Dr Dominic Pasura

I joined the University of Huddersfield in July 2010 concerned with the strengthening of international research capacity within the broad area of childhood studies and with specific reference to the prevention of child abuse.

I earned my PhD in Sociology at the University of Warwick, in June 2008, specialising in migration, diaspora and transnationalism. My PhD thesis, a multi-sited ethnography of the Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain, explored the ways in which different spatial settings shape diasporic identities and cleavages, influencing the development of transnational networks and political engagements. Prior to coming to Huddersfield, I was an Economic and Social Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at University College London, where I worked on the project “Religious Transnationalism: The Case of Zimbabwean Catholics in Britain.” I completed my BA Honours in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Zimbabwe in 2001. I then graduated with a first-class MA in Gender and International Development at the University of Warwick in 2004.

My research interests are: transnationalism and diaspora; religious transnationalism; migrants and refugees in Britain; African development, in particular Southern Africa; social theory; prevention of child sexual abuse.

Current research

I am currently writing a book, 'African Transnational Diasporas: Fractured Identities of Zimbabweans in Britain' to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014. The book will chart the migration, settlement and transnational connections of Zimbabweans in Britain.

Making and impact on child abuse
I am actively involved in a Research and Knowledge Transfer Project designed to curb child abuse in Caribbean countries is being developed by the University of Huddersfield, in partnership with the government of Grenada and UNICEF.

Previous Research Grants

• Towards the Prevention and Intervention of Child Sexual Abuse: Cross-cultural Explorations, Explanations and Impact Evaluations (April 2011-November 2011). ESRC Knowledge Exchange Small Grants Scheme (RES-192-22-0132) £9,150. Investigators: Professor Adele Jones (Principal Investigator) and Dr Dominic Pasura (Co-investigator)
  The research project, a collaboration of three institutions, that is, the Centre for Applied Childhood Studies, University of Huddersfield, the Social Work Unit, University of the West Indies (UWI) and Stop it Now!, a US-based organisation involved in research to prevent child sexual abuse, explores cross-cultural understandings, programming and evaluation of child sexual abuse prevention and intervention.
   
• Religious Transnationalism: The case of Zimbabwean Catholics in Britain>. ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: 2009-10: £78,375.11. ESRC Grant Number: PTA-026-27-2212.
  Social anthropologists suggest Europe has entered a new phase in its religious history characterised by ‘reverse evangelisation’ of the continent by African migrants. So far, scholars who have studied this ‘reverse flow’ have concentrated on the religious experiences of Pentecostals without paying attention to African migrants belonging to mainline churches. The project, using the Zimbabwean Catholic congregation in Birmingham, examined the ways in which mainstream churches engender migrants’ maintenance of transnational ties and improve their integration into British society.

2013

Pasura, D., Jones, A., Hafner, J., Maharaj, P., Nathaniel-DeCaires, K. and Johnson, E. (2013) ‘Competing meanings of childhood and the social construction of child sexual abuse in the Caribbean’ Childhood , 20 (2), pp. 200-214. ISSN 0907-5682

Pasura, D (2013) ‘Modes of incorporation and transnational Zimbabwean migration to Britain’ Ethnic and Racial Studies , 36 (1), pp. 199-218. ISSN 0141-9870

Pasura, D., Jones, A. and Da Breo, H. (2013) ‘IMPACT: Interventions and Mitigations to Prevent the Abuse of Children – it’s Time. A Public Health Oriented Systems Model for Change’. In: Understanding Child Sexual Abuse: Perspectives from the Caribbean. : Palgrave Macmillan. . ISBN 9781137020048

2012

Pasura, D., Jones, A., Hafner, J., Maharaj, P., Nathaniel-DeCaires, K. and Johnson, E. (2012) ‘Competing meanings of childhood and the social construction of child sexual abuse in the Caribbean’ Childhood: A journal of global child research . ISSN 0907-5682

Pasura, D (2012) ‘A Fractured Transnational Diaspora: The Case of Zimbabweans in Britain’ International Migration , 50 (1), pp. 143-161. ISSN 0020-7985

Pasura, D (2012) ‘Religious Transnationalism: The case of Zimbabwean Catholics in Britain’ Journal of Religion in Africa , 42 (1), pp. 26-53. ISSN 0022-4200

