Dr Melis Cin

Senior Lecturer in Education and Social Justice

Profile

I am a feminist researcher with a particular interest in exploring the relationship between education, gender, 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 the 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 two projects:

AHRC GCRF Network Plus Grant, Decolonising Peace Education in Africa: I am a Co-I on this four-year-long project (2020-2025) 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, Building Equitable African-Led Partnerships Across Africa: Setting the Agendas for Gender, Conflict, and Creative Economies: This project focuses on three critical themes: girls and women, conflict, and the creative economy, aims to build on a decade of research, work, partnerships, and engagement in Africa, and employs a bottom-up and African-led approach, engaging with local communities, activists, grassroots organisations, and community-based organisations, as well as stakeholders from the African Union, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the British Academy, local funders, international organisations, and government bodies.

  • Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education