Dr Olaoluwa Olusanya

PhD, PGCert, LLM, LLB (Hons), FHEA

Profile

I am currently Reader in Law at the Department of Law and Criminology where I am the Founder and Principal Investigator (Director) of the Veterans Legal Link project. 

Over the years, I have held several senior academic leadership positions including as Associate Dean Alumni relations, Institute of Business and Law) (2016-18) and Director of Learning, Department of Law and Criminology (2018-24).

Currently, I undertake several external leadership roles that are reflective of my interests including: Member Office for Veterans' Affairs (OVA) UK Government Academic Advisory Board, Member National Advice Network (NAN) Welsh Government, Member Wales Pro Bono Committee, Member Advance HE Strategic Advisory Group Learning and Teaching, Member Pers Hwb (Personnel Hub) Coordination Panel, British Army (Wales) and Member Ceredigion Armed Forces Community Covenant. I was also a Member of Forces in Mind Trust Research Centre Advisory Group and a Member of the Board of Trustees of Citizens Advice Ceredigion.

As founder of the Family Legal Clinic (FLC), I feel proud that we won the prestigious Highly Commended Award in the Best Contribution by a Pro Bono Clinic category (LawWorks Pro Bono Awards). I have been shortlisted twice for the National Teaching Fellowship award in recognition of my contributions to clinical legal education (the study of law through real-world legal activities).

 

Research

I am a Socio-Legal researcher with a particular specialism in the armed forces community. In recent years, my work has been underpinned by Legal Realism (Law in action) and lives at the intersection of health and justice, with a particular focus on issues of access to justice for veterans and their families.  

As Principal Investigator for the Veterans Legal Link project https://www.veteranslegallink.org/ , I lead a multi-disciplinary team comprising lawyers, computer scientists and sociologists. As the only project dedicated to veterans free legal advice and specialist support services in the UK, we have been utilising unique service access and data to explore a number of research challenges in the field of access to justice. For more details, click on the following link https://research.aber.ac.uk/en/persons/olaoluwa-olusanya 

I have been awarded as PI, over £1 million in grants funding from the National Lottery Community Fund and the Ministry of Defence. 

The Veterans Legal Link project relies on an extensive network of stakeholders and partner organisations so as to meet the complex needs of vulnerable veterans and their families. In order to better meet these complex needs, the project used participatory action research approaches to develop Auxilium Software Portal https://auxiliumsoftware.co.uk/ 

Responsibilities

 

Director of Postgraduate Studies (August 2024-)

Founder and Principal Investigator (Director) of the Veterans Legal Link project (2015-till date) 

Office Hours (Student Contact Times)

  • Tuesday 13.00-14.00
  • Friday 11.00-12.00

Publications

Beardmore, T, Collier, W, Olusanya, O, Griffith, G, Knapp, VJ & Baldwin, A 2024, 'The positive impact of legal advice and services on the mental wellbeing of UK veterans', International Journal of the Legal Profession. 10.1080/09695958.2024.2351875
Collier, W, Olusanya, O, Griffith, G, Knapp, VJ, Šmid, L & Snook, C 2023, 'Legal help-seeking behaviour among veterans: the link between time elapsed in seeking help and legal options to address a legal matter', International Journal of the Legal Profession, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 23-35. 10.1080/09695958.2023.2190897
Olusanya, O, Collier, W, Marshall, S, Knapp, VJ & Baldwin, A 2022, 'Access to Justice software development, Participatory Action Research Methods and Researching the Lived Experiences of British Military Veterans', Journal of Legal Research Methodology, vol. 2, no. 1. <https://www.northumbriajournals.co.uk/index.php/jlrm/article/view/1240>
Olusanya, O, Collier, W, Marshall, S, Knapp, VJ & Baldwin, A 2022, 'Enhancing Digitally-Mediated Human-Centred Design With Digitally-Mediated Community Based Participatory Research Approaches for the Development of a Digital Access-to-Justice Platform for Military Veterans and Their Families', Journal of Participatory Research Methods, vol. 3, no. 2. 10.35844/001c.37039
Olusanya, O 2021, 'Comorbid British veteran offenders: Themes in judges’ sentencing remarks', The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology , vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 107-118. 10.1080/14789949.2020.1831576
More publications on the Research Portal