an international
network
Seen and Heard is an international research and community project drawing on the work and experience of a network of universities, schools, cultural organisations and policy-making institutions across Europe.
Our core partnership comprises the University of Malta, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, University of Wrocław and Amnesty International, as well as the schools that were with us from the very start, namely Sir Adrian Dingli Pembroke Secondary School, St Clare College (Pembroke, Malta), Primary School No. 1. (Wrocław, Poland), Wedding-Schule (Berlin, Germany).
The Seen and Heard Network (SHN) is growing to include over 100 members across many countries. Our members are academics, activists, educators, artists, and policy makers working on various literary, artistic, cultural, social and political issues related to young people, human rights, and social movements in postmigrant societies.
Prof. Nina Christensen
Aarhus University, Denmark
My research and teaching concern children’s and young people’s texts, media, their reading cultures, and concepts of childhood in contemporary and historical contexts.
Currently, I study depictions of the relationship between Greenland and Denmark and how Greenlandic identity is represented in picturebooks published for Danish children ca. 1930-1960, the years before and after the change of the Danish constitution in 1953 which formally ended Greenland’s status as a colony.
I am the head of the Center for Children’s Literature and Media, situated at the Department of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric at the School of Communication and Culture. I teach at the Master’s in Children’s Literature and Media (in Danish) and the international master’s degree Erasmus Mundus Children’s Literature, Media and Cultural Entrepreneurship. I supervise MA students writing their dissertations within these MA programs, as well as students from Literary History and Nordic Language and Literature, for instance. Currently, I supervise PhD projects on racism in Danish classics for children, on Russian picturebooks, fantasy in a queer perspective, among others (Frederikke Holkggard Buhl, Ekaterina Shatalova, Rikke Carlsen).
For years, I have been co-editor of the international book series Children’s Literature Culture and Cognition, and I am an advisory board member of the scholarly journals International Research in Children’s Literature and Barnboken. Finally, I am vice-chairman of the board of The Cross Media School for Children’s Fiction, which offers a fully funded, full-time education in writing for children across media.
Ass. Prof. Katherine Coleman
University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr Kate Coleman is Associate Professor of Visual Arts & Design Education at the University of Melbourne. A neurodivergent feminist, artist, and researcher, she works across art, pedagogy, and justice.
Her practice-research weaves a/r/tography, speculative design, digital methods, and climate futures to open new possibilities of knowing and being.
Kate’s research lies in the entanglement of creativity, data, and place. She investigates how artists, educators, and young people make meaning across physical and digital sites. Central are questions of identity, methodology, and transformation — how creative artifacts, immersive data, and speculative inquiry can generate more just and livable futures.
Dr Macarena Garcia Gonzalez
Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
Macarena García-González is a journalist and holds a degree in Social Communication from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (2003), a master’s in Cultural Studies from Maastricht University, the Netherlands (2010), and a PhD in Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies from the University of Zurich, Switzerland (2015).
She was a Marie Curie Researcher at the University of Glasgow, UK (2022-2024), and a principal and associate researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies in Educational Justice in Chile (2017-2022).
She has led the research projects Emotional and Literary Repertoires for Childhood (ANID-Fondecyt) and Challenging Homogeneity in Educational Spaces (ANID-CIE). Currently, she is a Ramón y Cajal Senior Researcher, working on a project about reading and literature in times of increasing digitalization.
She is the author of The Borders of Empathy in Children’s Fiction (Routledge, 2025), Enseñando a sentir. Repertorios éticos en la ficción infantil (Metales Pesados, 2021), and Origin Narratives: The Stories We Tell Children about Immigration and International Adoption (Routledge, 2017). Together with Óscar Contardo, she co-authored La era ochentera. Tevé, pop y under en dictadura (Ediciones B, 2005; Planeta, 2015). She has co-edited Children’s Cultures After Childhood with Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2023) and Campo en formación. Textos clave para la literatura infantil y juvenil with Evelyn Arizpe and Andrea Casals (Metales Pesados, 2023).
She has been a visiting professor at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico, the University of Wroclaw in Poland, and the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Additionally, she has taught in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Chile, and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Currently, she coordinates the JOVIS research group, which focuses on youth, childhood, and communication, and is an associate editor of Children’s Literature in Education. She leads the CoREM (“Collective Remembrance: Engaging Youth Through Curatorial Practices”) project, funded by CERV-EU, with participation from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA), the University of Wroclaw, and the Baptist University of Hong Kong.
Dr Blanka Grzegorczyk
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK
Blanka works at the intersections of literature, the arts, creative writing, education, philosophy, and politics.
