Dr. Deanna Dadusc is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Humanities and Social Science. Her research is interdisciplinary, bringing together critical criminology and geography, as well as feminist and decolonial approaches to state and border violence. Informed by paticipatory and community-oriented methodologies, Deanna's work has not only been informed by, but has also contributed to, political mobilisations and debates, impacting narratives and practices of civil society organisations.

Her work critically analyses the criminalisation of practices of  resistance in  Europe, including the criminalisation of migrants' mutul aid and  solidarity. She is currently running an AHRC IAA project titled: 'Storytelling the criminalisation of migration: memory, solidarity and resistance', in collaboration with criminalised people on the move. The project is aimed at decentering European narratives and visions on the criminalisation of migration, and to contextualise it within broader colonial and political trajectories.
She is currently writing a book in collaboration with Prof. Pierpaolo Mudu titled 'Bordering Resistance' for Routledge, on the criminalisation of migration and solidarity.

In previous years, she dedicated her work to the criminalisation of grassroot home-making, housing struggles and autonomous urban spaces. This led to the publication of several contributions, as well as becoming guest editor for a special issue on the journal 'Citizenship Studies' titled: 'Citizenship as Inhabitance: Migrant Housing Squats as Alternatives to State Accommodation' in collaboration with Margherita Grazioli and Miguel Martinez (2020).

Together with Aila Spathopoulou and Camille Gendrot, Deanna co-coordinates the Feminist No Borders research area of the Feminist autonomous Centre for Research, where they co-organises the annual 'Feminist No Borders Summer School' (now in its 7th edition), as well as several research projects and community courses aimed at bridging struggles for prison abolition and border abolition from feminist perspectives (see ' The Criminalisation of Freedom of Movement' podcast series (supported by the University of Brighton IGNITE fund). 

At the University of Brighton, after being awarder a 'Rising Star Award' for her work on migrant housing struggles and practices of radical home making, Deanna became coordinator of the 'Radical Housing Forum', in collaboration with Sarah Leaney, and, amongst other workshops, they organised two international symposia on the 'Right to Home'.

Between 2018 and 2021, Deanna coordinated the 'Urban Movements and Resistance' research area of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE - University of Brighton). In 2022-2023, Deanna became coordinator of the 'Borders and Migration' research area at the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics.

Betwenn 2019 and 2022 Deanna participated in the Erasmus+ BRIDGES consortium, which brought together Universities and Civil Society organisations to tackle exclusion and discrimination in Higher Education, by using decolonial, anti-racist and feminist approaches and methodologies.

Over the past years, Deanna was invited to, and participated in, numerous talks, conferences, symposia and workshops, including: American Association of Geographers Annual Conference ; European Group for the Study of Deviance & Social Control; European Society of Criminology ; IMISCOE annual conference; Radical Ecology Seminar Series; Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference; International Conference of Anarchist Geographers and Geographies; International Conference of Critical Geography; Oxford Migration Conference;  Squatting in Europe Network Annual Conference.

Deanna's teaching is informed by her research and involvement in social and political mobilisations. She has also been designing and convening several modules introducing students to abolitionist approaches in criminology, foregrounding feminist and anti-racist critiques and enquire-based learning.  

Deanna is currently coordinating the module on 'Global Issues: power, crime and harm', critically discussing state and corporate violence towards communities and the environement, as well as the complicity of the Criminal Justice System in enabling violence and reproducing global inequality.

In collaboration with Raphael Schlembach, Deanna has developed a module titled ‘The Criminology of Borders’ exploring the intersections of the criminal justice system and migration control. The module critically addresses issues of borders violence and harms, and the global politics of criminalisation of migration from a border-abolition perspective.

Besides teaching research methods and supervising numerous PhD, MA and Bachelor dissertations, Deanna has also designed and developed an interdisciplinary module to prepare students for their dissertation research, introducing them to feminist and decolonial literature and epistemiologies.

Together with Kanwal Mand and Laura Harvey, Deanna has designed a Mres program on 'Borders, Racism and Resistance' (forthcoming), bridging Gender Studies, Critical Geography and Sociology.

As part of the Erasmus+ Bridges project, Deanna contributed to the creation a toolkit and a course for teachers in Higher Eduction, aimed at faciliating the introduction of anti-racist feminist perspectives and decolonial pedagogies into the classroom.

Deanna has supervised PhD, MA and Bachelor students on topics related to border violence, urban resistance and housing struggles.

She is available for supervision on PhD projects related to the criminalisation of resistance and mutual aid, on border violence and urban spaces. She also welcomes proposals informed by feminist and decolonial methodologies.