Projects
All of Us
Imaging Resistance among Migrant Women, as part of the Visual and Embodied Methodologies Network (2024-2025)
This project explores how migrant and migrant-heritage women from the Global Majority living in London cope with direct and indirect forms of intersectional gendered violence, and how they develop resistance, activism, care, and connection to challenge these experiences over time.
It was developed as part of a wider research programme within the Visual Embodied Methodologies (VEM) network, which fosters knowledge exchange around visual, embodied, and arts-based approaches across and beyond the social sciences.
As a collaboration between King’s College London, Migrants in Action, and the VEM network, the research worked with 22 women from ten countries who became peer researchers, actively shaping the project.
Using participatory and arts-based methods, the project developed a framework of “weaving empathy-driven solidarity” to build collaborative care and what the research identifies as “radical connection”. Through this process, it demonstrates how creative practice can support belonging, amplify women’s voices, and generate new insights for research, public engagement, and policy.
Research Methods:
- Nine participatory arts-based workshops
- Participatory theatre
- Photovoice
- Banner-making
- Semi-structured interviews
- Visual and audio recording
- “Lost & Found” reflection activities
Key Objectives
Explore how migrant women experience and respond to intersectional gendered violence in everyday life
Examine how migration, settlement, and belonging shape experiences of exclusion, discrimination, and care.
Identify forms of activism, resistance, and connection developed individually and collectively across generations.
Develop and test visual and embodied methodologies that support collaborative, participant-led research.
Generate evidence and creative outputs that can inform further research, spark discussion, and contribute to policy and practice.
Key Findings
Migrant women face intersecting forms of violence, including personal, structural, and everyday discrimination.
Migration journeys are complex, shaped by both survival (escaping violence) and aspirations for better futures.
Many experience unbelonging and exclusion in the UK, alongside ongoing inequality.
Women demonstrate strong agency and resistance through everyday resilience, activism, and creative expression.
The project fostered “radical connection”—deep bonds built through shared experiences, empathy, and solidarity.
Arts-based workshops created safe spaces for trust, reflection, and collective healing.
Creative methods (e.g. storytelling, photovoice) enabled collective care and co-produced knowledge.
Participants reported increased confidence, freedom, and a stronger sense of identity and community.
Publications
Go to Publications Archive
Project by
Funded by
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - reference: ESX0116661 - Visual and Embodied Methodologies for Imaging Intersectional Gendered Violence, through Principal Investigator Jelke Boesten (King’s College London)