Dr Herminder Kaur

Biography

Dr Herminder Kaur joined the Faculty of Education at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in June 2025. She leads the Postgraduate Research Project modules and chairs the Masters Research Panel, with a strong focus on enhancing ethical processes for students undertaking laboratory, clinical, and primary research in low-resource contexts and middle income countries.

Before joining LSTM, Herminder was a Senior Lecturer in Digital Sociology at Middlesex University, where she also served as Director of Programmes for the Department of Criminology and Sociology (2021–2024) and Director of Learning, Teaching and Quality for the Faculty of Business and Law (2020–2021). As an Associate Academic Manager for the Elizabeth School of London, she ensured smooth academic operations across a range of subjects delivering HE provision through partnerships with Bath Spa University, Canterbury Christ Church, University of Greater Manchester and Newcastle College Group.

Herminder has a proven track record of leading strategic educational initiatives, enhancing the student experience, and supporting academics and early-career researchers through supervision and collaborative leadership. She has extensive experience teaching at levels 3-8 and supervising students at levels 6 to 8, across Middlesex University, Loughborough University, and Bishop Grosseteste University Lincoln. She currently contributes as a Writer for the UK Quality Code Advice and Guidance on Teaching, Learning and Assessment 25-26 for the QAA.

She has also served as an External Examiner for BA Social Science programmes at the School of Applied Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University and holds a Senior Fellowship with Advance HE. 

Research interests

Herminder’s research focuses on participatory, digital, and mixed-methods approaches to study young people, individuals with disabilities in both special educational needs and mainstream contexts, older adults, and ethnic minority communities. As a member of the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Digital Skills and Inclusion Research Working Group, she contributed to the national digital engagement toolkit What Works. As Principal Investigator, she led a Higher Education Initiative Fund project at Middlesex University exploring digital access and use among South Asian communities in England.

Herminder holds a PhD in Social Sciences from Loughborough University (funded by a Doctoral College studentship), an MA in Social Research from the University of Warwick, a BSc in Sociology from Loughborough University, and a Level 1 qualification in British Sign Language from the University of Leicester.

Herminder has been a long standing member of ECREA and is the General Secretary and Member of the Daily Governing Body for the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). She leads its Methods Sub-committee. and previously served as Vice-Chair for ECREA’s Children, Youth and Media Section, led its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee, and was an Executive Board Member representing ECREA Sections. Herminder has been a Committee Member for the International Conference on Social Media and Society and has reviewed proposals for the Association of Internet Researchers Conference. She regularly reviews manuscripts for leading journals including New Media & Society, Journal of Adolescence, Behavioral Sciences, Disabilities, Healthcare and Safer Communities. 

Teaching

Doctoral Supervision:

Student: Meghan Luton
Co-Supervisor: Professor Helen Allen

Project: Deaf women’s experiences of maternity care
Year: 2020-2024

Institution: Middlesex University

 

Student: David Ring

Co-supervisor: Professor Helen Allen

Project: Racism in Nursing

Year: 2023-2024

Institution: Middlesex University

Examination:

Student: Gabriel Ngolomba

Project: Living with perinatal mental illness in the UK as a migrant women from Sub-Saharan Africa

Outcome: Pass
Year: 2024

Institution: Middlesex University

 

Selected research publications

Social access: role of digital media in social relations of young people with disabilities – Journal: New Media and Society – Published: 11th February 2022

Deaf women’s experiences of maternity in primary care an integrative review. – Journal: Midwifery – Published: 8th November 2021

Young men with physical disabilities struggle for digital sex(uality) – Published: 24th April 2019

Rhythms of moving in and between digital media a study on video diaries of young people with physical disabilities – Journal: Mobilities – Published: 7th August 2017

It’s like they’re looking inside your body or inside your brain.’ Internet surveillance practices in a special school – Published: 1st May 2016

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