2011

Pasura, D (2011) ‘Toward a Multisited Ethnography of the Zimbabwean Diaspora in Britain’ Identities , 18 (3), pp. 250-272. ISSN 1070-289X

Pasura, D (2011) ‘Introduction and application of the RE-AIM evaluation and planning framework’. In: Advanced Training for Preventing Child Sexual Abuse-- Cross Cultural Explorations, Explanations and Interventions, 28th April-3rd May 2011, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

Pasura, D (2011) ‘The RE-AIM framework’. In: Training in Interventions for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention and Treatment in Grenada, 1st-4th March 2011, St George's, Grenada

Pasura, D (2011) ‘Migration and modernity: the re-configuration of the family, marriage and gender relations among Zimbabwean Christians in Britain’. In: Henry Martyn Centre Lent Term Seminars, 26th January 2011, Cambridge, UK

Pasura, D (2011) ‘Book Report : Shades of Belonging: African Pentecostals in twenty-first century Ireland by Abel Ugba’ African Affairs , 110 (438), pp. 154-155. ISSN 0001-9909

2010

McGregor, J. and Pasura, D. (2010) ‘Diasporic Repositioning and the Politics of Re-engagement: Developmentalising Zimbabwe's Diaspora?’ The Round Table , 99 (411), pp. 687-703. ISSN 0035-8533

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Competing meanings of childhood: Implications for child sexual abuse prevention’. In: Stop It Now! Webcast, 7th December 2010, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Competing Meanings of the Diaspora: The Case of Zimbabweans in Britain’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , 36 (9), pp. 1445-1461. ISSN 1369-183X

Pasura, D (2010) ‘A gendered analysis of land reforms in Zimbabwe’ Women's Studies International Forum , 33 (5), pp. 443-454. ISSN 0277-5395

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Competing Meanings of the Diaspora: The Case of Zimbabweans in Britain’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , 36 (9), pp. 1445-1461. ISSN 1369-183X

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Book review : Catholic Women of Congo-Brazzaville: Mothers and sisters in troubled times, by Phyllis M. Martin’ African Affairs , 109 (437), pp. 685-686. ISSN 0001-9909

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Diaspora’. In: Migrazioni. Dizionario socio-pastorale. Italy: San Paolo Edizioni. pp. 371-376. ISBN 9788821566615

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Zimbabwean transnational diaspora politics in Britain’. In: Zimbabwe's new diaspora : displacement and the cultural politics of survival. New York: Berghahn Books. pp. 103-121. ISBN 9781845456580

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Regendering the Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain’. In: Zimbabwe's exodus : crisis migration survival. : African Books Collective. pp. 207-224. ISBN 9781920409227

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Zimbabwean Christians confront British Modernity ’. In: British Zimbabwe Society research day, Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 June 2010, St. Antony’s College, 62 Woodstock Road, Oxford

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Zimbabwean Christians confront British modernity’. In: African Christianity in Britain: Citizenship and the Migrant Subject, 7th June 2010, University of Sussex, Department of Anthropology, School of Global Studies

Pasura, D (2010) ‘The making of Zimbabwe's transnational diaspora’. In: Ramphal commission on migration and development workshop, 14th May 2010, University of Oxford

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Religious transnationalism : the case of Zimbabwean catholics in Britain’. In: The Changing Face of Christianity in the 21st Century, 6th-8th April 2010, University of Edinburgh

Pasura, D (2010) ‘Religious transnationalism : the case of Zimbabwean catholics in Britain’. In: Migration : a world in motion. APPAM conference, 18-20th February 2010, University of Maastricht, Netherlands

2009

Pasura, D (2009) ‘An overview of the Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain’. In: Antipodean experiences : Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Zimbabweans in Britain Symposium, 3rd September 2009, Australia House, London

Pasura, D (2009) Zimbabwean Migrants in Britain: An Overview Berlin: Migration Education

Pasura, D (2009) ‘Competing meanings of the diaspora : the case of Zimbabweans in Britain’. In: ECAS 2009 3rd European Conference on African Studies, 4th-7th June 2009, University of Leipzig, Germany

