives of educational trajectories and professional development’,  funded by Cardiff Postgraduate Deanery, UK, 2005-2006, £3,500 

20. ‘Gender and teacher-student classroom interaction: An ethnographic study in a secondary school in Greece’, PhD State Scholarship Foundation, Greek Ministry of Education, 1996-2000, £31,860 

 ESRC Projects:

1. 'The implications of Innovative Health Technologies: Theory and Diversity among experts and lay people', 2001-2003 Research Fellow

2. 'The Social Implications of First Trimester Antenatal Screening', 2003-2004, Research Fellow

3. 'Evaluating user based research methods used in consultation with parents and young people, Research Assistant, funded by Lincoln Careers Service