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The Centre draws together scholars from a wide range of departments, including anthropology, development, education, film & media studies, geography, history, laws, psychology and sociology.

Director | Steering group | Associated staff | Associated PhDs | Visiting Fellows

Director

Ìý(Social Research Institute): I am a sociologist, concerned with tracing the ways childhood is experienced, performed, positioned, and figured vis-a-visÌýpeople’s life making practices in neoliberal border regimes. I explore these questions through ethnography and participatory research and am committed to change-orientated research and public engagement for social justice.Ìý

Steering group

Ìý(Culture, Communication & Media): Feryal's research interests lie at the intersection of cultural studies and critical childhood studies. She examines the political, cultural and socioeconomic impact of colonialism on children in Palestine and structural racism in the UK, with a particular focus on identity, borders, policing, and the suppression of Palestine solidarity.Ìý

Lily ChangÌý(History) - Lily is a historian of late imperial and modern China. She specialises on the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) with a particular focus on the intersectionality between law and childhood, including children as an ambiguous category.ÌýÌý Ìý

Darren ChettyÌý(Arts & Sciences): Darren is an internationally recognised scholar on philosophy for/withÌýchildren and has published academic work on philosophy, education, racism, dialogue, children’s literature and hip-hop culture as well as for general readers.Ìý

Ìý(European University Cyprus) – external advisor: Professor Spyrou’s work explores children’s identities in relation to nationalism, migration, and borders; poverty; and social exclusion, with a more recent focus on the ethics and politics of knowledge production in childhood studies.

Associated Staff

(Social Research Institute): Her research focuses on the lived experiences of marginalised children, particularly street-connected girls, exploring issues of violence, gender, social justice, and children's rights, with a commitment to advocating for their welfare and advancing global discourse on children's rights and childhood studies.

(Social Research Institute): Her multidisciplinary research has three distinct but interlinked foci: neoliberalisation of childhood in comparative contexts, with a specific focus on Turkey and Britain; childhood and children’s rights in policy and public discourse; and children’s culture in the twentieth century.

(Education, Practice & Society): A visual and linguistic anthropologist who has done research in Kazakhstan regarding children's play, performance, and puppetry, and in Southeast Europe on amateur filmmaking, migration, and intimacy.

Ìý(Education, Practice & Society): Sara'sÌýresearch interests are in child and youth cultures (including their gendered and sexual cultures) inside and outside the classroom, in creative methodologies for generative research encounters with young people, and in cultural theories that can diffract or open up our understanding of those encounters in new ways.

(Risk and Disaster Reduction): AÌýsocial anthropologist, concerned with how different societies respond to crisis and crisis management. Her research has largely revolved around identity politics in humanitarian livelihood programmes and in .

Ìý(Centre for Education and International Development): Elaine’s teaching and research focus on the sociological dimensions of health and the promotion of wellbeing and rights of individuals and communities most likely to experience marginalisation and exclusion in contexts of migration, displacement, crisis and conflict.ÌýÌý

Ìý(Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents): Delan is a public health doctor with clinical expertise in paediatrics and in humanitarian contexts. He works on child health in relation to: violence and conflict; migration; racism; and climate change.

Ìý(Social Research Institute): A psychosocial researcher focused on questions of childhood and generation in relation to migration and welfare regimes.

Ìý(Anthropology): Emily is an interdisciplinary evolutionary anthropologist researching the impact of social support around children, adolescents and families in low-fertility populations, including how the mis-match between the norms and realities of childrearing impacts children and caregivers.

Ìý(Culture, Communication & Media): Associate professor of media and cultural studies, with an experience on working with children and adolescents in urban poverty and emergency contexts. He has carried out research in the context of migration and refugee emergency, organised digital storytelling workshops on everyday experiences of migrant communities and delivered courses on media and children-rights, in close collaboration with UNICEF, UNHCR, local and international NGOs.

(Social Research Institute): From sociological and anthropological perspectives, Charlotte's work has focussed on parenting, gender and reproduction using qualitative and cross-cultural methodologies. This has explored infant feeding, couple relationships, intergenerational relations and the impact of coronavirus on family life.Ìý

Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Geography): Professor in Migration and Refugee Studies.

Ìý(Laws): AÌýlawyer with a background also in social policy and empirical research, working mainly on the law relating to children in family disputes and children’s rights.

Ìý(Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment): Lauren is a geography (teacher) educator by background, and her research lies in, and across, the fields of children’s geographies, geography education, and geographies of education and education spaces.

Ìý(Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment): My work is mainly about listening to children’s voices from their educational settings, in relation to social justice.Ìý I have just started a new project, listening to girl-children’s experiences of climate change education in Egypt, funded by British Academy.

(Social Research Institute) AÌýsocial scientist with a research focus on children, young people, and families, particularly care-experienced youth and foster families, using participatory approaches to understanding marginalized childhoods.

Ìý(Social Research Institute): Specialising in research with children in care and care experienced young people, early childhood care and education, child and family social policy and evaluations of services and programmes designed to support the lives and wellbeing of children and their families.Ìý

Ìý(Social Research Institute): A social and cultural psychologist, whose research centres on the identity, historical and contemporary lived experiences of migrant and minority families, children and young people. This includes citizenship experiences and statelessness, social representations, and social activism.

