Dr Hannah Lewis

Department of Sociological Studies

Senior Research Fellow

h.j.lewis@sheffield.ac.uk

The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Hannah Lewis
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile: Hannah Lewis joined the department in 2015 as a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow. Since completing her PhD ‘Interrogating community: dispersed refugees in Leeds’ at the University of Hull she has worked in academic and non-academic research as a consultant for statutory, voluntary and non-profit organisations. Prior to joining Sheffield she was a Research Assistant and Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, and was a Research Fellow at the School of Geography, University of Leeds 2011-2015.

Research interests

Hannah is interested in understanding how policies shape the daily lives of people who migrate. She has explored how asylum seeker dispersal, the destitution of refused asylum seekers, ‘race’ and multicultural strategies, and immigration status shape community, family, transnational relationships, work and leisure among migrants and people seeking asylum. Her recent work has centred on concepts of precarity and contingency and how the social and legal status of migrants can create insecurities that may increase susceptibility to poverty, exclusion and forced labour.

She recently completed an ESRC-funded study ‘Precarious Lives’ which was the first academic study to focus on experiences of forced labour among people who are refugees or seeking asylum in the UK. Her research interests include community and social relationships, migration and refugee studies; immigration and asylum policy particularly in relation to destitution among refused asylum seekers in the UK; housing, volunteering, multiculturalism; and the ethics and methodologies of research with migrant populations.

Publications

Books

Lewis H, Dwyer P, Hodkinson S & Waite L (2014) Precarious Lives: Forced Labour, Exploitation and Asylum. Policy Press.
Lewis H, Dwyer P, Hodkinson S & Waite L (2014) Precarious Lives. Policy Press.
Lewis H, Dwyer P, Hodkinson S & Waite L (2014) Precarious Lives. Policy Press.
Lewis H, Dwyer P, Hodkinson S & Waite L (2014) Precarious Lives. Policy Press.

Edited books

Waite L, Craig G, Lewis H & Skrivankova K (Eds.) (2015) Vulnerability, Exploitation and Migrants: Insecure Work in a Globalised Economy. Springer.

Journal articles

Waite L, Lewis H, Murray R & Tomalin E (2023) Faith, bordering and modern slavery: A UK case study. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. View this article in WRRO
Lonergan G, Lewis H, Tomalin E & Waite L (2021) Distinctive or Professionalised? Understanding the Postsecular in Faith-Based Responses to Trafficking, Forced Labour and Slavery in the UK. Sociology, 55(3), 505-521.
Hodkinson SN, Lewis H, Waite L & Dwyer P (2021) Fighting or fuelling forced labour? The Modern Slavery Act 2015, irregular migrants and the vulnerabilising role of the UK’s hostile environment. Critical Social Policy, 41(1), 68-90.
Boochani B, Flores D, Sibanda A, Mujakachi V, Temboman , Fafa , Huzzard R, Cape-Davenhill L, Sirriyeh A, Lewis H , Longeran G et al (2020) Transnational communities for dismantling detention : from Manus Island to the UK. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 6(1), 108-128. View this article in WRRO
Waite L & Lewis H (2017) Precarious Irregular Migrants and Their Sharing Economies: A Spectrum of Transactional Laboring Experiences. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 107(4), 964-978. View this article in WRRO
Dwyer P, Hodkinson S, Lewis H & Waite L (2016) Socio-legal status and experiences of forced labour among asylum seekers and refugees in the UK. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 32(3), 182-198. View this article in WRRO
Lewis H, Dwyer P, Hodkinson S & Waite L (2015) Hyper-precarious lives: Migrants, work and forced labour in the Global North. Progress in Human Geography, 39(5), 580-600. View this article in WRRO
Lewis H & Waite L (2015) Asylum, immigration restrictions and exploitation: hyper-precarity as a lens for understanding and tackling forced labour. Anti-Trafficking Review(5), 49-67. View this article in WRRO
Lewis H (2015) Music, dancing and clothing as belonging and freedom among people seeking asylum in the UK. Leisure Studies, 34(1), 42-58.
Lewis HJ (2015) Precarious Lives: Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Resistance within Unfree Labouring. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 14(2), 479-491.
Waite L, Valentine G & Lewis H (2014) Multiply vulnerable populations: mobilising a politics of compassion from the ‘capacity to hurt’. Social & Cultural Geography, 15(3), 313-331. View this article in WRRO
Lewis H & Craig G (2014) ‘Multiculturalism is never talked about’: community cohesion and local policy contradictions in England. Policy & Politics, 42(1), 21-38.
Lewis H, Waite L, Dwyer P, Scullion L & Crofton-Martin G (2012) From restrictions to the cap: trends in UK migration policy. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 20(1), 87-95.
Lewis H (2010) Community Moments: Integration and Transnationalism at 'Refugee' Parties and Events. Journal of Refugee Studies, 23(4), 571-588.

Chapters

Lewis H, Waite L & Hodkinson S (2017) ‘Hostile’ UK Immigration Policy and Asylum Seekers’ Susceptibility to Forced Labour, Entrapping Asylum Seekers (pp. 187-215). Palgrave Macmillan UK
Lewis H (2016) Negotiating Anonymity, Informed Consent and ‘Illegality’: Researching Forced Labour Experiences Among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK, Studies of Organized Crime (pp. 99-116). Springer International Publishing
Waite L, Lewis H, Hodkinson S & Dwyer P (2015) Refused Asylum Seekers as the Hyper-Exploited, Vulnerability, Exploitation and Migrants (pp. 143-157). Palgrave Macmillan UK
() Global Perspectives on the Politics of Multiculturalism in the 21st Century In Mansouri F & de B’béri BE (Ed.) Routledge

Website content

Lewis H, Kilkey M, Walsh J & Ryan L 'Not one of you any longer': EU Nationals' Brexit uncertainty and mistrust..

Research group

Hannah welcomes enquiries from students considering pursuing doctoral studies in areas related to her specific research interests.

To find out more about our PhD programmes, go to:
Studying for a PhD in Sociology

To apply for a place and for the scholarship, go to:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply