Franca Roeschert

Franca Roeschert MSc Social and Cultural Psychology; BSc Psychology

Post Graduate Research Student

Franca Roeschert is a PhD student at the Centre for Communities and Social Justice in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on migrants’ participation in urban sanctuary practices in London. Franca has taught on Sociology undergraduate modules and currently serves as the Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) Lead for the Centre for Communities and Social Justice.

Prior to starting her PhD in 2022, Franca worked as a researcher at the Young Foundation and its adjacent Institute for Community Studies, where she co-authored several reports on issues affecting communities across the UK. She gained experience in grant-making at the Youth Endowment Fund, where she helped establish their Youth Advisory Board. In both roles, she developed and delivered projects using peer research methodology.

She holds an MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology from the London School of Economics, as well as a BSc in Psychology. Alongside her PhD, she volunteers at Praxis for Migrants and Refugees.

Responsibilities within the university

Franca’s research is situated at the intersection of urban sociology and migration studies. Her PhD investigates London as a ‘City of Sanctuary’ and explores how migrants participate in organising under this framework.

She is particularly interested in how migrants assert their political subjectivity through participation in sanctuary organising and campaigning, as well as how sanctuary can be understood in ways that are less overtly political but nonetheless assert migrants’ rightful presence.

Her PhD research is guided by a participatory ethos. It is embedded in the work of two migrants’ rights groups and acknowledges people with lived experience of precarious immigration status as co-producers of knowledge.

Awards

Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship: Urban Governance in the City of Sanctuary

FLAS Participatory Action Research award: Migrants’ participation in urban sanctuary practices in London

Recent publications

Vacchelli, E., & Roeschert, F. (2024). Participation and contested forms of citizenship in the City of Sanctuary. Citizenship Studies, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2024.2407766

Vacchelli, E., & Roeschert, F. (2024, July). ‘Becoming part and parcel of the nation’: Negotiating practices of belonging and solidarity in a London Borough of Sanctuary [Paper presentation]. International Migration Research Network (IMISCOE) Annual Conference 2024, Lisbon, Portugal.

Lehtonen, A., Roeschert, F. & Jones, P. (2024). Practice-Based Education in Sociology: What, Why and How? [Manuscript in preparation]

Dibb, Z., McDonagh, C., Farag, D., Roeschert, F., Clayton, A. & Bell, A. (2023). No Wrong Door: How an integrated employment and skills system can support Londoners. The Young Foundation. https://youngfoundation.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/YF-NWD-RESEARCH-REPORT.pdf?x59628

Dibb, Z., Goulden, H., Tauschinski, J. and Roeschert, F. (2020). How Covid-19 changed community life in the UK. A week by week archive of life during a pandemic. Understanding the impact on people and communities. The Young Foundation. https://youngfoundation.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-Young-Foundation__CoronaReport-Final.pdf?x59628

Morrison, E., Roeschert, F., Tauschinski, J. and Boelman, V. (2020). Safety in Numbers? A research agenda with communities, for communities. Institute for Community Studies. https://youngfoundation.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/RESEARCH-AGENDA-V6g.pdf?x59628

Roeschert, F. and Patel, G. (2020). Life in Limbo: An ethnography of Bexley residents with No Recourse to Public Funds.