She is especially interested in the politics of and creativities in writing for, by, and about the young, and in the legacies of colonialism, including postcolonial terror, together with global communities and childhoods, and experiences of migration, social exclusion, and split belonging, as well as postcolonial intersectionality.
She is the author of Discourses of Postcolonialism in Contemporary British Children’s Literature (2015), Terror and Counter-Terror in Contemporary British Children’s Literature (2020), and Reading Across Worlds: Postcolonial Intersectionality in Contemporary Children’s Literature (forthcoming in 2025); she has also co-edited a special issue of International Research in Children’s Literature on Children’s Engagement with the Political Process (EUP 2021).
Her two ongoing research projects that are next in line for special attention focus on the restorative and transformative force of creativities in children’s literature as trauma testimony, resilience mechanism, and socio-political engagement, and on reconceptualisation of thinking about good readers, writers, and critics in the contexts of literary critical education and prizing cultures.
Dr Yasmine Motawy
The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Yasmine Motawy teaches rhetoric and composition at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and is a scholar, critic, translator, editor, consultant, and writing mentor in the field of children’s literature.
She has served on regional and international children’s literary award juries such as the 2021 Bologna Ragazzi Award, the 2016 and 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2017 Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature, the 2019 Arabic selection committee of the UN SDGs Book Club, and chaired the 2025 Sawiris Cultural Award.
She is co-editor of The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature (2018). In 2022, she was awarded the Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award from AUC. Her latest book is Children’s Picture Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society (2025).
She is serving on the board of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature from 2025-2027.
Dr Rowena Seabrook
University of Glasgow, UK
Dr Rowena Seabrook is Associate Lecturer at The Open University and Research Assistant at the University of Glasgow.
Her recent PhD research focused on using children’s literature for human rights education and involved researching with families in blended online and offline spaces.
Current projects include evaluating a nationwide programme of reading related activities for health and wellbeing as well as contributing to a publication on hope and children’s literature.
Ro also works for Tilt delivering training, coaching and support for purpose-led and non-profit organisations.
Dr Aliona Yarova
Independent Researcher, Finland.
Aliona is a researcher, higher education consultant and creative learning facilitator.
Prof. Petra Anders
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
Since 2018, I have been teaching didactics of the German primary classroom at the Institute for Education Sciences at HU.
My teaching and research is focused on becoming a good literary citizen. That involves media literacy, eg spoken word poetry, film didactics, reading and meme education as well as organizing literary events in the classroom.
2021, I was awarded the HU Prize for Good Teaching in recognition of my open access lecture on German didactics www.petra-anders.net
This year I received the Communicator Award from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Stifterverband for my science communication to promote reading and language skills at primary school level.
Aneesa Jamal
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Aneesa is a PhD student in Education at UTM, Malaysia.
She is also a CEE-Change Fellow 2023 with NAAEE, a Global Fellow at the Center for Climate Literacy, UNM & a member of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature.
Aneesa works with Indian children to amplify their storybooks on climate & environmental injustice. Her research has been on children’s counter-storytelling about environment & climate change and issues of injustice as a means for both learning about climate change and a form of climate action.
To this end she designed the children’s book authoring programs, through which Indian children interrogated urban issues, climate impact and climate (in)justice and authored storybooks.
Huria Jalalzai
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Huria Jalalzai, an Afghan immigrant in Canada, is completing her Bachelor of Social Work at the University of Calgary (2025). She holds a Master’s in Public Policy and Administration (Toronto Metropolitan University, 2007) and a BA (University of Toronto, 2006). Her career spans public service and international development, including senior advisory and USAID roles.
Huria Jalalzai’s research explores academic freedom for racialized students and faculty, examining how institutional power, censorship, and selective accountability shape expression on sensitive topics. She also investigates the role of plant medicines and psychedelics, such as ibogaine and ayahuasca, in mental health, addiction recovery, and social work practice.
Dr Margarida Castellano-Sanz
Universitat de València, Spain
Margarida Castellano is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literature Teaching at the University of Valencia (Spain). She holds a PhD in Philology with an international distinction, supported by a public grant at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She has taught in the Valencian public education system and served as director of the teacher training centre for plurilingual education (CEFIRE) and as General Director for Innovation and Academic Planning in the Valencian government. Her research addresses additional language learning in plurilingual and pluriethnic contexts and the role of multimodal texts in literary and critical learning. She currently leads the research project CIGE 2023/75 (Re)Framing the Gaze: Multimodal Approaches to Ecosocial Thinking in Education.
