Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

Nikhaela Wicks

Nikhaela is currently conducting a PhD in Sociology at the University of Westminster (London) on the production and governance of race within the context of nightlife. Drawing upon an ethnographic method, her PhD research involved observations of, and interviews with: police officers, police licensing officers, local authority licensing officers, door staff, venue managers and street pastors in a county-based context in the south of the UK. She is also a Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and holds a first-class degree in Criminology and Social Policy from the University of Kent, and a distinction awarded MA in Criminology from the University of Kent.

Her areas of interest broadly include: race and ethnicity, policing (both public and private forms) and nightlife. She is particularly interested in how understandings of race inform the ways in which nightlife is accessed, managed and experienced. Nikhaela published a commentary in the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal in 2019 which drew attention to underhand and informal police licensing practices used to govern young Black male artists and night time events where traditionally Black music (such as grime and drill) are played. She has also recently worked as a Research Associate on a British Academy research funded project alongside Dr James Esson, Loughborough University. This project explored the strategies employed by the state, the third sector, HEIs and international organisations to monitor international students in the UK.

Areas of interest

Race and racism, policing, governance, night studies, ethnography, critical whiteness studies