Researcher Profile - Roda Madziva
Roda Madziva
Researching migration, race and inequalities
Roda Madziva is an Associate Professor in Sociology.
It is the labels that we ascribe to those who we feel are not like us that make it easy for us to forget that they are also human beings like us.
How would you explain your research?
My research is mainly in the area of global sociology with a focus on migration, race and inequalities. I focus on migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons and victims of human trafficking. My empirical work and publications to date have been mainly driven by the concern to expose the ideological assumptions that frame discourses of inclusion and exclusion, and the extent to which they reveal (racialised) hierarchies of human worth.
The impact of my research has made far-reaching benefits to disadvantaged migrant/refugee communities as well as contributing to global conversations in this field.
What inspired you to pursue this area?
My long-standing and deep-seated desire to imagine and promote issues of human rights; coupled with my own lived experience as a highly skilled migrant to the UK drew me into this area of research.
How will your research/work affect the average person?
Debates about migrants and refugees often lead into discussions about race and belonging, and the rights that can be afforded as a consequence. This has in turn necessitated the increasing racist and xenophobic tendencies towards migrants, ethnic minorities or the multicultural other.
The recent brutal killing of George Floyd represents the tipping point for a racially-divided and yet so-called post-racial society. We all have a role to play to promote issues of racial-acceptance, equality, diversity and inclusion.
How does your research/experience influence your teaching?
My research feeds into my teaching. One of the things that I do in my lectures/seminars is to take students through contemporary debates about migration and race in order to make them aware of the complexity of current arguments and how they are constructed.
I encourage students to interrogate dominant and administrative labels such as ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’, from a historical perspective, in order to understand how the meanings of these terms have shifted across time, and the extent to which they are used as classificatory functions meant to impose the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’. It is the labels that we ascribe to those who we feel are not like us that make it easy for us to forget that they are also human beings like us.
What's been the greatest moment of your career so far?
Among other achievements, I have been fortunate to gain three externally funded grants in the 2019/20 academic year, to conduct research and impact related work with refugees, survivors of human trafficking and the internally displaced persons in Africa. This is not only an outstanding achievement, but also a great opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these excluded, marginalised and hard to reach groups in society.
What's the biggest challenge in your field?
Many of the problems we are faced with in the 21st century involve complex interaction of diverse forces (for example, intersection of race and Covid-19), and as such one needs to engage with and welcome multiple perspectives and understandings in order to explain contemporary social phenomena.
What advice would you give to someone considering an undergraduate degree in sociology?
Prospective students should be prepared to engage with social theory as well as conceptual understandings from the social sciences more generally. Furthermore, one should be prepared to engage with history and draw insights from different time frames in order to be in a position to place and analyse contemporary events within proper contexts.
Also, one advice we frequently give to students is for them to try and make links across modules in order to gain a good grasp of the course as a whole.