The Race, Empire and Education Collective is supported by a diverse membership of individuals in a range of settings, such as higher education and not-for-profit organisations. It is organised and facilitated by a small team shown below (in reverse alphabetical order!).
Sharon Walker is a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge researching race equality in UK higher education policy. She has also co-authored on race and racism in education and international development. She also works with school leaders and teachers on anti-racist education initiatives.
I am Shuling Wang, a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Before my PhD study, I undertook an MA in the Sociology of Education at University College London. I am particularly interested in how racism/whiteness operates in China and how racism impacts educational inequality. My PhD research focuses on Chinese teachers' encounters with whiteness.
Arathi is a Professor of Education at the University of Bristol. She is a sociologist of education with an interest in the relationship between epistemic justice and racial justice.
Amina Shareef is a PhD student. She looks at the impact of the War on Terror on young British Muslim girls' belonging.
I am a lecturer in the sociology of education at the University of Cambridge. My work focuses on issues of gender and identity in education, particularly in situations of conflict, displacement and transition. I have worked particularly with civil society and women's-led organisations, exploring activist-led education responses challenging social inequalities and addressing legacies of violence.
Daphne Martschenko PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics with support from a National Human Genome Research Institute’s Ethical Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Program training grant. Daphne received a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Cambridge in 2019 under the supervision of Anna Vignoles and Jo-Anne Dillabough. Her dissertation investigated teacher perspectives on the role and relevance of genetic data for education, focusing in particular on how behavioral genetics research on educational attainment and intelligence intersected with educators' conceptualizations of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the American education system. Currently, Daphne's work advocates for and facilitates cross-disciplinary research efforts that promote socially and ethically responsible communication of social and behavioral genomics research.
Breanna J. McDaniel is the author of the picture book Hands Up!, a book reviewer, education consultant and researcher. She holds an MA in Children’s Literature from Simmons University and is currently pursuing her PhD in Education at the University of Cambridge with research focused on representations of black children in contemporary picture books. She's the co-founder of Researchers Exploring Inclusive Youth Literature (REIYL) and though she's originally from Atlanta,GA she now splits her time between the US and UK.
Elissavet's work focuses on access to quality and equitable education for displaced youth. She has studied World Politics in the Netherlands and Argentina and holds an MPhil in Education from Cambridge University. She has previously worked in peace education in Cyprus and refugee education in Greece and the UK. She is currently the Education Coordinator and Greece Programme Coordinator at Amala, a UK-based organisation which has created and launched the first international high school diploma programme for displaced learners.
Aliya Khalid is an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on gender, education and epistemic justice. More recently she is developing a focus on the politics of knowledge production in the field of education and international development
Rebecca Gordon (She/Her) is a Research Fellow in Leadership for Inclusive and Democratic Politics at the University of Birmingham. Her research particularly focuses on the ways in which parliamentarians can mobilise and support inclusive change. She is also interested in feminist epistemologies and methodologies in ethics and research.
I am a PhD student at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. My research and political interests revolve around anti-Roma racism and (youth) activism in my home-country, Romania, but also in (Eastern) Europe more broadly. I seek to engage with decolonial theoretical and methodological perspectives in my work, thinking about imperial and colonial influences in the Eastern European periphery. I love yoga, walks and podcasts, and my pronouns are she/her.
Tyler Denmead teaches in the Faculty of Education and Queens' College at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Creative Underclass: Youth, Race, and the Gentrifying City (Duke University Press, 2019).
Meghna Nag Chowdhuri is a Research Fellow at University College London Institute of Education. Her research explores ways of incorporating social justice ideas into primary science and mathematics teaching. Her other interests include primary teacher education, international education and curriculum development.