Profile

I am a feminist researcher with a particular interest in exploring the relationship between education and international development. There are two strands to my current research:

a) Gender, Education and Peace in International Development: My research explores the role and quality of education in promoting gender equality and peacebuilding and unsettles the normative policies and practices by offering a critical, intersectional and decolonial feminist analysis. I employ socially engaged art interventions as a way to understand the local meanings of peace in formal and informal education settings and work on the design and delivery of peace education in conflict settings.

b) Participatory Arts in International Development: The second aspect of my research aims to bring together arts and humanities methods with a research agenda on international development. I use arts methods with marginalised populations in Global South to raise critical consciousness, stimulate change in the community and facilitate public deliberation on important political and social issues that matter to the communities.

Currently, I am leading three projects:

I am leading a British Academy project (PI) that looks at developing a gender-responsive peacebuilding framework to understand the factors, structures, and mechanisms that can enable women as peacebuilders in their own communities within the context of Syria and Turkey.

AHRC GCRF Network Plus Grant, Decolonising Peace Education in Africa: I am a Co-I on this four-year-long project (2020-2024) that seeks to widen access to quality peace education by developing context and gender-sensitive pedagogic content and design of delivery for use among young people across Africa.

AHRC Project, Embedding and Enabling Creative Economy in Marginalised Societies: Creative Skills for Peace (PI). Drawing on the gap of linking up peace education with creative economy and the socio-economic aspects of peace, this project aims to i) strengthen channels of engagement between youth, artists, local communities, art organisations, NGOs, and other stakeholders in South Africa, the UK and Zimbabwe and ii) contribute to creating sustainable peace economy for artists.