GLAD Seminar: Untangling Hair Discrimination with Francesca Lee

Natural hair discrimination, on the basis of hair texture and hair style, is most commonly known for disproportionately affecting those of Afro-Caribbean descent. Incidents of natural hair discrimination can involve black children being repeatedly sent home from school and risking expulsion and black women and men being denied employment because of their afro-textured hair and/or hair styles. This pertinent form of discrimination requires an effective legal framework which is capable of responding to its full complexity and providing legal redress to victims. Using an intersectional approach, this paper will critically examine the extent to which anti-discrimination law in the UK, the Equality Act 2010, and USA, Civil Rights Act 1964, is capable of providing an effective legal response to the phenomenon of natural hair discrimination.

About the Speaker:

Francesca Lee is a Lecturer in Law at Aston University. Francesca graduated from Newcastle University with an LLB Law degree. After completing her undergraduate studies, Francesca graduated with a distinction LLM in Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds. Francesca is a PhD candidate and her current research interests lie in anti-discrimination law, natural hair discrimination, intersectionality, critical race theory, gender, and race.

Contact: leef2@aston.ac.uk