Professor Therese O'Toole

Therese’s research interests are in the fields of ethnicity, governance, political activism and social movements. In 2004, she was awarded a Leverhulme Trust grant to research political engagement among ethnic minority young people and, with Richard Gale (University of Cardiff), she completed a book from this research: Political Engagement amongst Ethnic Minority Young People: Making a Difference (2013). The book addresses changing forms of political activism among ethnic minority young people, their experiences of participatory decision-making, the ways in which ethnicity, race, religion and gender shape political engagement and the different scales at which their activism is focused. This research builds on Therese’s previous work on young people and political participation, which critically engaged with crisis narratives of youth political apathy (Young People and Politics in the UK: Apathy or Alienation?, 2007, co-authored with David Marsh and Su Jones). In 2009, Therese was awarded an AHRC Religion and Society programme Large Grant, with Tariq Modood and Nasar Meer (University of Strathclyde), to study Muslim Participation in Contemporary Governance. With the appointment of Daniel Nilsson DeHanas and Stephen Jones to the team, the project examined the significance of Muslim participation within governance across a range of policy areas at national and local levels, including equalities, integration/cohesion, faith-based welfare and regeneration and security/counter-terrorism policies. In 2013, the team was awarded an AHRC follow-on funding grant to launch an on-line forum on religion and public policy: Public Spirit. Public Spirit is a forum for researchers, policymakers, politicians and practitioners from the voluntary and community sectors to debate recent developments in religion and public policy. Subsequently, Therese developed her interests in Muslim participation in governance further through a project with Tariq Modood and Aleksandra Lewicki on Muslim participation in governance in Bristol within the ESRC-funded Connected Communities programme: Productive Margins: Regulation for Engagement. The project examined the development of a local Muslim umbrella group, Building the Bridge, as a mechanism for the inclusion of Muslim groups within local governance, with a particular focus on spaces for Muslim women's effective engagement in decision-making.