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Dr Emily Henderson

Job Title
Professor
Department
Education Studies
Phone
02476522285 (+442476522285)
Research Interests

Higher Education, research cultures, academic profession, academic identities, academic mobility, knowledge production, globalisation; conferences; gender, feminist and queer theory; feminist and gender pedagogy; international development; ethnography, autoethnography, diary method, qualitative research; deconstruction, poststructuralist theory; India, South Africa, UK, US, France.

Biography

Emily F. Henderson joined Education Studies as an Assistant Professor in 2015. She is now Professor and Director of the Doctoral Education and Academia Research Centre (DEAR), and a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE) at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), India. Her research and approach to teaching are inherently international and interdisciplinary, and are influenced by her earlier studies in literature and modern languages and time spent working or studying abroad in Togo, France, Senegal and India. She has further connections with the US, having conducted PhD research there, and South Africa, based on an ESRC PhD Partnership with the University of the Free State and enduring connections stemming from this partnership. At Warwick, she founded the MA programme, 'Global Education and International Development', which was launched in 2017, and was course leader until 2020; until 2022 she was the module leader for 'EQ923 Understanding Global Education and International Development'. From 2019-2023 she was Co-Director of the Post-Graduate Research programme for Education Studies and from 2024 she is serving as Director of Research and Impact in Education Studies and also teaches on the Advanced Research Methods course and supervises and mentors PhD and post-doctoral researchers. In 2024 Emily was Winner of the Warwick Research Awards Doctoral Supervision Award (Faculty of Social Sciences), and in 2023 Emily was nominated with Dr James Burford for the 'Warwick Wonders and Wows' Award for their contribution to Warwick's positive research culture for PGRs and ECRs through research and practice.

Research

Projects relating to the academic profession and doctoral education:

(i) 2022-2026: Co-Principal Investigator (overall project lead) with Dr Nidhi S. Sabharwal, CPRHE, NIEPA, India (Co-Principal Investigator - India lead) and Prof Ann Stewart, Law School Warwick (Co-Investigator) on a 4-year research project (funded by the Fair Chance Foundation). The project is entitled 'Widening Access to Higher Education in India: Institutional Approaches' (WAHEI) and focuses on the role of faculty members in developing a formalised higher education outreach culture in India.

(ii) 2024-2025: Co-investigator on a project evaluating the PATHWAY scheme for Black Researchers at Warwick (funded by Research England Research Culture Fund).

(iii) 2024: Principal Investigator for 'The Heart of Research: Exploring the Aims, Nature and Values of Education Research Centres' (funded by Warwick IAS).

(iv) 2023-2024: Co-investigator for 'Mitigating and Adjusting Doctoral Education' (funded by Research England Research Culture Fund).

(v) 2022-2023: Co-investigator for 'Pre-Application Doctoral Communications (PADC) Projects' (funded by Research England Research Culture Fund,shortlisted for Warwick Social Inclusion Award 2023).

(vi) 2017-18: Principal Investigator on 'In Two Places at Once: The Impact of Caring Responsibilities on Academics' Conference Participation' (funded by University of Warwick Research Development Fund and Institute of Advanced Studies Delivering Results).

(vii) 2017-2018: Co-Investigator (with Prof Pauline Reynolds, University of Redlands, US as PI) on 'The Symbolic Power of Academic Conferences in Fictional Texts' (Funded by University of Redlands).

(viii) 2016-2018: Founder and Co-Convenor of AMIN - Academic Mobilities and Immobilities Network

Other projects relating to higher education in India:

(i) 2020-2022: Co-Investigator for 'Enhancing Informed Choices for Higher Education: Building Outreach Culture in Haryana, India' (Funded by University of Warwick ESRC Impact Acceleration Account and Fair Chance Foundation).

(ii) 2017-2022: Co-investigator on a 5-year research study on gender and higher education in Haryana, India (funded by the Fair Chance Foundation).

Platforms:

(i) 2021-present: Founder and manager of the web platform Diary Method Community, a web platform hosting resources and advice about using diary method in social sciences and including a monthly online international reading group.

(ii) 2017-present: Co-editor of the academic blog Conference Inference: Blogging the World of Conferences with Dr James Burford.

Publications

Emily is author of Gender Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning and Tracing Gender in Higher Education (Palgrave, 2015) and Gender, Definitional Politics and 'Live' Knowledge Production: Contesting Concepts at Conferences (Routledge, 2020) and co-author with James Burford of Making Sense of Academic Conferences: Presenting, Participating and Organising(Routledge, 2022), and co-author of Gendering the Massification Generation: Higher Education Access and Choice in India (Routledge 2023). She is co-editor with Z Nicolazzo of Starting with Gender in International Higher Education Research (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor with Xuemeng Cao of Exploring Diary Methods in Higher Education Research: Opportunities, Choices and Challenges (Routledge, 2021). She has also co-edited with James Burford a special issue of Gender and Education, 'Thoughtful gatherings: gendering conferences as spaces of learning, knowledge production and community', and a special issue of Higher Education with Charikleia Tzanakou, 'Stuck and sticky in mobile academia: reconfiguring the im/mobility binary'. For full details of Emily's publications, see the link below.

