Distinguished Urban Migration Scholar and Public Policy Expert
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Michael Keith serves as Director of the PEAK Urban Research programme and brings extensive experience in both academia and public service. His academic leadership includes serving as Director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at Oxford University until 2019, coordinating Urban Transformations for the Economic and Social Research Council until 2021, and co-directing the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities. His research focuses on migration-related urban change, with recent publications including "Urban Transformations and Public Health in the Emergent City" and "African Cities and Collaborative Futures" (Manchester University Press), along with "The Unfinished Politics of Race" (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Beyond academia, he has twenty years of experience as a politician in London's East End, serving as a local authority leader and founding member of various urban regeneration initiatives. His commitment to social justice extends to decades of voluntary sector work, from addressing racism and criminal justice to co-founding and chairing the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, the UK's largest multicultural arts centre.