Dr Megan McElhone
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Dr Megan McElhone joined the Department of Criminology as a Lecturer in 2020. Megan primarily researches racialised policing.
Raised on unceded Darug lands in Sydney, Australia, Megan completed her PhD in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales before moving to London to take up her post in the Department. Megan's PhD thesis examined the New South Wales Police Force’s targeted and sustained policing of ‘Middle Eastern’ communities in Sydney between 1998 and 2018.
In addition to her primary programme of research on racialised policing, Megan has contributed to several research projects at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Law School (University of Sydney), and at the Australian Human Rights Commission. These projects variously concerned the unlawful use of police strip search powers, miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions, and workplace sexual harassment.
Megan also organises with Abolitionist Futures.
Highlights
January 2022 - Research featured: in the article 'A closer look at police powers' in BBK Magazine.
July 2021 - Interview: for the article 'Defunding the Police' in Public Finance Magazine.
June 2021 - Online article: 'Knife Crime Prevention Orders: Punitive, not preventative', written for Abolitionist Futures.
Web profiles
Administrative responsibilities
- Programme Director BSc Criminology & Criminal Justice
ORCID
0000-0003-1716-3941 -
Research
Research
Research interests
- The logics, methods and scope of proactive, intelligence-led, and pre-emptive policing
- The work of ‘specialist’ police squads
- Race, racism, racialisation, resistance, and refusal
- Space, place and policing
Research Centres and Institutes
- Steering Group member, Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image (BIMI)
Research clusters and groups
- Race, Gender and Culture research cluster
- Policy, Practice and Activism research cluster
- Regulation, Risk and Surveillance research cluster
Research projects
Making 'Middle Eastern Crime'
Section 60 'suspicionless' stops and searches
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Megan welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of her areas of research interest.
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Understanding Crime (CertHE) (FFCN014S4)
- Policing, Race and Justice (LACN025S7)
- Understanding Crime (LALA146S4)
- Law, Social Justice and Inequalities: Contemporary challenges and debates (LALA229N0)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- McElhone, Megan (2017) 'Now They're Extraordinary Powers': firearms prohibition orders and warrantless search powers in New South Wales. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 28 (3), pp. 329-337. ISSN 1034-5329.
Book Review
- McElhone, Megan (2021) Justice Alternatives.
Book Section
- McElhone, Megan (2019) Portrayals of Middle Eastern background communities as criminal in Australian popular media. In: Akrivos, D. and Antoniou, A.K. (eds.) Crime, Deviance and Popular Culture: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture. Palgrave Macmillian. pp. 289-314. ISBN 9783030049119.
Other
- McElhone, Megan (2021) Knife crime prevention orders: punitive, not preventative. Abolitionist Futures.
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Business and community
Business and community
Outreach
May 2022 - 'In Conversation' event organised by Birkbeck Students' Union.
January 2022 - Research featured: in the article 'A closer look at police powers' in BBK Magazine.
July 2021 - Interview: for the article 'Defunding the Police' in Public Finance Magazine.
June 2021 - Online article: 'Knife Crime Prevention Orders: Punitive, not preventative', written for Abolitionist Futures.
December 2020 - Webinar: 'Race, Policing and the City', part of the Urban Intersections seminar series at Birkbeck, University of London.