Leyla joined CYCJ in March 2024 as Research Associate on the UKRI-funded project ‘Men Minds: Co-producing change for better mental health for adolescent young men at the margins’. The two-year project commenced in January 2023 and is a collaboration with young men and colleagues at the Universities of Strathclyde, Monash University and the Mental Health Foundation. Men Minds aims to advance adolescent mental health research by increasing understanding about how we can effectively engage marginalised adolescents in co-producing research, as well as co-produce more accessible mental health research methods for adolescent young men.
Leyla’s previous role was as a Research Fellow at Queen Margaret University working from 2019-2024 across two AMIF funded practice-research partnerships in the Migration Integration and Social Connection Team; New Scots: A Pathway to Social and Economic Inclusion, and the Family Reunion and Integration Service. Leyla also conducted a review of the Healing Neighbourhoods project on behalf of Freedom for Torture.
Leyla’s background is in social anthropology and migration research with a key interest in the role of place in processes of local integration and social connectedness. She is also interested in using and developing visual and participative methodologies. She has worked extensively in the field of social justice as a senior researcher in the Scottish Government and for Barnardo’s. Leyla also practices as a trained life coach and Iyengar yoga teacher part-time.