Dr Carin Tunåker

Dr Carin Tunåker is a lecturer of Law, specialising in homelessness and inequalities. She is a Social Anthropologist and ethnographer, with experience in working with local communities and disadvantaged populations. Following her PhD in Social Anthropology she worked as an area manager in supported housing for homeless youth, before returning to academia firstly as post-doctoral researcher in projects relating to equality and disadvantages and then as lecturer in the School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research and in Kent Law School. She has taught modules in Social Anthropology, Social Work, Law and Criminology.

Dr Tunåker is internationally recognised for her leadership in research on homelessness and intersectionality, particularly in relation to hidden and marginalised populations. She edited and contributed to a landmark special issue on LGBTQ+ homelessness in Housing Studies (2025), the first international collaboration of its kind. Her work is grounded in epistemic injustice and explores how social systems exclude and render invisible those who do not conform to dominant norms.

She works closely with government bodies and policy organisations to improve outcomes for hidden populations within homelessness and has twice appeared before UK Parliamentary Select Committees to provide expert evidence. Her research has been widely cited in national and international media, and she is frequently invited to comment on issues relating to LGBTQ+ homelessness, youth marginalisation, and social justice.

Dr Tunåker is a named Impact Champion for Kent Law School and holds multiple leadership roles across research centres and networks. She collaborates internationally with scholars across Europe, North America, Latin America and Australia, and is currently preparing a major research endeavour called The HIDDEN Project, which will explore the paradoxes of visibility and exclusion in global homelessness policy.

Dr Tunåker is Co-Director of the Centre for Sexuality, Race and Gender Justice, where she leads interdisciplinary research and public engagement on marginalisation, power and social transformation. She also sits on the leadership team of the Southeast Homelessness Forum, working collaboratively with local authorities, charities and service providers to address regional homelessness through evidence-based policy and practice.

Her ethnographic work is informed by creative and participatory methodologies, including virtual ethnography, urban sketching, and visual methods such as film and photography. She continues to advocate for inclusive research practices that centre lived experience and challenge dominant narratives in law, policy and academia.

Previously Dr Tunåker has taught in Social Anthropology, Violence and Conflict in the Contemporary World, Visual Anthropology, the Anthropology of Business and Crime and Society. She has convened a range of modules in Social Work at UG and PG level, such as Sociological Perspectives, Critical and Reflective Practice and Values, Ethics and Diversity. She has also taught the VALUE programme in Social Anthropology and been a guest lecturer in the Anthropology of Relations as well as for Kent and Medway Medical School on the topic of ‘care’.

 Current modules:

LAWS6960 Race, Sexuality and Gender Justice

Homelessness Law and Policy (Law, module convener)

Public Law 1 (Law)

Land Law (Law)

Dr Tunaker will accept applications for PhD supervision broadly in the research areas of housing, homelessness, gender/queer theory, social justice, legal anthropology, social anthropology and adjacent topics/disciplines. 

Dr Tunåker is highly invested in public engagement and international collaboration. Her work bridges academic research with frontline service development and policy invention. Following her doctoral research into LGBTQ+ youth homelessness in Kent, she worked closely with local charity Porchlight to advocate for a dedicated service for LGBTQ+ young people, resulting in the NHS-funded Kent-wide initiative, The BeYou Project, for which she now acts as consultant. She is also a board member of The Rising Sun Domestic Violence and Abuse Service.

She is the founder of the National Queer Homelessness Coalition, bringing together researchers, activists and service providers to address systemic inequalities in housing and support for queer people experiencing homelessness.

Her international collaborations include a working partnership with the University of Valencia, focusing on comparative approaches to hidden homelessness and intersectional policy.

She has presented her work at numerous national and international conferences, including the Americann Anthropological Association (AAA), European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Homeless Link, and the National Housing Federation (NHF). She has also organised events such as the ‘Ending Homelessness in Kent and Medway’ webinar, and conferences for the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) and the LGBTQ+ Staff Network. Dr Tunåker is a peer reviewer for Social Inclusion, Housing Studies, and Qualitative Methods, and has provided consultancy on LGBTQ+ youth homelessness for organisations including the BBC, NHF, and Children and Young People Now