Castellano-Sanz’s research addresses additional language learning in plurilingual and pluriethnic contexts and the role of multimodal texts in literary and critical learning. She currently leads the research project CIGE 2023/75 (Re)Framing the Gaze: Multimodal Approaches to Ecosocial Thinking in Education.
Hooria Liebold-Rezaei
Ruhr University Bochum & Independent Researcher
Shannon Cullen
Walker Books
Shannon Cullen leads the creative team at Walker Books, a dedicated global children’s publisher. Shannon has over 25 years of publishing experience, including roles at HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Quarto. She represents Walker at the Empathy Circle, the advisory group of children’s publishers for Empathy Day, and is Chair of the Independent Publishers Guild.
Professor Evelyn Arizpe
University of Glasgow
I have worked in the field of children’s literature and literacy for over 25 years, starting with my undergraduate thesis on Mexican children’s literature in the 1980s at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and then during my doctoral work at the University of Cambridge on adolescent readers and YA literature. While in Cambridge, together with Morag Styles, I pioneered research into children’s response to picturebooks and visual literacy and our co-authored book, Children Reading Picturebooks: Interpreting visual texts (2003/2016) is now considered a classic study in this area. I moved to Glasgow in 2004 and when I joined the School of Education I helped to create the MEd in Children’s Literature and Literacies which has now been running for nearly ten years. I now lead an Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in Children’s Literature, Media and Culture (IMCLMC). In the last decade, my research projects have had a focus on migration and displacement (Visual Journeys and Journeys from Images to Words) and I built on these to develop a programme for migrant readers through the Salas de Lectura project in the Mexican Ministry of Culture (2016-2018). Overall, I have developed my expertise by bridging, on one hand, the theory and analysis of text and, on the other, reading and reader response. I have worked with both young adult (YA) texts and also with picturebooks in research with participants of different ages and across different countries, especially in Mexico and I have published widely in both English and Spanish. In 2022 and 2024 I was on the jury for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, International Board on Books for Children and Young People (IBBY).
Research Interests:
Picturebooks, Latin America, migration
Professor Kathleen Manion
Royal Roads University
Kathleen Manion is a scholar-practitioner who bridges practitioner experiential knowledge, academic theory, and policy objectives. She is passionate about social justice, humanitarian issues, interdisciplinary perspectives and applied research. She is principally focused on children and young people’s wellbeing with a broad range of policy and practice experience in social work, community development, and interdisciplinary work. She strives to make complex concepts understandable and bring voice to research participants. Manion commits to student-focused experiences designed to spark curiosity and build lifelong learning. Her projects focus on youth advocacy; early years; child and youth rights, protection, and wellbeing; inclusive education; international social work; homelessness; environmental justice; and family violence.
Research focus: Children’s rights and systems that support children.
Ahmad Ashour
Enseignant Chercheur Université de Tours
I am a Lecturer‑Researcher at the Université de Tours, specializing in cultural policies, emancipatory education, and community‑based learning in contexts of conflict. Drawing on extensive leadership roles at the Tamer Institute, ACTED, and PNGO, my work examines cultural action, institutional dynamics, and resilience within crisis‑affected communities.
My research investigates cultural policy, emancipatory pedagogies, and community‑based learning within contexts of conflict and structural oppression. I examine how knowledge, meaning, and educational practices emerge outside institutional frameworks, with particular attention to cultural action, literacy infrastructures, and the reconfiguration of educational and cultural systems under conditions of prolonged crisis.
Dr María Alejandra Zambrano
La Poderosa Media Project
Dr. María Alejandra Zambrano is a writer and scholar working at the intersection of children’s literature, critical pedagogy, and community-based arts education. She leads research projects on cultural mediation, pluriversal design, and decolonial studies. Her award-winning books and exhibitions explore memory, heritage, and ecological imagination across the Americas.
Research focus: Relational Design; Pluriversality; Ecuadorian Children’s Literature, Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Andean and Brazilian Literature, Culture, and Intellectual History; Liberalism, Nationalism, and Positivism; Latin American Cinema; Cultural Agency; Community-Based Visual Arts Programs; Self-Representation, Pluriversality and Relational Design; Civic Responsibility and Community Engagement through Filmmaking.
Dr Emmie Henderson-Dekort
Mount Royal University
Emmie Henderson-Dekort is an Assistant Professor at Mount Royal University in the Department of Child Studies and Social Work Department at Mount Royal University (Alberta, Canada). She has experience working with children and youth in educational, clinical, and community settings. Her research areas include Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Children’s Rights-Based research, play-based methodologies, and trauma-informed practices. Her current research focuses on the meaningful participation of young individuals in policy formulation. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3759-4909
Research focus: Children’s Rights, Participatory Action Research, Rights-Based Research, Participation in Policy
Dr Dalia Mostafa Abdulrahman
Cairo University, Egypt
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Early Childhood Education, Cairo University, specializing in children’s literature and early childhood development. Holds a Ph.D. in Education from Cairo University. Additionally certified in the Montessori Method of Teaching, holds a Diploma in Public Policy and Children’s Rights, and a Diploma in Museum Studies.
