Skip navigation

Dr Rhianna Garrett

Research Fellow

Dr Rhianna Garrett is a Leverhulme Early Career fellow at Northumbria 2025-2028, on her project entitled (Self)categorisation as Resistance: The Refusal of Mixed Ethnic Categorisation, based in the department of Geography and Environmental Sciences. 

This project pioneers an ambitious new direction for mixed ethnic studies within geographies of resistance, transcending traditional approaches to ‘race’ research. Specifically, the project demonstrates how global mixed ethnic populations in Britain, the US, Singapore, Germany, and Bosnia and Herzegovina resist  oppressive linguistic, social, and political ethnic categorisation through their own self-identification. Through an innovative mixed methods approach of interviews and photography, she aims to produce a monograph and photography exhibition creatively illustrating how hese oppression's are resisted, increasing scholarly and public interests, and construct academic spaces that make mixed ethnic matters, matter.

Her previous research examined how institutional whiteness shapes the career trajectories of doctoral and early career researchers, with additional expertise in the study of whiteness, social justice, and mixed ethnic women's expereinces in higher education. She is currently working on several projects investigating how to change the methods we use to track ethnicity demographic information in a more intersectional way. 

Additionally, Rhianna has explored projects related to gamification, including boardgames and role playing games, to increase engagement in Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) activities. She has run several institution-wide interdisciplinary training programmes aimed at creating meaningful collaboration and change within anti-racism work, contributing signitificantly to facilitating vibrant and inclusive workplace environments.

For her voluntary roles, Rhianna is the Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) Association executive board Global Coordinator, where she connects all countries outside of the US concerned with multiethnic matters, and is currently the social media coordinator for the charity, People in Harmony.

Rhianna is a Chinese mixed ethnic scholar open to discussing mixed ethnic studies with anyone interested in the topic. 

Rhianna Garrett

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • “I’m not white”: counter-stories from “mixed race” women navigating PhDs, Garrett, R. 27 Jan 2025, In: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal
  • Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education, Garrett, R. 27 May 2025, In: Globalisation, Societies and Education
  • The architecture of whiteness, Garrett, R. 24 Jul 2025, In: Area
  • The De/Construction of Identity: The Complexities of Loss and Separation for Mixed-Race Britain, Garrett, R. 9 Apr 2025, In: Genealogy
  • Quest for Equity: Using multiple methodologies to promote collaboration and engagement in anti-racism education, Garrett, R. 8 Oct 2024, In: Qualitative Research
  • Voices and Praxis From Students: From Doing Feminist Geographies in the Global South to Intersectional Feminism in the Global North, Anne Fitzgerald, M., Garrett, R., Sharma, P. 10 Dec 2024, How To Foster Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, And Justice In Geography, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, Edward Elgar

  • Geography PhD March 19 2025
  • Education MA December 18 2021
  • History BA September 19 2020


Latest News and Features

Professor Billy Clark
AI generic
Montage of stills from animation showing near infrared emissions in Saturn’s stratosphere, revealing the four star-arm features flowing from the pole towards the equator, as the planet rotates beneath JWST's view
nurses
Dr Charlotte Götz and Dr Helen Williams from Northumbria University.
Principal Investigators Dr Meghan Kumar and Dr Devaki Nambiar.
More news
More events

Upcoming events

Centring and Clay Connections Exhibition
-
Humanising research in the era of reality disavowal
The National Aged Veterans Research Conference
State of Play: A history of Playful Learning in 10 Video Games

Back to top