Professor Dina Kiwan

Wednesdays 9.30am – 12.30pm or please email to set up a time to meet

• PhD Education, Institute of Education, University of London, 2006
• MEd  Educational Assessment, University of Bristol, 2001
• MA Psychology, Harvard University, 1996
• BA (Hons), MA (Oxon ), Psychology and Physiology, University of Oxford, 1991

Dina Kiwan is a Professor in Comparative Education, having joined the department in January 2017. She is College of Social Sciences (CoSS) Deputy Director for Research and Knowledge Transfer, and has held other leadership roles as Head of Department of Education and Social Justice, and Director of Internationalisation for the School of Education. She is currently co-Academic Director for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) flagship £25M Research Commissioning Centre initiative (2023-2028).

She has an interdisciplinary background in psychology, sociology and education, educated at the universities of Oxford, Harvard and UCL. In 2015-16, she was at the Centre for Lebanese Studies Fellow at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, and from 2012-2017 she was Associate Professor in Sociology, at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Previously she was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Citizenship Studies, at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK (2006-2012).

Her interests centre around sociological and politico-philosophical examinations of inclusive citizenship through the lens of education policy, naturalisation policy and migration policy, in particular in the context of pluralist / multicultural societies, and also societies in conflict. These interests in critical policy analysis are complemented by an interest in how those deemed to be 'marginalised' and vulnerable' (disability, gender / sexuality, asylum/refugee status, race / religion / ethnicity) constitute themselves as political actors. In addition, her work addresses broader themes of the political sociology of global knowledge production. She has extensive and long-standing experience and networks in the UK and internationally, in the field of citizenship. Publications include Kiwan (2024). Academic Freedom and the Transnational Production of Knowledge (Cambridge University press) – nominated for the British Academy Book Prize in Global Cultural Understanding 2024; Kiwan (2008). Education for Inclusive Citizenship (Routledge) – awarded second prize for 'Best book published in 2008 in Education by the Society of Educational Studies' (SES); and Kiwan, D. (ed). (2013) Naturalisation Policies, Education and Citizenship: Multicultural and Multination Societies in International Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan).

Professor Kiwan currently leads the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) AHRC Network Plus Disability Under Siege programme (£2M; 2020-2025) working with partners in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine to address the challenge that most children with disabilities never go to school. She has also received AHRC funding (£100K 2023-2024) for an International Disability network for Global Development addressing the challenge of deinstitutionalisation of people with disabilities in the Middle East. Other recently funded research led as PI includes a £150,000 15-month grant funded by the AHRC in collaboration with the UN to develop a global framework for a disability inclusive recovery response from Covid-19 (September 2020 – December 2021); and a £100,000 for a 9-month comparative case study of the impact of Covid-19 on people with disabilities in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine (March 2021 – December 2021). Previous funding includes being the PI for an Oxfam-funded project on women's leadership in Lebanon, Jordan and Irbil whilst at the American University of Beirut (2014-2015). From 2016-2019, Professor Kiwan was a network member (Co-I) on a Leverhulme 6-country international network award on social change and youth activism (2016-2019), with partners in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Singapore and the UK.

Professor Kiwan has provided consultancy to the UK government in the domain of inclusive citizenship, through extensive networks developed over the last 20 years, playing a leading role in changing academic and public policy discourses on inclusive citizenship, in the fields of citizenship education policy and naturalisation policy in the UK. She has been appointed to the government's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) (2021-2024) recognising her substantive policy contributions in the field, and recently reappointed for a second 3-year term, approved by the Prime Minister.

Professor Kiwan has taught a wide range of sociology of education modules and programmes, including having been Programme Director for International Studies in Education, and Programme Director for International Studies in Education and Development. Modules have included Human Rights, Citizenship and the Environment, International Perspectives on Education, and Research methods.

Dina currently supervises students (ESRC scholarship, Global Challenges PhD scholarship and University Scholarship) on the following topics: disability, education and social movements in the Middle East, Syrian refugees and higher education, global citizenship and international schooling, Black British women’s experiences of education, and ethnic minority students’ conceptions of fairness in school. She has experience of supervising MA and PhD students on a wide range of topics including citizenship, civil society, activism, conflict, decolonisation, human rights, ethnic and religious diversity, disability, gender, sexuality, migration, refugees, intersectionality. Country/regional expertise includes the UK and the Middle East.

