Conference Committee

Rachel is in a part time PhD student in her third year of studies, as well as a member of staff at the University.  Her supervisors are Dr Meng Tian and Dr Dawn England.  Her research is in Transnational Higher Education, particularly collaborative provision between the UK and China.  This is largely based on her professional career of managing transnational education collaborations. 

Marianna is a full-time PhD student affiliated with the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN) under the supervision of Dr. Emmanouela Terlektsi and Dr. Lila Kossyvaki. Her research explores the effectiveness of video modelling in teaching daily living skills to autistic preschool-aged students.

Weilin is a university lecturer at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, China. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the school of Education at the University of Birmingham, under the supervision of Dr Meng Tian and Dr Tracy Whatmore. Her doctoral research focuses on developing a comprehensive mental health course for ITE Programmes.

Annapurna is a second year PhD student at the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs supervised by Dr. Prithvi Perepa & Dr. Graeme Dobson. Her PhD is an ethnographic exploration of how Indian mainstream schools implement educational programs for dyslexic students and considers the lived experiences of teachers, parents and dyslexic students to identify ways forward in terms of enhancing the educational experiences for dyslexic students and better fulfilling inclusive education policy commitments

Claire is a PhD researcher in the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN) and the Autism Centre for Education and Research (ACER) supervised by Dr Prithvi Perepa and Dr Sophie King Hill. Her research explores how train-the-trainer approaches may help charities and community groups design and deliver neuroaffirming and needs-based relationship and sex education (RSE).

Dahab Jihar is a headteacher and a PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham’s School of Education, where her research focuses on school attendance problems and whole-school approaches to wellbeing.

She is currently working on the School Attendance Problems International Comparative (SAPIC) study, a collaboration with researchers from Sweden, Germany, and Japan. This project examines school attendance problems from both professionals' and students' perspectives and is especially timely given the ongoing challenges in post-COVID attendance rates, alongside the introduction of new government guidance, policies and legislation.

Hester first qualified as a teacher of children with Vision Impairments in 2001. She has worked with children with vision impairments in a range of settings and qualified as a teacher of children with Multi-Sensory Impairments in 2014.  Hester has been studying for a PhD exploring the factors which support successful identification of children with multi-sensory impairments (deafblindness) since 2023. 

Ping is a final-year PhD candidate in the philosophy of education at the University of Birmingham. Her PhD thesis investigates the role of picturebooks in promoting political and ethical thinking among children. Her research interests are Philosophy for Children, children's literature, aesthetic education, and moral education.

Zhenyan is currently a third-year PhD student at the School of Education, University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on children’s literacy development and bilingual education. With a background in linguistics and language development, she is particularly interested in exploring how targeted training in morphological knowledge can support Chinese-English bilingual migrant children in improving their literacy skills.