Dr Roxana Willis

Roxana joined LSE Law School as an Assistant Professor in January 2023. Her research investigates the legal system through the prism of structural inequality, with a focus on class and race. Roxana’s first monograph, A Precarious Life, presents a long-term ‘ethnography at home’ on a disadvantaged housing estate in England. In the book, Roxana draws on legal anthropology, philosophical enquiry, and the history of ideas to offer a fresh account of criminal law from the perspectives of those who are often brought under its remit. In addition to working within her home community, Roxana is interested in the interconnections between people and continents, and in this vein she examines similar themes of conflict, violence, and structural inequality in the context of Cameroon.

Roxana has taught in the areas of law, criminology, and research methods. This includes five years lecturing in Criminal Law at the University of Oxford and two years lecturing in Crime Policy at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She currently teaches Criminal Law and Family Law at LSE.

Before arriving at LSE, Roxana completed a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Junior Research Fellowship at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Oxford, and a Stipendiary Junior Research Fellowship in Law at University College, Oxford. She holds an LLB in Law with European Legal Studies from the University of Kent and Charles University, Prague; an LLM in International Economic Law from SOAS, London; and a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford.

• Class and race inequality
• Criminal law
• Conflict and violence
• Ethnography and legal anthropology
• Legal history (especially the making of the modern law and the emergence of civil order)
• Legal philosophy
• Social philosophy
• Decolonial methodology
• Theatre of the oppressed
• West African law and philosophy

LL108 Criminal Law

LL221 Family Law

Outreach teaching

• Lecturer at Grendon Prison Learning Together Programme (January 2019)
• Mentor in the "What If…" Rap Project with socioeconomically disadvantaged young people in Blackbird Leys, Oxford (August 2018)
• Opportunity Programme Tutor, University College, University of Oxford (August 2017 – July 2020)

Civil engagement and project management

• Founding Partner of ALL for Cameroon, Law Chambers (November 2009 – ongoing) – a pro bonolaw chambers providing free legal services in all areas of law in the North West Region of Cameroon for those unable to otherwise afford it.
• Creator and Manager of Hearing Young Voices(October 2016 – July 2017) – a public engagement drama project which involved supporting children excluded from mainstream education create and perform their own plays on youth mental health.
• Creator and Manager of Healing Minds(July 2013 – October 2014) – an international research project, involving a network of researchers, psychiatrists, policymakers, and theatre practitioners which encouraged public engagement with mental health research in India.
• Creator and Manager of Act for Change in Cameroon(October 2012 – June 2013) – a drama and arts exchange project between University of Oxford students and youth actors in Cameroon, resulting in 10 interactive community plays and a performance on national television.
• Adviser, Voluntary Services Overseas(October 2009 – September 2011) – supporting local government in Cameroon during a period of decentralisation.