Associate Professor, Dr Lisa Goodson Director, Community Interest Research Centre (CIRC) Community and Practitioner Research Lead, Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS), University of Birmingham

Lisa Goodson is a founding member of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) at the University of Birmingham and the Community Interest Research Centre (CIRC). As Community and Practitioner Research Lead within IRiS, she coordinates the Community and Practitioner Research Programme (CPRP), a flagship, AIM accredited training and partnership model that she co-developed with Professor Jenny Phillimore in 2002 and has been embedded in IRiS since its inception in 2012.

Over more than twenty years, Lisa has led and supported a wide range of community-engaged and participatory research projects focused on forced migration, integration, and superdiversity. Her work has been central in recognising and evidencing the transformative power of community research: at the level of policy and practice, in driving systems change, and in enabling personal growth and empowerment for those involved.

Through CIRC, Lisa is committed to building bridges between universities, community researchers, statutory and non-statutory partners. CIRC’s approach challenges colonial legacies in research and champions equitable, co-produced, and decolonial methods that position lived experience as critically vital expertise. She believes in research as a shared process of learning, creativity, and social justice, one that can transform not only institutions, but also lives and communities.