Beatrice Akua Sakyiwah
bas502@york.ac.uk
I have a BSc (attained in 2000) in Communication and Cultural Studies with Women Studies, and a PGCE (2001) from the University of North London (now Metropolitan University). In 2002 I did an MA in Media Education at the Institute of Education, University of London.
I entered the PhD program in Women’s Studies at the University of York in October 2009, having worked as a teacher for a number of years in London. My motivation to come to the University of York rested on two solid foundations:
- The University of York as a whole is one of the top ten universities in Britain
- The Centre for Women Studies is second to none in the country with the best internationally acclaimed lecturers in the country
My supervisor is Professor Gabriele Griffin.
My research interest initially centred on ’The impact of ICT on girls’ education: the case of Ghanaian girls in secondary education at the Ga-adangbe municipal area’. However, during my teaching career, in an inner London school I came across refugee children who had been severely affected academically as a result of issues far more than language barriers, resulting in continuous absences from school. Contacts with parents revealed terrible stories relating to integration: issues about where to live, immigration, counseling etc and these were on top of their own traumatic war experiences. It is this which prompted my current research interest.
I now work on ‘Refugee Women and Children’s Access to Services in the UK: The Case of Bantu Refugee Women and Children from Southern Somalia’. My research is based on qualitative research (semi-structured interviewing), and my main research question is: What experiences do Somali refugee women and children displaced by war report in utilizing services available to them in the UK? This question will be investigated in the context of the UK government’s immigration policies.