Research areas
My research examines how understandings of human difference are produced, negotiated and institutionalised, and how these understandings shape educational, social and therapeutic practice. Beginning with ethnographic research on middle-school students’ logics of racial difference, I subsequently investigated competing understandings of education, identity and belonging among Somali refugee communities in Kenya and the United States. My community-engaged work on restorative practice explored how students, families and community organisations can challenge institutional understandings of behaviour and discipline. My current research extends these questions to neurodivergence and participatory methodology, with a particular focus on epistemic plurality, conceptual authority and the possibility of conceptual reformulation.
Selected publications
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Anti-racist restorative practice: addressing disciplinary disparity among youth with refugee and asylum seeking/asylee backgrounds
Buck, P., 18 Mar 2025, A modern guide to refugee education: comparative perspectives and innovative practices. Matthews, J. & Maire, Q. (eds.). 1st ed. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, p. 297-321 (Elgar modern guides).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter