Professor Azrini Wahidin
Honorary Visiting Professor

Profile

Biography

I am a Professor in Sociology and Criminal Justice, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Former REF 2021  panel member for UOA 20. Before taking up my post as Head of School for the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydeny,   I  held a number of leadership  roles in the Uk.

My research spans critical areas of criminal justice and social justice, with a particular focus on ageing offenders, women in prison, transition from war to peace in Northern Ireland and South Africa. More recently, my work has examined the implications of artificial intelligence in assisted sentencing within criminal justice systems. Across these domains, my scholarship draws on post-colonialism, feminist theory, race, gender, sexuality, and social exclusion, foregrounding issues of inequality and structural injustice.
I have has a strong interest in research methodologies, research ethics, and the decolonisation of curricula.

My recent co-edited book with John Brewer (2022), Ex-combatants’ Voices: Transitioning from War to Peace in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka. I am currently completing a monograph on the role of women in liberation movements under the apartheid regime, building on my earlier work, Ex-combatant, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland.

I served as a Research Panel Member for REF 2021 (Main Panel C) and I am currently supporting UK universities in preparation for REF 2029, advising on research quality, impact, and strategy.

I am a Honorary Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

I am an associate editor for:

• Current Issues in Criminal Justice
• Criminology and Criminal Justice

Research

Overview

Professor Wahidin is a leading expert on older women in prison, the management of ageing prisoners' needs, the meaning of death and dying for individuals serving life sentences, older LGBT+ people, transitions from custody, peace and conflict, and the experiences of former combatants in the IRA and the ANC.

Her pioneering work on ageing offenders led to the largest study of older women in prison in England and Wales and resulted in the publication of the first book on this subject, Older Women in the Criminal Justice System: Running Out of Time, thematic  reviews and policy reform for ageing offenders.

Her second major research programme involved conducting some of the largest studies of former combatants in the Irish Republican Army and  in 2016, she published Ex-combatants, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland: Women, Political Protest and the Prison Experience. and the liberation movements in South Africa during the Apartheid era. This research examined the experiences of female combatants, political protest, prison resistance during the liberation struggle, and peacebuilding in South Africa.
In 2021, Professor Wahidin and Professor John Brewer published the edited collection Ex-combatants’ Voices: Transitioning from War to Peace in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Her most recent funded research focuses on the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) within the criminal justice system. She is currently co-organising a conference in Malaysia entitled Illuminating the Black Box: Exploring the Role of AI in the Criminal Justice System in Malaysia, which examines the opportunities, challenges, and implications of AI technologies for the criminal justice system.

Publications

Selected publications

• Wahidin, A. (2027). Ex-combatants, Gender and the Peace Process in  South Africa - Women, the Prison Experience, Banishment and Political Protest/ Under Siege: The Role of Women in Liberation Movements under the Apartheid Regime and the Transition to Peace in South Africa  
• Wahidin, A. (2016). Ex-Combatants, Gender and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland- Women, the Prison Experience and Political Protest.  Palgrave. Series Editor: Professor John Brewer. 
• Wahidin, A. (2004). Older Women and The Criminal Justice System: Running Out of Time, London: Jessica Kingsley. Nominated for the Phillips Abrams prize.

Books edited 

• Brewer, J and Wahidin, A. (2020). Ex-Combatant Voices: Voices from Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Palgrave. 
• Moore, L., Scraton, P. and Wahidin, A. (2017). Women’s Imprisonment, Decarceration and Case for Abolition: Critical Reflections on Corston. Routledge. 
• Cowburn, M.,  Gelsthorpe, L,   and Wahidin, A. (eds)  (2017). Research Ethics in Criminology – Dilemmas, Issues and Solutions, Routledge. 
• Berkman, A., Moore, J. and Wahidin. (2016). Penal Abolitionism: Papers from the Penal Law, Abolition and Anarchism Conference. 
• Hale, C; Hayward, K; Wahidin, A, & Wincup, E. (eds) (2013). Criminology, Oxford:  Oxford University Press. 3ed.

Refereed Articles in  Academic Journals

• Wahidin, A. (2017). 'Menstruation as a Weapon of War: The Politics of the Bleeding Body for Women on Political Protest at Armagh Prison, Northern Ireland', The Prison Journal, vol. 99, pp. 112-131.
• Wahidin, A., & Powell, J.L. (2017). ‘The Irish Conflict’ and the Experiences of Female Ex-Combatants in the Irish Republican Army: Power, Resistance and Subjectivity’. The International Journal of Sociology & Social Policy.
• Wahidin, A. and Aday, R. (2016). Older Prisoner’s Experiences of Death and Dying and Grief Behind Bars in E. Girling and L. Seal, Special Issue – Death in Punishment in the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice. Vol. 1, 55 Issue 3.  Pg: 312-327.
• Wahidin,  A. (2013). Extraneare: pain, loneliness and the incarcerated female body in the Journal of Illness, Crisis and Loss (Co- Author,  Professor Shirley Tate, August 2013).