2008

Pasura, D (2008) ‘Gendering the Diaspora : Zimbabwean migrants in Britain’. In: ESRC end-of-award conference , 25th-27th September 2008, Keele University

Pasura, D (2008) ‘Towards a Multi-sited Ethnography of the Zimbabwean Diaspora in Britain’. In: Nordic Africa Institute conference on 'Political economies of displacement in post 2000 Zimbabwe, 9th-11th June 2008, Wits University Campus, Johannesburg

Pasura, D (2008) ‘The Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain : living on the margins of the labour market’. In: Leverhulme programme on migration and citizenship conference, 15th-16th May 2008, University college London

Pasura, D (2008) ‘Zimbabwean transnational diaspora politics in Britain’. In: IMISCOE A2 Conference Migrant diasporas and decentralized development, 29-30 May 2008, Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Pasura, D (2008) ‘Gendering the Diaspora: Zimbabwean Migrants in Britain’ African Diaspora , 1 (1), pp. 86-109. ISSN 1872-5457

2006

Pasura, D (2006) Zimbabwe : Mapping exercise London: International Organisation for Migration

Pasura, D (2006) ‘Towards a multi-sited ethnography of Zimbabweans in Britain’. In: British Zimbabwe Society research day, 17th June 2006, St Antony's college, Oxford

Journal Esteem

• I am a reviewer of the following academic journals: Ethnic and Racial Studies, Global Networks, African Affairs, Journal of African and Cultural Studies, African Identities.
• I have reviewed book manuscripts for Polity Press and Liverpool University Press.

Research grants, fellowships and awards

• ESRC Knowledge Exchange Small Grants Scheme (RES-192-22-0132) ‘Towards the Prevention and Intervention of Child Sexual Abuse: Cross-cultural Explorations, Explanations and Impact Evaluations’ £9,150 (April 2011-December 2011).
• ESRC, Postdoctoral fellowship (PTA-026-27-2212) ‘Religious Transnationalism: The case of Zimbabwean Catholics in Britain’ £78,375.11 (July 2009-June 2010).
• PhD Scholarship, Canon Collins Educational Trust for Southern Africa Scholarship (2004-2008).
• MA Scholarship, Canon Collins Educational Trust for Southern Africa Scholarship/ British Foreign Office Chevening Award (2002-2003).

Other Esteem Factors

• Visit to USA to work with Stop It Now! on the development of an evaluation framework and delivery of a webcast on conceptualizations of childhood (December 2010).
• Member of a delegation to Trinidad for work with the University of the West Indies – delivery of training on evaluation framework to practitioners (28-29 April, 2-3 May 2011).
• Lead responsibility for feasibility work in Grenada for the establishment of IMPACT Knowledge Transfer Project (2010 to present).

I welcome proposals for doctoral study in any of the following broad areas:

• Migration, diasporas and transnationalism;
• African diasporas and development;
• Transnational diaspora politics;
• Gender and migration;
• Religion in the new African Diaspora;
• The transnational family;
• The integration of migrants and refugees in host societies;
• Childhood studies;
• The prevention of child abuse

If you are interested in discussing PhD supervision please e-mail me with details of your proposed topic: d.pasura@hud.ac.uk.

Current PhD students

• Helen Shipman: Conceptualizing child sexual abuse in Nairobi’s informal settlements (main supervisor)
• Caroline Logue: Group dynamics and sexual aggression: towards a typology of multidimensional child sex ring abusers (second supervisor)
• Gloria Seruwagi: Kinship care of orphans and vulnerable children in rural Uganda (second supervisor)
• William Suk: Transnationalism, kinship and activism among the Zimbabwean diaspora in South Africa and the United Kingdom (external supervisor, registered with Syracuse University, the US)

• Member of School Research Ethics Panel (SREP).
• Member of School International Group.
• Member of the School Research Forum.

1. I contribute to the following
   • Undergraduate module:
     Introduction to the Sociology of Culture
   • MA Modules:
     International Perspectives in Health and Social Care
     Children’s Services, Service Users and Carers
2. I have examined 4 PhD students’ progression vivas.
3. I completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Development (Higher Education Practice: Research Supervision) which confers eligibility for membership of the Higher Education Teaching Academy.