Dr Jenny Hewitt, BA MSc PhD

Profile

I was educated and raised in England, with a side helping of Mexico. After a BA at Brunel University, I worked for many years as an education consultant in the Borough of Islington, specialising in youth engagement and participation in schools. Alongside this, I completed an MSc in Youth Participation at Birkbeck University. I undertook my second MRes followed by an ESRC funded PhD at The University of Sussex, examining Young People's Socio-politics in Everyday Life. 

Teaching

I have co-developed and taught on both BA and MA modules at The University of Sussex, including examining Masters' theses.

Research

Research Interests:

My research focus and experience centre on childhood, youth, sociopolitics, care, and everyday lives. I designed and ran research projects at The University of Sussex (funded by HEIF and ESRC grants) to explore children's representation in the media, 'care in the classroom', and teachers' 'responsibilisation' for children and young people's wellbeing during Covid. I worked for two years as a Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, exploring health inequalities across the life course (and in relation to Covid), and anti-racist activism in relation to the Covid pandemic. I have also acted as Visiting Fellow on an Open University project exploring sexual health of young refugees in Uganda. Before coming to Queen Mary, I worked for The Open University for a year as a Research Associate on the 'Changemakers' project exploring young people and Welsh politics.

Here at Queen Mary, my focus is on increasing the profile, skillsets and knowledge exchange around academics' practices within youth research and peer-to-peer research.