Leah's research interests include the political sociology of migration, intersectionality and citizenship. She has explored these topics in England, Scotland, France and Canada.

Leah completed her DPhil From Refugee Woman to Citizen: The Politics of Integration in France and Canada at Nuffield College/Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford where she was a Commonwealth Scholar. She also holds a B.A. and M.A. from McGill University, Canada, in Political Science. Leah is Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Leah joined the Department of Social Sciences in 2018.  She came from the University of Leicester where she was recruited as New Blood Lecturer, then Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Leicester (2011-18). 

Leah previously worked as Lecturer in Sociology at City University London (2008-11).  She held Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at the Refugee Studies Centre/Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford funded by the ESRC and with the Group for the Study of Ethnicity, Racism, Migration and Exclusion at the Institute of Sociology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Before pursuing an academic career, Leah was an emergency outreach worker in Paris, where she provided humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers and created a circus camp project for refugee youth.