Her work explores the achievements and experiences of minority ethnic groups in education with a focus on how processes of racism, exclusion and marginalisation operate in predominantly White spaces.

[3] Here she conducted research on the educational experiences of UK Gypsy and Travellers[4] During her early career she claims to have experienced both subtle and overt racism.

[6] Here she researched the considerable effort that black and ethnic minority staff have to make to reach higher levels of academia[7][8] and the educational experiences of other underrepresented groups including Gypsies and Travellers.

[13] Bhopal was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to race equality in education.

[15] She claims that racism is present in academia in various ways; including the marginalisation of black and minority ethnic staff, their exclusion from decision-making, frequent micro-aggressions, implicit bias and open prejudice.