Africa working group

Elita Chamdimba is a Sociologist / Social Work/ Gender expert who, since 2018, has been a Research Fellow at the University of Malawi’s Centre for Social Research (CSR). Elita just finished her PhD in Social Work at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. She’s also the founder and former director (2014 – 2022) of Little Big Prints, a youth organisation in Zomba (southern Malawi) equipping and supporting young women in rural secondary schools. For her PhD thesis Elita focused on the lived experiences of young people with albinism in Malawi and their sense of belonging and social connectedness. Elita’s areas of expertise are rural development, girls’ education, gender and youth, and intra-household power dynamics.

Following a 19-year professional career in accounting, auditing, banking and entrepreneurship, Labake moved to the UK in 2011 where she completed a BA (Hons) Business Admin (1st Class), MSc Educational Research, and her PhD in Education.

Her research examines conceptualisations and enactment of inclusivity in internationalisation in educational policies and practices. She is interested in the connections between internationalisation, decoloniality, and employability. She uses research-informed evidence to underpin theorisation/conceptual frameworks about micro-internationalisation to highlight individuals’ rationales for engaging in internationalisation activities, including student and staff mobility, intercultural exchanges [within ‘home’ or digital environments], and multi-faceted dimensions of international partnerships in global education. The focus of her research on the micro-level dimension informs questions about how, or to what extent inclusivity is centred or embedded in macro-internationalisation processes and practices at the institutional level, and within national, and international contexts. Inclusivity is at the core of her research, teaching, EDI leadership, and consultancy.

After reading International Relations at St Andrews University, Dr Joan Haig completed a taught MSc in Nationalism Studies at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a short stint working at the Niger Delta University in Nigeria. Her Ph.D., fully funded by a grant and awarded in 2012, provided a history and ethnography of the Hindu minority in Lusaka, Zambia. She has since taught at the University of Edinburgh and University of Warwick, and won funding, including from the Scottish Government and the Leverhulme Trust, for research relating to migration and minority and expatriate identities. She loves seascapes (especially Scottish ones), her cottage garden, and writing stories for children.

Ms Debora Kayembe was called to the RDC Bar in September 2000. As principal of Debora Kayembe Me, MITI; Lawyer- Linguist, she focuses on matters involving legal, Politics and Language, as well as Human Rights and International Law.

Hilda Tizeba is a lawyer and mental health advocate with almost a decade of experience in academia, having worked at the University of Dar es Salaam School of Law. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Health, Medical Law and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh. For her PhD thesis, Hilda explores anti-colonial and feminist approaches to autonomy in mental healthcare to capture the varied contours of autonomy in countries in the Global South, such as Tanzania. Her research carries broader implications for other African lower-middle-income countries. She’s also the CEO and founder (2020 – present) of Guided Path, a non-profit organisation in Tanzania dedicated to promoting the right to mental health and wellbeing and the empowerment of women and youth. She has contributed to projects involving decolonisation and mental health through her involvement in the InFrame Project of Decolonial Approaches to Knowledge, Exchange and Impact, funded by the Wellcome Trust, as well as the Decolonisation Working Group at the University of Edinburgh. Her work on mental health in Tanzania has been recognised by the Global Alliance for Behavioural Health and Social Justice.

Christine Whyte is a global historian focused on West Africa, slavery and its abolition, and the history of children and childhoods. She founded the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies and is an active member of the Centre for Gender History. Her interests include the importance of children and ideas about childhood to labour regimes, particularly those systems designed to bring an end to slavery, the historical experiences of enslaved children, and the history of colonisation in Africa more broadly.