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I began my career as a primary school teacher and was then in civil service for over a decade before completing my PhD. As a result I have been - and continue to be - committed to social change through education and evidence-informed policy.

My research is focused on understanding the ways in which children, adolescents and emerging adults survive and thrive when life is challenging, particularly in a digital world, and in relation to addressing child abuse/neglect/maltreatment and child protection. I take a multisystemic approach to understanding childhood resilience; in effect this means that resilience is not the responsibility solely of an individual or wholly an inherent character trait but resilience pathways arise and are travelled through the interplay of many systems all of which themselves require resilience enablers. I align myself with the Africa(n)-aligned/Africa(n)-centred research movement as most of my research is located in and carried out with people in sub-Saharan Africa who are vastly under-represented in most literatures on childhood and adolescence.

Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Selected externally-funded awards:

UK Lead/CI: (£5,000,000, Wellcome Trust, 2024 - 2028)

CI:  (£48,000, British Academy, 2025-2026)

CI: From Evidence to Action: Strengthening Child Wellbeing Systems in South Africa (£150,000, British Academy, 2025-2026)

PI: (£50,000, British Academy, 2021 - 2024)

CI: (PI: Dr Fransiska Louwagie £300,000, AHRC, 2021 - 2022)

PI: Child youth and family wellbeing in a digital world (£10,000, Internet Matters, 2021)

UK PI: Digital storytelling and youth resilience in South Africa (PI: Prof Linda Theron Pretoria, £20,000, British Academy Newton Fund, 2018)

CI: Rutherford Fund Strategic Partnership Grant & Workshop (PI: Prof Lisa Smith, £46,000, BEIS/UUKi, 2018)

CI: DigiGen: The impact of technological transformations on the digital generation (UK PI: Prof Athina Karatzogianni, £1,000,000, H2020)

CI: CoMaCH: Co-designing community-based ICT interventions to enhance maternal and child health in South Africa (PI: Dr Melissa Densmore/Dr Nervo Verdezoto Dias; £150,000, Global Challenges Research Fund, 2019-2020)

MEL: Mental Neurological and Substance Use Disorders in Guyana’s Jails: 1825 to the Present Day (PI: Prof Clare Anderson; Dr Melissa Ifill; £1,200,000, Global Challenges Research Fund, 2019) 

Selected internally-funded awards:

Co-PI: FGM/C dashboard: turning data into actionable intelligence with Dr Himanshu Kaul (Engineering) and Sean Callaghan (ESRC IAA, £7,000)

CI: Youth-led impact to support pregnant adolescent girls in Kenya with Dr Michelle O'Reilly, Dr Elijah Getanda, and Prof Panos Vostanis (ESRC IAA, £7,000)

Co-PI: Perceptions of safety and resilience: mapping the environmental experiences of children living in Orange Farm township (Co-PI: Dr Sarah Johnson £8,000, GCRF (Research England), 2021)

CI: Political Cartooning and Peace-Building in Conflict and Post-Conflict Contexts (PI: Dr Fransiska Louwagie, with Africartoons, Dr Betty Mwiti, Dr Ingrid Bamberg, Tache d’Encre, £10,000, GCRF (Research England), 2021)

CI: Air quality and youth resilience in South Africa (PI: Prof Martin Tobin, with Dr Caradee Wright, SAMRC, £17,000, GCRF(Research England), 2020)

PI: South African Youth resilience during COVID-19 (with Prof Linda Theron, £17,000, GCRF (Research England), 2020)

I am also grateful for support from the ESRC Impact Accelerator Account, Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund, and the CSSAH College Research Development Fund. 

Current doctoral researchers:

Fatmata Daramy 

Hedan Duan

John Ikeyi

Bello Kabara

Alberta Ofosu

Morenike Oyenubi 

Lindah Wakhungu

Completed doctoral researchers: 

Hafzah Shah 

Current:

CR2019: Criminological Research Methods 1

CR2021:Criminological Research Methods 2

CR2004: Global Alternative Justice (Co-Convenor)

CR7146: Criminological Research Methods

SY3091: Education and Social Justice

SY3095: Sociology of Health and Illness

Previous:

SY3043: Introduction to Second Language Teaching (Convenor)

SY2093: Doing Social Research

CR2008: Understanding Numbers in Social Science

CR7721: Research Methods 1 (Distance Learning) 

CR7723: Research Methods 2 (Distance Learning)

MSc Educational Leadership (Distance Learning)

Childhood and adolescence in low resource and stressed environments.

2023 - present: Organising group member: National Centre for Research Methods Collaborative and Participatory Special Interest Group

2021 - present: Invited member: UK Child Internet Safety Digital Resilience Working Group

2020 - present: Editorial Board Member: Child Abuse and Neglect

2013 - present: Journals review: Youth and Society; Computers in Human Behavior; Social Science and Medicine; New Media and Society British Journal of Educational Technology; Technology Pedagogy and Education.

2009 - present: Funding bodies review: ESRC Peer Review College Newton Fund British Council GCRF Peer Review College

2007 - 2011: National Research Group member: Training and Development Agency; National College for School Leadership; UK Council for Child Internet Safety Evidence Group cross-government Serious Games Group

Â鶹ÊÓƵ 'Inspirational Women' 2022: /inspirational-women 

Discovering Excellence Award 2017: Exceptional Team Member

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy: 2022

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy: 2021