Cindy Leung

Profile

Biography

Cindy Leung

Postgraduate Researcher

Cindy is an ESRC-funded PhD student at the York Law School and Centre for Applied Human Rights. Alongside her PhD, Cindy has worked as a Policy Associate at The York Policy Engine and supported various research and policy engagement projects. In addition, Cindy has worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Contemporary Issues in Social and Public Policy module at the School for Business and Society, and the Future of Food module at the York Interdisciplinary Modules. In 2025, Cindy works as the lead author of the annual York Human Rights City Network Indicator Report. Cindy is also a co-convenor of the Food, Development and Society PGR-ECR Network, an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional network that organises knowledge exchange and capacity building initiatives for PhD students and early career researchers who are researching the food system from a social science perspective.

Prior to commencing her PhD, Cindy worked in communications and project management roles across the third sector and tertiary education institutions.

Research

Overview

Cindy is interested in interdisciplinary and applied human rights research, with a particular focus on the implementation of human rights at the local level. For her PhD project, titled ‘Constructing the meaning of the right to food in cities: Two qualitative case studies in England’, Cindy develops and applies a conceptual framework for understanding the socially constructed meaning of the right to food in cities. The doctoral project seeks to contribute empirically, conceptually, and normatively to scholarship and policy on addressing food insecurity through a rights-based approach.

Cindy is supervised by Professor Ioana Cismas and Professor Paul Gready.