UNESCO

Kirsten Kristensen

David is a researcher, teacher and creative writer who has spent some 45 years teaching and researching Education in the global South, notably in West and Southern Africa, South-East Asia and the Caribbean. His research areas include qualitative research methodologies – a recent book explores the use of narrative and life history approaches in International Education (Routledge, 2020) –  the relationships between Cuture and International Education, the importance of context in research, and the role of children in Education and Development.

He joined the University of Brighton in 2006 as Professor of International Education. Prior to that he was a professor in Oslo, and has held senior positions at Sussex and the UCL Institute of Education. For a number of years he worked as an academic in Northern Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. He has advised several leading NGOs such as Save the Children, Child-to-Child and UNESCO.

David is interested in issues of agency and empowerment – particularly of children – and the collaborative relationships that can be established between classroom teachers, universities, and grassroots organisations. Currently he is leading a World Bank funded project to introduce and embed Participatory Action Research (PAR) into Gambian primary schools.

David holds an M.Ed in the Teaching of English Literature and a PhD in Education. His doctoral dissertation focused upon cultural identity and educational change in Northern Nigeria.

David is also a creative writer, and is currently completing his second novel, The Disappeared which is set in Peru. In normal circumstances David divides his time between Brighton and Lima.

Ginny Morrow is Visiting Professor at UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, UK and  Research Associate, Young Lives, Department of International Development, University of Oxford. She was Deputy Director of Young Lives (a study of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, see www.younglives.org.uk)  from 2011 to 2017.

Previously she held academic positions at the University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, Brunel University and the University of London Institute of Education, where she was programme leader of the MA Sociology of Childhood and Children’s Rights, from 2004 to 2010.

Her research focuses on children’s work, violence affecting children, sociological approaches to the study of childhood and children’s rights, the ethics of social research with children, children’s understandings of family, and children and ‘social capital’. She has published extensively, and has been a member of numerous Advisory Groups and Research Ethics Committees. She also acts as Ethics Advisor on research projects. She was a co-editor of Childhood: A Journal of Global Child Research from 2006 to 2016.

Inés is a creative producer, project manager and community researcher whose work focuses on the arts, creative education and cultural activism as a means of empowering communities and facilitating authentic cross-cultural collaboration on a local and global scale. She joined University of Leeds in 2016 as Project Officer for the AHRC GCRF project ‘Voicing Hidden Histories’, exploring community filmmaking across Brazil, India and South Africa and producer of the Sadler Seminar series “Remapping World Cinemas in the Digital Age”. She is the Project Manager of the ‘Changing the Story’ GCRF project. 

Inés is particularly interested in the relationship between academic research, grassroots cultural organisations and youth voice and the impact that such relationships can bring to social change when nurtured. Since graduating in 2008, she has worked with a diverse range of art forms across the academic, cultural, and creative industry sectors, including the British Council, Contact Theatre, and South Asian Arts UK. She spent 4 years as part of the multi-award winning In Place of War team at The University of Manchester, working with artists and creative communities in sites of conflict and post-conflict, producing a range of international academic and cultural events across the UK and establishing vibrant cross-sector networks across The Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

Inés has an MA in French Cultural Studies and a PGDip in Arts Management, Policy & Practice. She has published a range of articles and chapters exploring community-led arts programmes for social change and is co-editor with Prof. Paul Cooke of the book “Participatory Arts for International Development” (Routledge, 2019).

Tim Prentki is Emeritus Professor of Theatre for Development at the University of Winchester. He has supervised projects and conducted training in TfD in many parts of the world. He is the author of ‘The Fool in European Theatre’ and ‘Applied Theatre: Development’. He is co-editor of ‘The Applied Theatre Reader’ and of ‘The Routledge Companion to Applied Performance’.

Vyonne Akoth is the founder and director of Impart Change, a local non-profit organization that empowers children and youth to be sustainable peace champions in their local communities. She is a 2019 Sakharov Fellow with the European Parliament and a 2019 Emerging Leader with the Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program.