Professor Chantal Davies
Professor of Law, Equality and Diversity/Director Forum for Research into Equality and Diversity
Biography
After graduating with a Law degree from Oxford University, Chantal Davies qualified as a solicitor with Eversheds in Cardiff specialising in Employment, Human Rights and Discrimination Law. In 1998, she moved to work as a solicitor for the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in Manchester heading up a Department tackling strategic and wider enforcement of the gender equality legislation. Chantal is now professor of Law, Equality and Diversity in the School of Law at the University of Chester. She has also developed and is Director of the Forum for Research into Equality and Diversity. Past research focuses on the experiences of minority ethnic students within HE and the use of positive action by organisations in the UK. Chantal has also completed a funded project looking at the gendered obstacles to research activity faced by academics in the UK. More recently Chantal has been funded by the Young Women’s Trust and the Equality and Human Rights Commission to research the use of positive action in apprenticeships. Chantal has also worked with the Higher Education Authority in Ireland to roll out a ground breaking positive action initiative aimed at increasing female representation within professorships. Chantal is currently engaged in a research project focusing on developing a framework for environmental justice. She has sat on the board of Cheshire Halton and Warrington Race and Equality Centre and the Equality Challenge Unit and in this latter role worked with them to develop institutional confidence in developing positive action initiatives within higher education. Chantal also sat on the review panel for the national Subject Benchmark Statement for Law. Chantal currently sits on the Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Commission and is the elected Co-Vice Chair of the Law Society’s Women’s Law Division Committee. She has also been appointed to AdvanceHE’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Chantal leads the Human Rights and Discrimination law modules at an undergraduate level and supervises a number of students in their PhD study.
Teaching and Supervision
Professor Davies' teaching is focused on Discrimination and Human Rights Law. As module leader for the Discrimination Law and Human Rights Law modules for the LLB, Chantal explores the development of UK and European legislation in these areas and the intersection between jurisdictions. In particular, her teaching focuses on exploring the current political and social context in the UK in light of the development of the law in relation to equality and human rights.
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Professor Davies is interested in socio-legal explorations around domestic equality and human rights law. In particular, she is interested in the the use of positive action as a means of addressing disadvantage, underrepresentation and particular need in relation to the protected characteristics. Equally, she is interested in gendered obstacles to progression in the legal sector and within higher education. She has carried out ground-breaking funded legal research in these areas which have fed into the development of national policy. She is currently researching in the area of environmental justice and multi-disciplinary approaches to developing frameworks for environmental justice in the UK based on principles of co-production and the Public Sector Equality Duty building on the recommendations of the Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Commission.