Professor Sheena Vachhani

I am Professor of Work and Organization Studies and Co-director of the research group on Action Research and Critical Inquiry in Organisations (ARCIO) which focuses on participatory modes of research, capacity-building in organisations and communities, and the ethico-political questions that arise from these engagements. I am an expert consultant for INSPIRE - Horizon Europe Centre of Excellence on Inclusive Gender Equality in Research and Innovation (https://www.inspirequality.eu/), act as Chair within the UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College and am an affiliate of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. My work centres around social inequalities, especially ethics, politics and difference in work and organization and how they relate to social transformation and social justice across multiple axes of oppression and precarity. I have a particular interest in embodiment, materiality and how systems and structures of inequality, including those reified by climate change and narratives of sustainability, offer new insights into business, politics and society. I also have a longstanding interest in using critical perspectives to teach and research leadership. I am an interdisciplinary researcher and am, or have been, involved in several research projects that draw on the intersections between structures of inequality, organisations and society, namely: critiquing and investigating the relationship between affect, language and corporeality; ethico-political resistance in activism and social movements; feminist methodologies; vulnerability and the politics of solidarity; and craft practices informed by new materialism. Other previous work has also explored: the politics of writing; corporeality in physical labour under neoliberalism; dirty work, and critical approaches to innovation. Some of my current research focuses on diverse contexts of work and organising, namely: safety, gender and walking practices with colleagues in theatre, psychology and epidemiology; trauma-informed healthcare and community-based approaches to health inequalities, collaborating with Bristol medical school; exploring the impact of endangered craft and future craft practices, collaborating with engineering and anthropology; and investigating the role of networked, digital activism, and digital cultures in the pursuit of social change. Theoretically, I primarily draw on sociology and continental philosophy, as well as other critical social science related disciplines. I recently completed a funded participatory project on digital technologies and safe water access in Sierra Leone partnering with a charity (with Dr P. Gaya). I am also embarking on a wider project on vegetal ecologies, organisation and philosophy that brings together questions of justice, resistance, feminist new materialism and multiple ways of knowing that foster changing relations with the natural world. I am co-editor (with Emma Bell) of the book series ‘Feminist Perspectives on Work and Organization’, published by Bristol University Press. I publish in journals such as: Organization Studies; Gender, Work and Organization; Human Relations; British Journal of Management; Work, Employment and Society; Journal of Business Ethics and Organization, amongst others. I am former associate editor and editorial board member for Gender, Work and Organization and currently serve as editorial board and strategic advisory board member for Leadership. I have co-edited special issues of: Organization Studies; Organization; Gender, Work and Organization; and Leadership. PhD supervision I welcome enquiries from potential doctoral researchers interested in any of the themes, methodologies, or perspectives above.

[02/11/2025] Dialogic Organizing - Organization Studies [01/05/2024] Networked feminism in a digital age – Mobilising vulnerability and reconfiguring feminist politics in digital activism - Gender, Work and Organization [08/10/2025] ‘You can’t buy my silence’ - Organization [01/04/2025] The Affective Micropolitics of Craftivism - Organization Studies [01/08/2025] Corrosive Solo Self-Employment - Sociology [23/06/2026] Feminism(s), gender studies, and queer theory - Handbook of Critical Work and Organizational Psychology [10/07/2025] Principles of trauma-informed care in UK general practice - Poster [31/12/2025] Building Inclusive University Cultures - Women, Gender and Research [01/08/2025] Corrosive Solo Self-Employment - Sociology [01/04/2025] The Affective Micropolitics of Craftivism -