The Rural Racism Project
Towards an Inclusive Countryside
Written by Neil Chakraborti, Corinne Fowler & Amy Clarke. Photo by Phoebe Davies.
The Centre for Hate Studies at the University of Leicester was awarded funding from the Leverhulme Trust to lead a major new study entitled The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside (2023–2025). This large-scale research project, led by Professor Neil Chakraborti, Professor Corinne Fowler and Dr Amy Clarke, challenges dominant depictions of rural England as peaceful, neutral and apolitical by investigating the realities of racism experienced by minoritised ethnic individuals and communities in rural spaces, in order to understand how racism is expressed in rural contexts.
The research team share further details below and outline how their evidence contributes to national debates on race, belonging, rural identity and access to countryside spaces…