Meet Imran Awan:
Professor Imran Awan is one of the country’s leading criminologists and experts on Islamophobia and countering extremism. Imran joined Birmingham City University in January 2013 from the University of South Wales where he worked as a Senior Lecturer.
During his time at BCU, he has lead the Centre for Applied Criminology in the design, development and implementation of its research strategy within Criminology and has played a critical role through his evidenced-based research in influencing policy. He was appointed as Deputy Director in 2013 and was conferred the title of Reader/Associate Professor in February 2016. In 2016/17, Imran won the BCU Researcher of the Year Extra Mile Awards.
Imran has been appointed, as an independent member of the Government's Cross Working Group on Anti-Muslim hatred, based in the Department for Communities and Local Government. Imran's role is to act as an advisor to Government on anti-Muslim hatred related issues. The Government's Cross Working Group was set up by the Deputy Prime Minister.
Imran is passionate about criminological research and uses his extensive research knowledge to inform practitioners and policy-makers on effective measures in tackling some of the most important issues our society faces today. His interdisciplinary research has led to multiple publications in several other areas of the social sciences, including in leading academic journals, in sociology, ethnic studies, policing and ethnography. Imran has published over 50 academic papers, articles and books in leading journals and publications across the world. His paper published in the leading journal for the analysis of race and ethnicity, Ethnic and Racial Studies is among the top 5% of research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric and continues to be internationally cited.
As one of the most-followed criminologists in the UK, his extensive media engagement in bringing ground-breaking research to the attention of the wider public has been recognised, when he was he was a finalist for the National Hate Crime Awards in 2017 under the category, ‘Upstanding Research and Innovation’ award, and the British Muslims Awards in 2016, which recognises his work and contribution towards the field of Criminology and Islamophobia.
Imran has a wealth of teaching experience, and is presently teaching across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes within Criminology. Imran is currently supervising 3 PhD students who are researching issues around violent crime, migration and social media.