My research focuses on cultural representation and cross-cultural understanding in children’s literature, particularly examining appearances of Egyptian and Arab identities in global publishing. The work bridges postcolonial theory with practical pedagogical applications, exploring themes including trauma, empathy, environmental sustainability, and peace education while advocating for Global South perspectives in international children’s literature scholarship.
Dr Maciej Skowera
University of Warsaw & Warsaw Public Library – Central Library of Mazovia Province, Poland
Maciej Skowera, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Literature, Faculty of Polish Studies (University of Warsaw) and at the Museum of Children’s Books (Warsaw Public Library – Central Library of Mazovia Province, Poland) where he lectures on and researches children’s, YA, and popular literature and culture. A co-founder and the Managing Editor of the journal Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura [Childhood: Literature and Culture].
Dominika Kuna
SWPS University
Dominika Kuna is a teaching assistant in law at SWPS University’s Faculty of Law in Warsaw, specialising in public and international law, children’s legal status, and civil litigation. She holds degrees in law and philosophy, contributes to research on children’s rights, and is active in professional legal associations and child protection initiatives.
Research Focus: Children’s rights and protection in non-contentious and civil proceedings; legal representation of minors in family law cases; intersection of national and EU law; judicial independence and the rule of law; legal frameworks for youth and vulnerable groups; comparative constitutional law with emphasis on the role of courts in upholding fundamental rights.
Prof Deevia Bhana
University of KwaZulu Natal
Deevia Bhana holds the South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Gender and Childhood Sexuality. Her research focuses on the significance of gender and sexuality in the young life course.
At the heart of this research are children and young people’s own accounts of their sexual curiosities, pleasures, violence and inequalities and the ways in which education and other institutions can contribute to enhancing their sexual well-being and safety. In this research, attention is given to childhood sexual cultures, young masculinities and femininities, and digital sexual practices with sustained attention to advancing gender and sexual justice-orientated knowledge that is transformative and reimagines futures for children and young people.
Laura Brutane
Latvian Academy of Culture
Laura Brutane is a graduate of the bachelor’s programme “Sociology and Management of Culture” of the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) (2021), graduate of the “Sociology” master’s programme of the University of Latvia (2023) and is currently studying in an academic doctoral study programme “Arts” of the LAC. Laura is actively involved in the development of academic and applied research projects at the LAC Institute of Arts and Cultural Studies, which includes issues related to cultural trends in Latvia (solidarity, exclusion, digitalisation), as well as research projects in the field of cultural policy and culture (consumption, participation) and youth studies (youth participation, well-being).
Laura Brutane’s research interests are also related to cultural policy and trends in the cultural sector in Latvia. Recently, Laura has been focusing more and more on research issues related to cultural participation, connections between culture and youth, well-being and social inclusion. As part of her PhD studies, Laura is working on her dissertation on “Cultural practices as an environment for the development of authentic youth participation”.
Dr Carolyn Bjartveit
Child Studies and Social Work Dept., Mount Royal University, Calgary Alberta Canada
Carolyn coordinates the Bachelor of Child Studies Program, Early Learning and Child Care Program and has taught Early Childhood Education (ECE) from pre-kindergarten to post-secondary levels. Her academic work focuses on how historical, philosophical, and cultural factors influence early learning. She collaborates with educators and community partners to bridge research and practice to the field of ECE.
Carolyn’s research interests include ECE history and philosophy, curriculum studies, inclusivity, child rights, and activism through visual arts (artivism). She is currently investigating creative, inclusive teaching methods and leading the development of an interdisciplinary research collective at MRU that promotes the rights of children, youth, and families through research and scholarly works.
Ass. Prof. Holly Doel-Mackaway
Macquarie University
I am a children’s rights academic specializing in children’s participation in law and policy making.
Research Interests: Children’s participation, girls’ rights, child protection, ethical research with children and Indigenous children’s rights.
Ass. Prof. Dr Kholod Huneiti
University of Northampton
Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies with international teaching and academic experience across the Middle East and Europe. I am passionate about working with children and young people, supporting their voices, and engaging in collaborative, cross-sector initiatives that promote ethical communication, media awareness, and meaningful participation.
