Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris FAcSS FDRS SFHEA

Amanda Perry-Kessaris joined Kent Law School as Professor of Law in 2013. She has previously held positions as Professor of International Economic Law at SOAS, University of London; Reader at Birkbeck; and Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, and the Universities of Dundee and Sussex.

Amanda’s approach to research, leadership, and education is distinguished by commitments to prompting and facilitating others to experiment and collaborate across doctrinal, socio-legal, jurisprudential, critical and other approaches to law, as well as between and beyond disciplines; and to attending to the needs and wants of those who might use, or otherwise be affected by, research and research support resources and processes.

Amanda is a Fellow of the Design Research Society, elected in recognition of her pioneering work applying design-based methods to enhance legal research, education, and practice. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, elected in recognition of her contributions to the development of integrated ‘econo-socio-legal’ approaches to understanding the economic lives of law. She is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Amanda has qualifications in law (LLB and LLM Southampton; PhD LSE), economics (PGCert Birkbeck) and graphic design (PGCert and MA University of the Arts London). She regularly completes cross-disciplinary and professional development training, including in design futures, iconographic theory, archaeology, and ethnography; culture and well being, applied public history, curation, and event experience design; and research leadership, engagement, and impact.

Research interest highlights (A short summary of research interests that's displayed in profile listing pages) (Please note: there is a limit of 200 characters):

Amanda Perry-Kessaris specialises in empirically grounded, theoretically rich, cross-disciplinary approaches to law; and focuses on the intersections of law with design, and law with economic life. 

Two questions run through Amanda’s research:

·       How do, and how might, law and design enrich each other?

·       How might we enhance our ability to understand and influence the actual and potential economic lives of law?

Current projects include:

·      Law and Design: A pragmatic approach supported by Leverhulme Research Fellowship RF-2026-133\8.

·      Legal futures though The Horniman Museum and Gardens with Elen Stokes (University of Bristol), supported by Socio-Legal Studies Association Research Grant.

·       Enlivening legal education through The Postal Museum with Emily Allbon and Susannah Coster, in partnership with The Postal Museum. Aiming to influence heritage institutions; and higher, secondary, and public legal education. Supported by Kent Law School Research Investment Fund.

·      Design-driven approaches to policy-making on land use and ownership in Malawi with Cyprian Kambili and Nebert Chirwa. Aiming to influence communities and policy makers in Malawi. Supported by International Science Partnerships Fund.

Recent projects include:

·      What if a citizens’ assembly were to design a future Cyprus peace process? with Fiona Mullen and Meltem Onurkan Samani, in partnership with Cyprus Peace and Dialogue Centre. Influencing Cypriot civil society. Supported by SLSA Impact Grant.

·      Bristol legal futures with Elen Stokes.

·      Fantasy legal exhibitions with Victoria Barnes. Supported by SLSA Seminar Fund and Kent Law School.

·      Evidencing and combatting hate crime in India: concepts, mindsets and processes with Joanna Perry and Mohsin Alam Bhat, in partnership with CEJI. Influencing anti hate-crime activists in India. Supported by Society of Legal Scholars Research Activities Fund.

·      Design in legal education with Emily Allbon.

Earlier projects include:

·      Making hate crime visible in Europe in designerly ways with Joanna Perry, in partnership with CEJI. Influencing public and society society actors across Europe.

·      Doing socio-legal research in design mode, supported by Leverhulme Research Fellowship RF-2019-045.

·      The pop-up museum of legal objects with Lisa Dickson and Sophie Vigneron. Supported by Kent Law School.

·      Design and island wide economic life in Cyprus, supported by SLSA Research Grant.

·       What can graphic design reveal about law? Social media show of 14 original designs #apklawdesigns.

·       Economic Sociology of Law, with Diamond Ashiagbor and Prabha Kotiswaran, supported by the Journal of Law and Society.

·       Economic approaches to law and development: Principles, effects and defects, supported by British Academy Research Development Award 49019.

·       Law and investor-state-civil society relations, supported by Leverhulme Research Fellowship LARB7.

·       Legal systems as a determinant of foreign direct investment in South Asia, supported by SLSA Research Grant.

Amanda currently convenes modules on Law and Economy and International Economic Law. In recent years she has convened Legal Design, and Research Methods in Law, and taught Property Law.

Amanda is interested in supervising research that takes sociologically, ethnographically and/or visually-attuned approaches to law; especially to the economic life of law.
She has (co)-supervised over a dozen PhDs to completion that have focused on diverse themes and contexts such as foreign investment in Russia and Sri Lanka, waste picking in South Africa, trusts in Thailand, and anti-corruption in Nigeria. 

SFHEA