PhD title

An inclusive citizenship? conceptions of citizenship in the citizenship education policymaking process in England

Current research

• The Disability Under Siege project is supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund through AHRC (PI, £2M, 2020 - 2025). This is a co-created programme bringing together a community of researchers, educational practitioners, advocacy organisations and disability-led groups in the UK and Middle East.  It aims to contribute to research efforts by providing intellectual and logistical resources that local practitioners need to transform education provision for children with disabilities in conflict-affected countries. Co-Is and partners in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine bring complementary expertise in the fields of education under occupation, inclusion, public health and social action, visual culture and participative arts, disability and social justice. Please visit the website for information on funded network and engagement projects, commissioned research projects, reports and other activities, as well as a range of other AHRC-funded projects.
• Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Research Commissioning Centre £25M (2023-2028), Academic Co-Director for University of Birmingham (lead academic partner), with 3ie as lead organisation.
• AHRC Network Grant Deinstitutionalisation of Persons with Disabilities in Lebanon and Jordan. PI, £100K, (January 2023 – August 2024).
• 'Understanding youth perceptions on sustainability in the UAE: co-producing an inclusive environmental education to promote engagement in COP28 and beyond', Gulf Strategic Fund, FCDO, British Embassy in UAE (£150K), June 2023-March 2025.
• University seed-funding from Institute of Advanced Studies, £20K, establishment of University-wide Middle East Research Network (Birmingham and Dubai), 2024.
• Varieties of Democracy Project (V-Dem) Regional Manager for Middle East, covering Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Turkey: an ambitious, multiyear effort to produce new indicators of democracy for all countries since 1900, (2014-onging).  

Previous research

• ESRC Impact Accelerator Award, "All Means All!" Advocacy and awareness programme to promote access to education for all in Lebanon (£6,260.50, January – March 2022).
• GCRF Network Plus Case Study: Impact of Covid-19 on persons with disabilities in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan, PI (£100K, March 2021 – August 2021, AHRC).
• AHRC-UN Partnership: Global Framework Project for United Nations Programme for Person with Disabilities (UNPRPD), PI, (£150K, September 2020 – August 2021, AHRC). This includes a collaborative initiative between AHRC and the UNPRPD (2020-2022) to develop an evidence-informed Analytical Framework to promote and support the implementation of disability-inclusive response and recovery from COVID-19.
• GCRF Inception Award, PI (£98,000 March 2020 - April 2021, AHRC).
• Development Award, GCRF Network Plus Education in Conflict and Crisis Research: 'Disability Under Siege'. PI, £60K; July 2019 - March 2021 (Co-Is: Lebanese American University, Beirut, Birzeit University, Palestine, Birmingham City University).
• 'Resilient Cities' interdisciplinary cross-university research project (Sao Paulo and Beirut), funded by University of Birmingham Institute for Global Innovation , (IGI), £400,000. Co-I, and work stream lead for Family, groups and community resilience (2018-2021).
• Leverhulme International Network member on youth activism, engagement and the development of learning spaces, a 6-country international network (Australia, Canada, Hungary, Lebanon, Singapore and the UK) funded by the Leverhulme Trust (https://www.york.ac.uk/education/research/cresj/researchthemes/citizenship-education/leverhulmeyouthactivism/ ), (2016-2019).
• Oxfam UK funded research project: Women's participation and leadership in Lebanon, Jordan and Northern Iraq. PI, $107,000; February 2015 – September 2015.
• Mellon Foundation Fellowship (2012-13): project examining constructions of 'citizenship' and 'learning' in humanities and social science curricula and university strategic initiatives at the American University of Beirut.
• European Integration Fund, administered by Home Office: Integration of applicants to British Citizenship; jointly with Compas, University of Oxford; CO-I, £257,000 with 50% matched funding; 2010-2011. This research was a major study - the first of its kind, evaluating the nature of the processes of integration and acquisition of citizenship in the UK.
• ESRC Seminar Series: 'Education for national citizenship in the context of devolution and ethno-religious conflict'; PI, £15,000; January 2009 – January 2011.
• ESRC Project (Identities and Social Action Programme), 'South Asian and White Women's Spaces of Sociality and Celebration' (1/2005-12/2007 - 3 years, £215,000, with 1-year extension to December 2008, £14,000).
• Fellowship of International Summer Institute on Citizenship and Migration, funded by Andrew F. Mellon Foundation and Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation (2007-2009).