Email: T.Varnava@soton.ac.uk
Tel: +44 23 8059 0958
Tracey Varnava is a Research Fellow currently working on the Tackling Household Debt and Eviction project funded by the Aberdeen Financial Fairness Trust (aFFT): https://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/projects/tackling-housing-debt-eviction. Tracey's main duties are to collect, analyse and interpret research data, prepare project documentation, organise project meetings and events and disseminate project information and findings.
Tracey’s current research with Professor Whitehouse involves an investigation of the experiences of those in housing debt and at threat of eviction to understand why there is limited engagement by occupiers in the arrears and eviction process. The project aims to test whether better, more meaningful engagement between occupiers and housing providers could reduce the likelihood of eviction. The project employs a mixed methods approach and collects data from those involved in the arrears management process, such as debt advisers, lawyers, court officials and lenders, as well as occupiers and housing providers. The project will provide evidence-based and user-led proposals to remove barriers to engagement and will make a unique contribution to knowledge in this area by offering an informed and representative narrative on housing debt together with an evaluation of the causal relationship between engagement and home loss.
Tracey began her career as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Leicester specialising in criminal law and criminology. She then moved to the University of Warwick to manage the National, later UK, Centre for Legal Education (UKCLE), developing services to support more effective learning, teaching and assessment practices in law schools across the UK. While at the UKCLE, Tracey encouraged the establishment of the Law Teacher of the Year award and was a member of the first judging panel. She was also involved as a member of the Subject Benchmark Statement for Law Review Group, with responsibility for drafting the learning, teaching and assessment section. Tracey has co-produced and edited teaching guides for core and optional law subjects in her roles at the UKCLE and subsequently as Deputy Director of the Undergraduate Laws Programme at the University of London. Tracey received an award for outstanding contribution to legal education from the Association of Law Teachers and has received two awards for teaching innovation from the University of London. Tracey is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Tracey started work on the Household Debt and Eviction project in October 2022. Tracey’s PhD thesis, undertaken at the University of Kent, examined the governance of street homelessness in Canterbury. Previously, Tracey has managed a range of research teams and projects during her time as Associate Director of the UK Centre for Legal Education at the University of Warwick and then as Education Research Manager at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, where she oversaw the production of the Legal Education and Training Review report. Tracey has a BA (Law) from the University of Kent and an MPhil in Criminology from Cambridge University.