Find a PhD supervisor

Once you've identified the subject area you wish to research, you will need to find a supervisor for your project. All Doctoral Researchers are provided with a lead supervisor, who will act as the main source of academic supervisory support and research mentoring during your time as a Doctoral Researcher at the University.

Start your search

Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ for supervisors below to see who you think may be a great fit for your research area. Once you have identified they are able to offer appropriate supervisory support, you can start to reach out to staff using the contact details provided on their profile. 

Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ results for “criminal law”

Professor John Child

Professor John Child

Professor of Criminal Law
Head of Research (Law)

Birmingham Law School

John is interested in doctoral candidates in criminal law doctrine and theory, comparative criminal law, and/or criminal law and neuroscience.

John's previous successful doctoral students include:
* Rachel Gimson, ‘Captured red handed: the impact of social media on the evolving concepts of the criminal defendant and the presumption of innocence’ - Completed in 2016;
* Stavros Demetriou, 'Anti-Social Behaviour and Civil Preventive Measures: Creating Localised Criminal Codes?' - Completed in ...



Professor Chris Thornhill

Professor of Law

Birmingham Law School

Chris has supervised PhDs on many legal topics, including: Constitutional Reform in Kenya; Constitutional Reform in Egypt; the Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in National Constitutional Law in South America; the Global Right to Food; the History of International Criminal Law; Military Law and Legal Reform in China; Constitutional Law and Populism in Poland and Brazil; Constitutional Reform in Scotland; Constitutional Reform in Turkey; Constitutional Reform in ...

Dr Marianne Wade

Dr Marianne Wade

Reader in Criminal Justice

Birmingham Law School

European Criminal Law
European Criminal Justice
Comparative criminal and criminal procedure law
Structural Developments in Criminal Justice
Terrorism – Phenomena and Responses
Trafficking Human Beings

Current doctoral students:

The Challenges Associated with Identifying Victims of Trafficking Human Beings – Matthew Davis
The Suitability of Trial by Jury for Trafficking in Persons Cases – Jack Murphy









Dr Emma J Breeze

Assistant Professor in International Criminal Law

Birmingham Law School

International Humanitarian Law (the law of armed conflict), International Criminal Law, Transnational Criminal Law (to include cross-border crimes, such as trafficking and piracy)
International law and global legal studies (to include conflicts, transitional justice, international criminal law)




Professor Alexander Orakhelashvili

Professor Alexander Orakhelashvili

Professor of International Law

Birmingham Law School

Professor Orakhelashvili has supervised or is currently supervising doctoral students undertaking research in the following areas:
• Aut dedere aut judicare as a customary rule
• The UN member states and individuals sharing international responsibility for the serious violation of international law committed during peace support operations
• Iran and Nuclear non-proliferation
• John Austin’s theory of law
• Implications of New Technology for Targeting under International Humanitarian Law






Dr Kirsty Moreton

Dr Kirsty Moreton

Associate Professor in Law

Birmingham Law School

Dr Moreton is interested in supervising Doctoral Students in the areas of healthcare law, particularly decision-making, child and adolescent healthcare, pregnancy and reproduction, and palliative care. She also has interests in criminal law relating to sexual offences, and intersections with medical law. Topics utilising feminist and care ethics are also of interest.
Previously supervised to completion:
- Wendy Suffield, ‘Reconsidering the Moral Status of the pre-conscious fetus: a multi-criterial, multi-level ...

Dr Tara Lai Quinlan

Associate Professor in Law and Criminal Justice

Birmingham Law School

criminal law, criminal procedure, terrorism, counter-terrorism, police, disproportionality in the criminal justice system, stop and search, jury diversity

Professor Kate Bedford

Professor Kate Bedford

Professor of Law and Political Economy

Birmingham Law School

I am happy to read PhD proposals in the following areas:
• Law and development (especially in Latin America)
• Law and political economy
• Gender, sexuality, and law
• Gambling regulation





Professor Natasa Mavronicola

Professor Natasa Mavronicola

Professor of Human Rights Law

Birmingham Law School

Professor Mavronicola is keen to supervise postgraduate research students whose research interests lie in the following areas:

torture and inhuman and degrading treatment
the right to life
the interpretation of human rights
LGBT* rights
the interplay between counter-terrorism and human rights
the relationship between human dignity and human rights
the intersections between human rights and criminal justice
the relationship of any of the above with legal philosophy








Dr Peter Coe

Dr Peter Coe

Associate Professor
Director of Research Impact

Birmingham Law School

Dr Coe welcomes expressions of interest for prospective PhD students in his areas of interest, and the field of Media Law more broadly.

Professor Anthea Hucklesby

Professor Anthea Hucklesby

Professor of Criminal Justice

Birmingham Law School

Anthea has supervised research students in many aspects of criminal justice in the UK and internationally. She welcomes applications from UK and international students interested in any area of criminal justice including, but not limited to, electronic monitoring, pre-trial detention and bail, police powers, courts, prisons, community sentences, technologies and private and voluntary sector involvement in criminal justice.