Academic service

From 2022 Emily has served as a mentor on the CARA (Council for At Risk Academics) Fellows Mentoring Scheme. She has served as a Research Advisory Group member for a British Council-funded project on gender and higher education in India, and for an SRHE-funded project on women academics in relation to the pandemic lockdowns. From 2021 Emily has been serving as an Invited Member of the British Academy's Higher Education Policy Development Group. From 2020-2023 she served as External Examiner for MA Education (International), University of Manchester. From 2018 to 2024, Emily has served as an elected member (trustee) of the Governing Council of Society for Research into Higher Education and as a member of the SRHE Research and Development Committee. From 2016-2021 Emily was Co-convenor of the SRHE International Research and Researchers Network. In 2022, Emily gained Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy status. At Warwick, Emily is a member of the Education Studies Ethics Committee and Senior Management Group and Chair of the Research, Impact and Scholarship Committee, a member of the Warwick Research Culture Forum, the Education Studies representative for the Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre for International Development (WICID), and an affiliate of the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender. She is also a committee member of the Post-graduate Research Sub-Committee (2022-).

Education

Emily holds a BA in English Literature and Modern Languages (French) from the University of Oxford, and an MA in Education, Gender and International Development, an MRes in Educational and Social Research and a PhD in Education from the UCL Institute of Education (MRes and PhD ESRC-funded).

Doctoral Supervision and Examination and Post-doctoral Mentoring

Emily currently has limited space for new students, but potential applicants with a specific interest in the topics listed in the 'Research Interests' section above are welcome to get in touch by email with a proposed topic, CV and draft proposal, bearing in mind that at busy times of year it may take a couple of weeks to reply. Prospective applicants are also advised to access this guidance video.

Emily is currently supervising the following PhD students:

Susan Deeb, doctoral education in the conflict-affected context of Syria, 2024-, Warwick PhD Scholarship, second supervisor Dallal Stevens

Rui Zhang, Chinese visiting scholars and their relationship with their mentors, 2023-, first supervisor James Burford

Evan Zheng, the role of degree mobility services in shaping doctoral admissibility for Chinese applicants, 2023-, CIS funded, first supervisor James Burford

S. Arokia Mary, gender and doctoral socialisation in Kashmir, India, 2022-, PhD full-time, ESRC 1+3 funded, second supervisor Khursheed Wadia

Fatima Alhaj Hasan, conflict in Syrian higher education, 2022-, PhD full-time, externally funded, first supervisor James Burford

Robyn Shreeve, international higher education academic partnerships, 2021-, PhD full-time, ESRC 1+3 funded, second supervisor Jo Angouri

Serena Alexis, the intersectionality of race and gender in educational leadership, 2020-, PhD part-time, first supervisor Pontso Moorosi

Emily has supervised the following PhD students to completion:

Roisin Ellison, counter-terrorism policy in schools & poststructuralism, 2016-2023, PhD part-time, ESRC-funded, first supervisor Judith Everington.

Johan de Kam, the role of global mobility professionals during the COVID-19 crisis, 2017-2023, PhD part-time, second supervisor Stephanie Schnurr.

Bing Lu, impact of international doctoral education on returned Chinese academics' supervision practice, 2018-2023, PhD full-time, second supervisor Emma Williams.

Ahmad Akkad, role of displaced Syrian academics in higher education reconstruction in Syria, 2019-2023, PhD full-time, funded by Sanctuary Scholarship, second supervisor Dallal Stevens.

Anjali Thomas, gender and higher education in Haryana India, 2017-2021, PhD full-time, funded by WCPRS & Fair Chance Foundation, co-supervised with Ann Stewart.

Xuemeng Cao, international students & employability, 2016-2020, PhD full-time, funded by Chinese Scholarship Council, co-supervised with Ian Abbott.

*Doctoral examination.*Emily has examined doctorates for the following UK universities: University of Warwick; Huddersfield University; Loughborough University; and for the following international universities: University of Technology Sydney, Australia; University of Auckland, New Zealand

*Post-doctoral fellow mentoring.*Emily has mentored the following post-doctoral fellows: Xuemeng Cao (IAS ECF), Anjali Thomas (IAS ECF and Fair Chance Foundation), Bing Lu (IAS ECF), Kevin Zhou (IAS), in addition to two participants on the CARA mentoring scheme. She is currently mentor for Emmanuel Johnson, Post-doctoral Fellow on the Race Exchange programme between Coventry and Warwick.

Languages

English (native); French (fluent); Hindi (advanced, plus some knowledge of Urdu).

Title Funder Award start Award end
Widening Access to Higher Education in India: A Fair Chance for Education - 2022 - 2026 Fair Chance Foundation 01 Jul 2022 30 Jun 2026
Gender and educational provision in Haryana North India Fair Chance Foundation 01 Mar 2017 30 Jun 2023
Gender and educational provision in Haryana North India (Project Development) (linked to 53904) Anonymous 01 Sep 2017 28 Feb 2021

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