Part of the Multi-disciplinary Gender Research Seminar Series

*Please note that this seminar will be held in-person in S1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DP, and online via Zoom. If you would like to attend in-person no registration is required. If you would like to attend online please register your place in advance. A zoom link will be sent to you via eventbrite on the day of the event. Registration will close at 9.00am on Monday 19th October 2026.

Gendered Colourism: Findings from the UK Skin Shade Study and Understanding Colourism Project -- Dr. Aisha Pheonix

Colourism is a form of prejudice that penalises people the darker their skin is and the further their features are from those associated with whiteness. This paper explores how colourism is gendered and the impact of this on Black boys and men, and Black girls and women in the UK who have dark skin and features not associated with whiteness. Drawing on the UK Skin Shade Study I conducted with Dr Nadia Craddock in 2019 and the UKRI-funded Understanding Colourism Among Young People in the UK research project that I am leading as part of my Future Leaders Fellowship, the paper argues that colourism is gendered, affecting boys and men and girls and women in distinct ways, although experiences are overlapping. It suggests that an intersectional approach is essential for an understanding of colourism in all its complexity, with boys and men subjected to colourist jokes and dehumanisation more and seen as more threatening and girls and women affected by colourist beauty ideals more, whilst also being treated with suspicion. Both boys and men and girls and women highlighted how colourism was passed down in families and perpetuated at school, two sites where colourism needs to be addressed.

Dr Aisha Phoenix is Lecturer in Social Justice in the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London. She is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Principal Investigator of the Understanding Colourism Among Young People in the UK research project. She conducted the first major sociological study that explored colourism in the UK with Dr Nadia Craddock and has discussed colourism on BBC programmes, LBC, Deutsche Welle and podcasts. Dr Phoenix’s research interests focus primarily on racialised identities and belonging and issues related to social justice, including: colourism and anti-Muslim racism. She is a co-author of Islam on Campus: contested identities and the cultures of higher education in Britain.

The UCCGS Gender Research Seminars offer academics and graduate students an opportunity to present their work-in-progress to a multi-disciplinary audience interested in gender, in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Seminars are held on specified days during Michaelmas and Lent and everyone is welcome to attend.

The seminars are organised and chaired by Sigal Spigel. If you would like more information about this series, or are interested in presenting your work at a Gender Research Seminar, please visit the Centre's website at:

https://www.gender.cam.ac.uk/Events/genderseminars (https://www.gender.cam.ac.uk/Events/genderseminars)

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