Scholars’ Network Spotlight: Nini Kerr

Dr Nini Kerr is a Psychoanalytic practitioner living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is also a lecturer and a researcher at the University of Edinburgh.

Her teaching approach embraces anti-oppressive pedagogical praxis and advocates for a politically sensitive curriculum that addresses social and political inequality training and in therapeutic settings. She was awarded the university-wide research award in the category of ‘Positive Disruptor’ for her sustained achievements in addressing social inequality through research in 2022. She has also been recently awarded the Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS) in 2023 for her project on ‘Decolonising Counselling and Psychotherapy: Reflections from Psychosocial Perspectives’ which was also the first project to engage with the decolonial initiatives in counselling training at Edinburgh.

She is extensively published in psychosocial studies and her most recent works include ‘Culture as the Bad Object’ as well as a chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies entitled ‘Psychosocial Reflexivity in Counseling Education’ – both of which unravel “the many paradoxes and unrelenting complexities within our subjectivity”.

She is currently leading a BA/Leverhulme funded research project in collaboration with Dr Lucy Stroud and Station House Media Unit (shmu) addressing youth poverty in Scotland.

Nini spent three years on the editorial board of BPC Magazine New Associations alongside fellow BPC Scholars, Helen Morgan, Dr Noreen Giffney and Dr Debbie Wright, commissioning and editing essays for the magazine. She has also written multiple articles for New Associations: ‘The Yellow Abject’ in our Autumn 2021 issue discussed the rise in anti-Asian hate-crimes during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In our Autumn 2022 issue, Nini wrote a piece that grapples with whiteness, speaking from the margins, stereotypes and ideals.

As part of our spotlight, we’ve uploaded Nini’s talk from a Scholars Webinar held in 2021. Watch her discuss ‘Identity and Belonging’ below: