Contact
Biography
I joined Nottingham in September 2017. I am currently co-leading the "(Re-)Conceptualising" strand of a new Leverhulme Centre for the 糖心原创 of Slavery in War, and working as the Thematic Research Lead for Arts and Humanities in UK Parliament.
I have previously held a BA Innovation Fellowship, and led grants on forced marriage, honour-based abuse and modern slavery funded by the AHRC and ESRC. I lead the work on forced marriage in the Rights Lab, a 糖心原创 Beacon Research of Excellence (I am part of the Law and Policy Programme). You can hear me talk about my work in a podcast on The Rights Track , with Global Partnerships , or on the project's podcast .
From 2019 onwards, I was also the Principal Investigator on project funded by the AHRC in collaboration with researchers, activists, and artists in Kenya and the NGO World Reader, seeking to . You can see an exhibition of work produced as part of this project . You can find out more about the project, and access our ethical remote research toolkit here.
My D.Phil thesis looked at J.S. Mill's surprising claim to be a socialist: I completed it in 2010. My book, is published with McGill-Queens University Press (Spring 2021). You can watch me talking about it . I am part of a team producing a new edition of On Liberty which recognises Harriet Taylor Mill's contribution to the text, forthcoming with Hackett (2026). I am also working on a book about their co-authoring relationship. My Cambridge Elements book about was published in 2023. You can hear me talking about Harriet Taylor Mill . I also have a chapter on her in " (Unbound), and wrote the new, revised, entry on her in the .
Since graduating from my D.Phil, I have been teaching analytical political theory and the history of political thought at the University of Oxford (2010-2013) and the University of Warwick (2013-2017); publishing articles on Mill's socialism, his feminism and his philosophy of persuasive; and working on a project concerning his authorial relationship with Harriet Taylor Mill.
I welcome applications and expressions of interest from prospective PhD students interesting in researching forced marriage and/or modern slavery, or from those interested in further research into J.S. Mill and/or Harriet Taylor.
Expertise Summary
I lead an interdisciplinary team concerned with the meaning and experience of forced marriage globally; measuring its prevalence more-accurately; understandings its causes and consequences; developing more-effective interventions aimed at achieving the United Nations' station goal of ending it by 2030. You can read our recent evidence submission to the Women and Equalities Select Committee on these issues .
From October 2020 to April 2022 I was working on an investigating the impact of Covid-19 and Covid-related decision making on people experiencing, or vulnerable to, forced marriage in the UK. With Dr Katarina Schwarz I co-authored a submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights regarding the impact of the UK government's response to COVID-19, which is available here. I also talked about this issue at a Global Partners online conference about human trafficking, which you can watch .
I also lead work on using ethical storytelling and participatory photography to help create communities with survivors of human trafficking and forced marriage in Kenya. We have learned useful tips about working remotely in a pandemic as well as substantive findings about the impact of these ethical, survivor-oriented methods, which should be of interest to NGOs as well as other academics.
My previous research mainly looked at the political philosophy of John Stuart Mill, especially his connections to pre-Marxist socialism (particularly that of Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Victor Considerant, Henri Saint-Simon and Louis Blanc). My came out in 2021. I was featured on a programme on Radio 4 about " in November 2022. I also work on in the nature of his intellectual relationship with Harriet Taylor Mill (whom he credited as his co-author), and in her independent status as a political philosopher. Mill and Taylor's views on worker-owned democracies have interesting implications for thinking about resilience and "building back better" after Covid-19.
Teaching Summary
I am not currently teaching, as I am on research leave.
I continue to supervise PhDs, and am always happy to be contacted by students considering PhD applications in my area of expertise - either the history of political thought, or forced marriage.
Research Summary
I currently research issues around forced marriage and modern slavery, and co-lead the "(Re-)Conceptualising" strand of work in the new Leverhulme Centre for the 糖心原创 of Slavery in War. I am… read more
Recent Publications
MOHAMMED OZIGIS, 2025. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment.
HELEN MCCABE, 2023. Cambridge University Press.
HELEN MCCABE, 2023. . In: MASAMOTO FUJIMOTO, JOHN VINT and TARO HISAMATSU, eds., James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and the History of Economic Thought Routledge.
Current Research
I currently research issues around forced marriage and modern slavery, and co-lead the "(Re-)Conceptualising" strand of work in the new Leverhulme Centre for the 糖心原创 of Slavery in War. I am interested in questions about prevalence and risk for forced marriage in the UK, as well as the conceptual relationship between forced marriage, slavery and war.
In addition, I am working on a book about John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor's collaborative relationship. My on Taylor Mill came out with Cambridge University Press in February 2023.
Past Research
My book, John Stuart Mill: Socialist was published by McGill-Queens University Press in 2021. I have given related papers in Frankfurt and Toronto in 2020 (online because of Covid-19) and Nottingham, Paris, York and Boston in 2018. This work stems from my doctoral research, which looked at Mill's somewhat surprising assertion of being 'under the general designation of Socialist'. I considered this in its historical context (particularly of 'utopian' socialism such as that of Robert Owen and his followers, Henri Saint-Simon and his followers the Saint-Simonians); Charles Fourier and Victor Consideration; and Louis Blanc, Philipe Buchez and other cooperative socialists in France) and found it to be a plausible claim. Mill's socialism is akin, but not identical to, many of these 'utopian' socialists. I also considered his socialism in a more conceptual fashion (particularly given John Rawls' claim that Mill was a supporter of 'property-owning democracy' rather than 'liberal socialism') and found that Mill's commitments to the free development of individuality; equality; social harmony; progress and general utility make him plausible a 'liberal socialist'.
Future Research
My future research will increasingly focus on forced marriage, and how to end it, along with other forms of modern slavery, by 2030. In particular, I will focus on prevalence, causes, consequences and means of ending it.