Staff profile

Katie is a PhD Candidate and Deputy Director of the Human Rights and Public Law Centre. She returned to Durham University, where she graduated with a First-Class degree in Law (LLB), after obtaining a Distinction in International Development Law and Human Rights (LLM) at the University of Warwick. Katie was awarded a Durham Law School PhD Studentship and is a previous recipient of the University of Warwick’s Law School LLM Scholarship for Outstanding Students.

She currently convenes an LLM module in Economic and Social Rights at the University of Nottingham and acts as a PhD tutor for secondary school students as part of The Brilliant Club's Scholars Programme. She is also a PhD Coach for first year undergraduates at Durham as part of The Brilliant Club's Join the Dots Programme. She has previously acted as a Part-Time Tutor in Trusts Law and Foundation Fellow at Durham.

Current Research

Katie’s primary research interest is the right to food. Her PhD is a continuation of her LLM dissertation, in which she examined the impact of the intersection of class and race upon child food security prior to, and during, the COVID-19 pandemic. Katie’s thesis similarly explores the systemic inequalities in access to food in the UK, examining the effect of the state’s austerity measures upon racialised minorities, children, women and people with disabilities. She engages with live issues including the commodification of food and the subsequent rise in food banks, particularly amongst the cost of living crisis. Her research proposes a novel means of approaching food insecurity, namely through the incorporation of care ethics within the human rights framework.

Research Groups

Human Rights and Public Law Centre

Centre for Law and Global Justice

Centre for Law and Philosophy

• Care Ethics
• Economic and Social Rights
• International Human Rights Law
• Right to Food

Book review

• Morris, K. (online). Responsive Human Rights: Vulnerability, Ill-Treatment and the ECtHR. European Human Rights Law Review, 435-436
• Morris, K. (2023). The Right to Food: The Global Campaign to End Hunger by Francis Adams. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Human Rights Review, 24(4), 605-610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-023-00711-6
• Morris, K. (2023). The European Union, Emerging Global Business and Human Rights. Modern Law Review, 86(6), 1560-1564. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12824
• Morris, K. (2023). Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet - and What We Can Do About It. Sociology, 57(3), 707-709. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221146880

Conference Paper

• Morris, K. (2022, December). Young and Hungry: School Meal Policies and Children's Right to Food in the UK and Ireland. Presented at ESRAN-UKI June 2022 Conference, University College Dublin, Ireland
• Morris, K. (2024, February). A forgotten element of the right to food: redressing the normative gap regarding cultural/consumer acceptability. Paper presented at ESRAN-UKI Winter Workshop 2024, University of Essex
• Morris, K. (2022, December). Food Oppression in the United Kingdom: A study of structural race and income-based health inequalities. Presented at SLS-sponsored Collaborative Workshop for PhD Students and Early Career Researchers in Labour Law, Migration & Asylum, Human Rights, and Public Law., University of Bristol, England
• Morris, K. (2023, December). Cultural/Consumer Acceptability: An opportunity for the inclusion of marginalised voices in the realisation of the right to food. Presented at UGENT Human Rights Research Network, 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75: Rethinking and Constructing its Future Together', Ghent University, Belgium
• Morris, K. (2023, June). Vulnerability, Care Ethics and Socioeconomic Rights under Article 3 ECHR. Paper presented at Intensive Doctoral Week, Sciences Po, Paris
• Morris, K. (2023, December). Rethinking children's right to food through Tronto's political theory of care. Presented at Siracusa Second Doctoral Seminar on International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, Siracusa International Institute, Sicily
• Morris, K. (2023, December). Hungry for more than just an education: food insecurity among university students in the UK. Presented at SLSA Annual Conference 2023, Ulster University, Northern Ireland
• Morris, K. (2023, December). 'Right to Food' cities: the role of local governments in the fight against hunger. Presented at Northern UK Human Rights Network Works in Progress Session, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
• Morris, K. (2022, December). Faces of Hunger: An Intersectional Approach to Children's Right to Food in the UK. Presented at SLSA Annual Conference 2022, University of York, England

Journal Article

• Morris, K. (online). Reconceptualising socioeconomic rights: a case for care ethics. The International Journal of Human Rights, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2024.2429469
• Morris, K. (2024). Young and Hungry: School Meal Policies and Children's Right to Food in the UK and Ireland. International Journal of Children's Rights, 32, 354–379
• Morris, K. (2024). Right to Food Cities: the Role of Local Governments in the Fight against Hunger. Journal of Human Rights Practice, 16(2), 572-588. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huae010
• Morris, K. (2024). Young and Hungry: School Meal Polices and Children’s Right to Food in the UK and Ireland. International Journal of Children's Rights, 32(2), 354-379. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-32020003
• Morris, K. A. (2023). Vulnerability, Care Ethics and the Protection of Socioeconomic Rights via Article 3 ECHR. Human Rights Law Review, 23(4), Article ngad028. https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngad028
• Morris, K. (2023). Food oppression in the United Kingdom: A study of structural race and income-based food access inequalities. Journal of Human Rights, 22(5), 697-711. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2259423
• Morris, K. (2023). Hungry for more than just an education: food insecurity amongst UK university students. Durham Law Review, 8, 86-106
• Morris, K. (2022). Faces of Hunger: An Intersectional Approach to Children's Right to Food in the UK. Journal of Law and Society, 49(4), 726-752. https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12397

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Morris, K. (2023). The Cost of Eating: Contemporary Challenges to the Realisation of the Right to Food in the UK. [Blog Post]
• Morris, K. (2022). From Master's thesis to journal article: Reflections on my experience publishing with the JLS