Dr Naomi Alormele is a Senior Lecturer in Social Care with over a decade of experience in the education sector. She teaches and leads modules across Health and Social Care Practice and wider Social Care degree programmes at the University of Northampton, and also supervises undergraduate dissertations.
Naomi began offering freelance consultancy during her doctoral journey, recognising the urgent need for anti-racist practice and the amplification of voices from racially minoritised groups. Her work is deeply informed by her positionality as a Black British Ghanaian woman, educator, and activist. She holds a BA (Hons) in Applied Social Studies from the University of Bedfordshire and a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education from the Institute of Education (UCL). In 2022, she was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in recognition of her contributions to teaching. In 2023, her work was further recognised with a “Champion for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” award from Loughborough University.
Naomi’s expertise spans anti-racism, intersectionality, racial trauma, colourism, and white privilege. As a writer and public speaker, she shares her work through blogs, panels, presentations, and training. She is also the founder of the Black History Network, which promotes a 365-day approach to Black history in Britain. Her academic and community practice is grounded in social justice, Black feminist thought, and inclusive practice. Naomi integrates creative methodologies into her work—such as storytelling, poetry, and journaling—to explore themes of resistance, resilience, and Black joy. She is particularly interested in how expressive forms of knowledge can challenge dominant narratives, foster healing, and expand the possibilities of teaching, learning, and research in higher education.
"It’s Not in the Crowd...It’s in These Tiny Bands of Sisters": Elevating the Voices of Black Women Working in University Roles Across the Diaspora"
PGR Supervisors: Dr Catherine Armstrong, Dr Jessica Robles, Dr Jenny Prendergast
Dr Naomi Alormele’s research centres on racial and gender equity, anti-racism, and the impacts of trauma, approached through a Black feminist and intersectional lens. Her doctoral research explores the experiences of Black women working in university roles across the Black diaspora, amplifying their voices and examining how they navigate, resist, and survive within higher education institutions. Her work is informed by interdisciplinary influences—including history, sociology, human geography, and social psychology—and interrogates the structural and interpersonal forms of oppression Black women face, including racial violence, colourism, misogynoir, and racial battle fatigue.
At the heart of her approach is storytelling, not only as a method but as a political, emotional, and epistemic tool that honours lived experience and challenges dominant knowledge systems. A key strand of Dr Alormele’s work focuses on Black joy as a radical and embodied form of resistance. She explores how Black joy manifests through collective care and creative expression, particularly via storytelling, poetry, and journaling. These arts-based methods create space for healing, connection, and the reimagining of liberatory futures. Her thesis, “It’s Not in the Crowd...It’s in These Tiny Bands of Sisters”, investigates the role of informal support networks and expressive practices in sustaining Black women’s wellbeing and agency in academia.
The research included contributors based in the UK and Canada, with a view to expanding across other regions of the Black diaspora to foster deeper transnational solidarity. Dr Alormele’s upcoming research builds on this foundation, focusing on emotive storytelling and the use of repetition and metaphor in Black women’s expression as powerful tools for resistance, remembrance, and meaning-making within and beyond academic contexts.
- Osho, Y.I., Alormele, N. Negotiated spaces: black women academics’ experiences in UK universities. High Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01279-x