Dr Hannah Hirst (she/her)

Hannah is the Co-Director of the Children and the Law Research Group within the School of Law, and Faculty Research Lead for Early Career Researchers (Arts and Humanities). She welcomes any queries relating to either role or PhD supervision via email.

Hannah's doctoral research examined the provision of gender-affirming treatment to young people in England through a children’s rights lens. Her published work includes a chapter on youth capacity to consent to these treatments (Research Handbook on Children's Health Law) and an analysis of how court restrictions impact young people's rights (Child and Family Law Quarterly). She recently conducted a small-scale empirical study exploring young people's participation in clinical decision-making about gender-affirming treatment with funding from the Socio-Legal Studies Association (2026/Forthcoming).

Beyond healthcare, Hannah has published research relating to a legislative ban on violent forms of LGBTQ+ conversion 'therapy' (Bloomsbury), common law legal reasoning (Forthcoming), and the impact of power relations on children’s rights (International Journal of Children’s Rights).

In 2026–2027, Hannah will be a Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford. There, she will build upon her theoretical work on power relations to analyse the evolving landscape of gender-affirming treatment for young people in England, while evaluating the efficacy of body mapping (a creative, participant-driven methodology) as a distinct children’s rights research method.

Hannah is the module convenor for Contemporary Issues in Law and Justice and Children and the Law. She also leads lectures and small group teaching on Advanced Land Law, Principles in Healthcare Law and Ethics, Current Issues in Health Law, Ethics and Policy, and Research Training in Law and Criminology.