My research focuses on children’s and youth voices, agency, and participation in media-saturated environments. I examine media psychology, digital platforms, parental mediation, and AI-driven communication, with particular attention to decision-making, well-being, and rights-based approaches. My work adopts interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and child-centered methodologies.
Philip Roth
University of Bremen
Philip Roth (MA) is a doctoral researcher at the artec – Sustainability Research Center, University of Bremen. He holds a Master’s degree in Sociology. He previously worked in the Social Citizen Science project GINGER at the University of Bremen, which focused on participation and social cohesion. His broader research engages with new political ecologies, participatory methods, and critical urban studies.
His doctoral project combines political ecology with critical migration studies, qualitative research, and youth studies, examining how young people’s ecological voices and practices contribute to urban transformation.
Elle Scott
University of Glasgow
I am a PhD researcher, youth practitioner and independent advocate for young people. I adopt participatory methodologies underpinned by values associated with the professional practice of youth work.
I’m passionate about the process of youth empowerment and amplifying marginalized voices, always aiming to challenge and counter dominant adultist narratives. My research and practice interrogates the boundaries of meaningful participation and strives to celebrate young people’s strengths while driving transformative, youth-led initiatives and solutions that influence change.
Shana Vanderveken
Ghent University
Shana Vanderveken is an academic assistant and PhD researcher at Ghent University’s Law Department, specialized in youth law, juvenile justice, and children’s rights. She has been practicing law since 2014 and holds a certification to provide legal assistance to minors.
Her research focuses on strengthening minors’ ability to exercise their rights in line with their developmental capacities.
Nadia Abdilla
University of Malta
Nadia Abdilla is a children’s author who, by giving voice, writes through a child’s lens, celebrating curiosity, adventure, and the beauty of everyday life. She created the ‘Nina n-Nokkla’ series, with one title shortlisted for the National Book Prize 2024. Professionally, she works in equality and lectures at the University of Malta in gender and global development.
My research focuses on gender equality within Maltese households. As a doctoral candidate in Gender Studies, I research inequality in marriage, particularly financial decision-making. My work explores how power, economic control, and perceptions of fairness are negotiated between spouses, contributing to broader discussions on gender, autonomy, and social change.
Dr Sandra Hili Vassallo
National Book Council
Sandra Hili Vassallo is the Executive Director of the National Book Council in Malta since 2025. She is also a children’s author and hopes to publish for adults as well. Her books include award-winning Mikelin which has been translated into Italian, Arabic, Turkish and Albanian. She graduated in Law and has Masters in European Law and Refugee Law.
Research Focus: Refugee law, child law especially intercountry adoption and intercountry child abductions.
Samina Mishra
Samina Mishra is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and teacher based in New Delhi. She hopes that her work makes children think about the world they want to live in, and encourages adults to support children in realising that world.
Research Focus: Children’s voice, citizenship, arts in education
Ass. Prof. Marnie Campagnaro
University of Padova
Marnie Campagnaro is Associate Professor of Children’s Literature at the University of Padova. Her research reconceptualises children’s literature as a laboratory for examining how aesthetic forms shape ecological imagination, ethical subjectivity, and democratic culture. She leads nationally and European-funded projects on biography, gender, and climate literacy, integrating literary theory with educational research to advance new interdisciplinary frameworks within the environmental humanities and childhood studies.
Her research reconceptualises children’s literature as an epistemic and aesthetic laboratory where ecological imagination, gendered subjectivities, and more-than-human relations are negotiated. Integrating literary theory, ecocritical approaches, critical plant studies, and the pedagogy of dialogue, she advances experimental research practices such as a/r/tography and walking as critical inquiry. Her work theorises narrative and visual forms as agents of knowledge production shaping climate consciousness, social justice, and educational transformation.
Professor Melanie Ramdarshan Bold
University of Glasgow
I’m a Professor of Youth Literature and Culture at the University of Glasgow, specialising in inclusive children’s and YA literature, publishing, and book culture. My work centres young people’s voices through participatory research, collaboration with industry and education partners, and scholarship that explores how youth reading, writing, and representation shape contemporary literary landscapes.
My research focuses on children’s and young adult reading, writing, and publishing, and participatory literary cultures, with particular attention to how young people, especially those from marginalised backgrounds, engage with and shape literature and book culture. Through collaborative and youth-centred methodologies, this work examines inclusion, authorship, recommendation cultures, and the social impact of contemporary book ecosystems.
M.J. Cagumbay Tumamac
Aklat Alamid
M.J. Cagumbay Tumamac is a book worker, social science practitioner, and educator from southern Mindanao, Philippines.
Research Focus: children’s literature, bibliotherapy, anthropology of childhood
