Centre for People's Justice

The Centre for People’s Justice (CPJ) is a five-year, UK-wide collaborative research centre funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of a £4.1m UKRI award. Launched in May 2025, CPJ brings together researchers, communities, and organisations to co-produce research that supports fairer, safer, and more inclusive societies.

The Centre is led by the University of Liverpool Law School and delivered through a dispersed leadership model, with partners including the Universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Swansea, Ulster, and Wrexham, alongside the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. This shared approach ensures that leadership, expertise, and decision-making are embedded across regions, disciplines and communities.

What CPJ does

CPJ works in partnership with communities to develop research questions and design projects together, ensuring that lived experiences sit at the heart of justice-focused research. A defining feature of the Centre is its use of arts-based and creative approaches alongside developing a social justice methodology, enabling new ways of understanding how law is experienced, challenged and changed. 

The Centre’s research is organised across three interconnected, trauma-informed strands:

• Learning Culture (LC) – exploring how people learn about law, justice and rights in everyday life
• Education and Training (EAT) – developing skills, knowledge and capacity for justice-focused research and practice
• Project Ethics and Methods (PEM) – advancing ethical and creative research methods

Wrexham University’s role

Wrexham University plays a significant role within CPJ, contributing place-based, creative, and trauma-informed expertise that reflects the needs and experiences of communities in North Wales.

Three academics from Wrexham University act as Centre Conveners:

• Dr Caroline Hughes – Place-Based Convenor
• Dr Tegan Brierley-Sollis – Trauma-Informed Convenor
• Professor Karen Heald – Arts and Creative Methods Convenor

In addition, Dr Tracy Simpson, Dr Grace Thomas, Rachel Byron, Paula Wood and Natalie Saunders are involved as Academic Associates, supporting research, engagement, and training activity across the Centre.

Wrexham’s involvement ensures that CPJ’s work is grounded in local contexts while contributing to national conversations about justice, participation and accountability.