CHASE Policy Seminars
CHASE Policy seminars highlight and champion excellence in research involving Northumbria colleagues, bringing together academics and regional, national and international policymakers and communities to examine cutting-edge research on how we can achieve an equitable society through public policy.
There are four seminars per annum, all held on Teams. The seminars are recorded, with videos and blogs associated with each talk. Please register to attend via links below.
Forthcoming seminars:
Speaker: Greta Defeyter
Seminar Title: Food Insecurity and Free School Meals
Date: 19/10/2026
Time: 12:00-13:00
Speaker: Helen Kopnina
Seminar Title: Transport poverty and food insecurity as determinants of urban health in low-income communities
Date: 16/12/2026
Time:12:00-13:00
Speaker: Simon Winlow
Seminar Title: Public/private investment, neoliberalism and decline
Date: 05/05/2027
Time: 12:00-13:00
Speaker: Ronnie Yearwood, University of the West Indies
Seminar Title: Decolonial Constitutionalism and Universal Basic Income
Date: 18/10/2027
Time: 12:00-13:00
Abstract: This talk advances the idea of decolonial constitutionalism, a framework that understands slavery, colonialism and racial capitalism not merely as historical injustices but as constitutive forces of power, knowledge and being. To confront and dismantle coloniality, decolonial constitutionalism calls for a re-founding of Caribbean constitutions. This is to centre the Caribbean person as “somebody” (smaddy): sovereign individuals and agents of their own freedom.
Decolonial constitutionalism is therefore more than legal reform. It is an ontological rupture grounded in Caribbean-centred epistemologies. It seeks to create a new blueprint for the way of life of a political community, that is, a constitution that affirms the constituent sovereignty of the people and reimagines social, political and economic life. Building on this idea and call for rupture, this paper examines whether Universal Basic Income (UBI) can be understood not merely as an economic policy but as a constitutional entitlement that supports the articulation and realization of freedom and autonomy. Conceived in this way, the paper also examines whether UBI could challenge the coloniality of exclusion by embedding economic justice within the constitutional order?
Through decolonial constitutionalism, the paper considers whether UBI can help actualize the personhood and agency of Caribbean people, enabling them to live as “somebody” within a re-founded political community. This talk may also offer lessons for other societies grappling with inequality and marginalization, by exploring whether constitutional re-founding embedding economic justice as a vital ingredient of freedom can create citizens with greater autonomy and more inclusive communities.
Speaker: Toby Brandon, Northumbria University
Title: Epistemic Injustice and Evidence Based Policy
Date: 17/01/2028
Time: 12:00-13:00
Date: 07/07/2026
Speaker: Luke Munford, University of Manchester
Title: The Impact of Household Income on Life Expectancy: Evidence from the Most Deprived Local Authorities in England
Date: 05/06/2026
Speaker: Democracy Collaborative
Title: Launch of The Index of Systemic Trends – UK edition
Date: 13/11/2024
Speaker: Darren McGarvey
Title: Social Mobility and the Distance between us
Page last updated 24/07/26