(Population, Policy & Practice Dept): Matt is interested in the intersections of (family) law and health, particularly from an epidemiological perspective.

(Social Research Institute, Thomas Coram Research Unit).Ìý I am a qualitative sociologist with a background in Chinese Studies and interest in the study of gender, families and childhood, and I am currently working on a NIHR funded health visiting in England for families facing adversity.

(SELCS): Professor of Latin American Film and Culture

Ìý(Social Research Institute): Veena is a Lecturer in Sociology. Her research focuses onÌýtheÌýreproduction of inequalities through the intersections of 'race', generation and migration, and with children and young people in familial, care and school contexts.

(Social Research Institute): Her research explores the experiences of critically ill babies, young children, and their families as they navigate complex healthcare systems and how to improve the delivery of compassionate, effective paediatric care.

(Thomas Coram Research Unit): AÌýhistorian by background, with an interest in early childhood systems and pedagogy, democratic culture in education, the place of care in education and beyond, and the implications of the polycrisis and the decline of neoliberalism for the education of children and for educational institutions.

(Social Research Institute): Kirrily'sÌýresearch, teaching and public engagement concerns global childhoods and children's rights especially in relation to violence, memory, peace, and social justice using creative, arts-based methods and co-production.

(Social Research Institute): Professor of Psychosocial Studies,Ìýher research interests include intersectional perspectives on childhoods.

(Culture, Communication & Media): Professor of Media in Education with a background in primary teaching and advisory work, interested in participatory research in media arts and play, with a focus on children's cultural production and recording of their lived experience.

(Development Planning Unit): Professor of Participatory Development Planning.

Ìý(Education, Practice & Society): Professor Ringrose specialises in children's experiences of social media, technologically facilitated violence, digital literacy and online safety.

Helen RobertsÌý(°×С½ãÂÛ̳ Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health): AÌýmedical sociologist interested in inequalities in child health and what can be done about them.

Ìý(Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment): With an interdisciplinary background in early childhood education and international development, I am interested in education and social justice research that uses multimodal participatory design to empower children, fostering a more inclusive way for them to share their lived experiences.

(Arts & Sciences): Wendy is an interdisciplinary psychologist with a specific interest in historic and contemporary practices around wellbeing, eclectic resilience (including resistance and defiance) and coproduction with children and young people from disadvantaged, displaced and marginalised communities.

Ìý(Social Research Institute): I am committed to addressing complex societal challenges at the intersections of children’s rights, mental health and sustainability through use of holistic approaches and creative research methods.

(Learning & Leadership): Diana's research interests revolve around global education systems, policies, and practices, focusing on examining and exploring the significance and impact of democratic cultures on early childhood (and all) education.

(Institute of Education) Stuart's research interests focus on the areas of critical youth studies; educational equality and justice in a global context; the social politics of immigration, work and education; and alternative forms of radical, popular, democratic and environmental education.Ìý

(Education, Practice & Society): Yan’s research focuses on children’s rights and welfare, children’s personal lives, relationships and emotional wellbeing, with her most recent project exploring the complexity and diversity of Chinese children’s understandings and practices of peer friendships in the context of a rural primary boarding school.

Associated PhD students

(Social Research Institute):ÌýChildhood and parenting practices in migrant families in Chile.

(Education, Practice & Society): A Study in Blood: Researching Menstruation and Gender Identities Becoming with Chinese Adolescents

(Social Research Institute): Producing migrant otherness: An ethnographic study in a school in northern Chile

(IOE Social Research Institute): Child Gifting Practices in Rural China

Ìý(IOE Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment): Investigating young children and families' interaction in a natural history gallery and an anthropological gallery

Ìý(Social Research Institute):ÌýMigratory Birds: inter-generational dynamics in the context of cyclical family separation and reunion among Chinese ‘liushou’ families

Ìý(Education, Practice and Society): Intersectional analysis of inclusive education in Nepal

Ìý(IOE Learning & Leadership): A Socio-educational Perspective on How Children Living in the UAE Conceptualise Their Human Rights.

Ìý(Social Research Institute):ÌýIdling No More: Youth as Caretakers in the Climate Crisis

(Social Research Institute): Reimagining Protection in Children’s Everyday Life: An Ethnography in Southern Chile

Ìý(Education, Practice and Society): Exploring participatory practices in Chilean early childhood education

Visiting Fellows

We welcome international research fellows to apply to join the centre for short term stays.

Previous visiting fellows include:

(Professor in the School of Humanities, Universidad de San Martín, Argentina): Director of the Center for the Studies of Inequalities, Subjects and Institutions (CEDESI) with research interests in childhood, gender rights and the politics of inequalities. – Escuela de Humanidades, UNSAM 2024

(Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of California Santa Cruz, United States): An interdisciplinary scholar whose work focuses on the political lives of children and youth across the Americas, with an emphasis on youth activists and youth social movements. – Fullbright Global Scholar Award 2022

(Professor, Sociocultural Anthropology): His work has explored children’s identities (especially in relation to nationalism, migration, and borders), poverty, and social exclusion, with a more recent focus on the ethics and politics of knowledge production in childhood studies.Ìý– Erasmus Plus 2022

(Associate Professor at the School of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Universidad de Santiago, Chile):Ìý Research interests include childhood and parenting studies, and care circulation. - 2016