This Michaelmas Term, Regent’s Park College is delighted to welcome Eleanor Doyle, the inaugural Hussain Foundation Scholar at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Criminology.

The Hussain Foundation supports research that deepens understanding of how harm is produced and how it can be prevented. They fund work that exposes the structural and social processes that sit behind visible manifestations of criminality because insight is a necessary first step to change. The Foundation values research that bridges academic insight and practical action – particularly projects that inform prevention strategies, reframe public debate about responsibility and culpability, and strengthen the evidence base for interventions that support victims and deter harm.

Eleanor’s research examines gendered dynamics in prison cultures and the impact of economic retrenchment on youth marginalisation. Combining empirical rigour with theoretical insight, her work engages directly with key questions about where responsibility for harm sits, how policy shapes lived experience, and how communities can be supported to reduce risk. Her future project promises to deepen understanding of the interactions between social policy, policing practices, and community support systems – generating findings that can be translated into better informed, fairer responses on the ground.

Reflecting on her academic interests, Eleanor shared:

“Throughout my four years of undergraduate study, I became fascinated by how Western neoliberal societies conceptualise criminality — and, in turn, justify the punishment and exclusion of individuals and communities.

My undergraduate dissertation explored this theme by examining the gendered dimensions of incarceration in the US, focusing on how hegemonic masculinity shapes the structure and culture of prison gangs in male institutions. Drawing on Raewyn Connell’s (2005) theory of hegemonic masculinity – the socially and culturally idealised form of masculinity in a given context – I argued that prison gangs act as preeminent informal prison structures, affecting both the idealisation and actualisation of hegemonic standards of masculinity.

This work provided critical insight into the gendered realities of confinement, and raised important questions about the implications of these dynamics on the efficacy of prisoner rehabilitation.”

Looking ahead, Eleanor intends to turn her research closer to home:

“Having focused on US carceral institutions in prior research, I now hope to explore the intersection between youth delinquency and the decline of counter-hegemonic ‘third spaces’ in society, within the context of austerity Britain. This will offer a compelling lens through which to examine the spatial and structural dimensions of youth marginalisation and criminalisation in the UK.”

Eleanor grew up in Chicago and Northwest London before pursuing her undergraduate degree (MA Sociology and Politics) at the University of Edinburgh. In her spare time, she enjoys running and wild water swimming.

We are thrilled to welcome Eleanor to our dynamic postgraduate community and look forward to hearing more about her research as it takes shape. Huge congratulations, Eleanor, on being named the first Hussain Foundation MSc Criminology Scholar!