Speaker: Dr Alex Powell, Associate Professor in Law, Warwick Law School
Chair: Dr Chris McQuade, City St George’s, University of London
The International Law and Affairs Group is delighted to welcome Dr Alex Powell, Associate Professor in Law at the University of Warwick, to discuss his recently published monograph entitled ‘Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration’. Please join us and our discussants, Dr Alexander Maine, City St George’s and Dr Calogera Giamatta, University of Leicester on 11th February for what promises to be an insightful and engaging discussion of Alex’s work.
About the author:
Dr Alex Powell is an Associate Professor in Law at Warwick Law School. He joined WLS in 2025, having previously been an Associate Professor in Law at Oxford Brookes University, where he was also Director of the LLM programmes.
Alex is an interdisciplinary scholar who works at the intersections of law, gender, sexuality and migration. His work utilises critical and socio-legal methodologies. His first Monograph, Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration, was published in November 2025 as a part of Bristol University Press's Law, Society, Policy series. Alex holds a PhD in Law from City, University of London, for a thesis entitled Queering Refugee Law: A Study of Sexual Diversity in Asylum Policy and Practice in the United Kingdom. Alex also holds an LLM (With Distinction) in Constitutional Politics, Law and Theory from Birkbeck, University of London and an LLB in Law (First Class) from the University of Reading.
Alongside his teaching and research responsibilities at the University of Warwick, Alex is currently Co-Convenor of the Migration and Asylum Section of the Society of Legal Scholars, a Trustee of the Socio-Legal Studies Association and a Research Affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Monograph synopsis: In the context of a global backlash against both migrant and LGBTIQA+ rights , this book critically examines the experiences of LGBTIQA+ people within the UK asylum system.
The book draws on interviews with refugees, legal practitioners and charity workers to analyse the systemic challenges faced by LGBTIQA+ people seeking asylum. By blending empirical data and critical theory, the text highlights the contradictions between the UK’s purportedly LGBTIQA+ inclusive narratives and its treatment of sexually diverse refugees, offering insights for researchers, practitioners and policy makers on the pressures facing LGBTIQA+ people within the asylum system.
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