Dr Jason Haynes

Dr Jason Haynes

Associate Professor of Law
Deputy Head of Postgraduate Research & PGR Mentor

Birmingham Law School

Anti-Human Trafficking Law
International Investment Law
Sports Law



Dr Ross Abbinnett

Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology

He has supervised ten PhD students to completion of their theses. Three of the most recent were on Walter Benjamin and urban ruins, the influence of new media technologies on political change in the Philippines, and the concept of biopolitical production in Hardt and Negri’s Empire. He us currently supervising three doctoral theses, two of which are funded by the AHRC, and one by the Ford Foundation. Four of his ...

Professor Helen Abbott

Professor Helen Abbott

Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Arts and Law
Professor of Modern Languages

Department of Modern Languages

I have supervised a number of PhD students on a wide range of topics. I welcome applications from PhD students in any of my areas of interest, especially the following:

words/music relations (including aesthetics, translation, adaptation, and performance)
poetry and poetics (especially nineteenth-century French, and metre, accentuation, versification)
voice/performance in relation to literary texts
the role of digital media in researching texts and performances (music, theatre, readings)

My previous PhD ...






Dr Mohamed A. Abdallah

Dr Mohamed A. Abdallah

Associate Professor in Persistent Organic Pollutants / Emerging Contaminants

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Dr Abdallah welcomes e-mail enquiries from prospective doctoral researchers in his areas of interest.
Abdallah has supervised 16 PhD students to the successful completion of their PhD degree at Birmingham. Currently, he is supervising 10 PhD students in GEES and Biosciences.


Dr Shaimaa Abdelkarim

Dr Shaimaa Abdelkarim

Assistant Professor in Law (Postcolonial Legal Theory and Critical Race Studies)

Birmingham Law School

Shaimaa welcomes doctoral supervision in these areas:
• Third World Approaches to International Law
• Law and Development (specifically through a postcolonial lens)
• Critical Approaches to Human Rights
• Alternatives to Human Rights Practices
• Law, Gender and Sexuality (especially in black feminist thought)
• Law and Abolitionist Praxis







Dr Adel Abdel-Wahab

Dr Adel Abdel-Wahab

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Head of Quality Assurance

Dubai Campus

Dr Abdel-Wahab has the experience of supervising students at PhD, MSc, and BSc levels.

Dr Abdel-Wahab is interested to supervise PhD students in the area of experimental studies and numerical simulations of Advanced Materials including, but not limited to, biomaterials, bioinspired materials, and composites. If you are interested, please email him on: a.a.m.abdelwahab@bham.ac.uk.





Dr Muhammad Abdullahi

Dr Muhammad Abdullahi

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Centre for Environmental Research and Justice
Environmental Genomics Group

School of Biosciences

Dr Abdullahi welcomes inquiries from potential PhD students interested in researching the use of Daphnia and other aquatic organisms for environmental monitoring and bioremediation. Please contact him via email to discuss opportunities.

Dr Neve Abgeller

Dr Neve Abgeller

Lecturer in Organisation, Work, and Employment

Department of Management

Neve has been supervising, and is interested in supervising, research topics including:

  • Human Resource Management
  • Organisational Behaviour
  • Trust and distrust in organisations
  • Future of work, working from home, flexible working arrangements
  • Culture
  • Control and power
  • Responsible Business
  • Executive coaching

Dr Adedeji Abimbola

Reader in Finance

The Department of Finance

  • Derivatives and risk management.
  • Market behaviour

Dr Rasha Abu-Eid

Dr Rasha Abu-Eid

Associate Professor in Oral Biology

School of Dentistry

Dr Abu-Eid has supervised and is accepting PhD students in the following areas of research:

  • The applications of digital pathology in cancer research
  • Modulation of T cell function in the context of cancer immunotherapy
  • Identification of biomarkers of disease progression in oral cancer
  • Spatial transcriptomics and proteomics
  • Microvesicles in oral cancer

Dr Columba Achilleos-Sarll

Dr Columba Achilleos-Sarll

Lecturer

Department of Political Science and International Studies

Dr Achilleos-Sarll is interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas: feminist and post/decolonial approaches to international relations; the Women, Peace and Security agenda; civil society and advocacy; visual global politics; feminist foreign policy.

Current Students

(Co-supervising with Dr Danielle Beswick) Scarlet Elliott-Vass, ESRC Studentship: ‘Sub State Translations: Exploring the Localisation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Uganda’.

Professor Peymané Adab

Professor Peymané Adab

Professor of Chronic Disease Epidemiology & Public Health

Department of Applied Health Sciences

Peymané Adab’s research interests are twofold, including behavioural epidemiology (specifically childhood obesity prevention) and chronic disease epidemiology (focusing on the epidemiology of COPD). She holds major grants in these areas from the National Institute for Health Research and, in the past, from the Medical Research Council.

Professor Adab has successfully supervised five PhD students in the last few years, who have moved on to academic careers. She currently supervises four ...

Professor David Adams

Professor David Adams

Emeritus Professor of Hepatology

Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy

David has supervised more than 25 PhD and MD students in various areas of immunology, including inflammatory liver disease, leucocyte trafficking and immune regulation.