Dr Fadia Dakka

Senior Research Fellow in Education

Email:: fadia.dakka@bcu.ac.uk

Dr. Fadia Dakka studied International Relations (BA, MA) at Bologna University (Italy) and King’s College London (MA) before obtaining a Doctorate in Social Sciences from the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, where she taught and guest lectured on Social Policy and Education before moving to Birmingham City University (2016). She served as Deputy Research Centre Director of CSPACE (2018-2022) and is currently Co-Director of STERG (Space, Time & Everyday Life Research Group).

Broadly speaking, her interests lie at the intersection of philosophy, sociology and theory of higher education. She researches in the field of Critical University Studies, critiquing the derives of the contemporary, corporate western university (commodification, managerialism, competition fetish) from a philosophical and sociological standpoint. She explores how universities adapt, respond, survive and reproduce intense competition and commodification considering institutional and psychosocial levels of analysis and implications (e.g. mental health and wellbeing).

Fadia examines university crises as part and parcel of intersecting, global crises prefiguring alternative ecologies of knowledge production (university futures) through the adoption of Rhythmanalytical and Rhythmological perspectives. She examines university crises as part and parcel of intersecting, global challenges, trying to prefigure alternative ecologies of knowledge production (university futures) through the adoption of rhythmanalytical and other rhythm-informed perspectives. She is currently working on theorising rhythm as a distinct form of ethics that underpins critical pedagogy in (higher) education.

Currently, she is working in partnership with Prof. Michel Alhadeff-Jones, executive director of the Time and Complexity Lab at the Sunkhronos Institute (Geneva) and with Dr. Gaia Del Negro (University of Milano, Bicocca) on a number of initiatives such as the 2023 Research Symposium series Spaces, Times and the Rhythms of Adult Education (STRAE) and the Postgraduate Group Discussion (GR2I) on Rhythmic Intelligence, hosted by STERG. With Prof. Michel Alhadeff-Jones (Switzerland) and Prof. Sabine Schmidt-Lauff (Germany) she convenes STREAM: Spaces, Times and The Rhythms of the Education of Adults and its Movements), a newly formed international network within ESREA (European Society for Research of the Education of Adults).

She is Adjunct Associate Professor (visiting) in the department of Education and Lifelong Learning of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), working with Norwegian colleagues on international projects, research collaboration and teaching.

She stays committed to honour the memory and continue the intellectual legacy of the late Emeritus Professor and mentor Mike Neary, mobilising Lefebvre’s unfinished Rhythmanalytical Project to the creation of a post-capitalist, co-operative university.

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Memberships

Teaching

Research

Postgraduate Supervision

Publications

Book chapters:

Dakka, F., Davitti, D. (2022) International Human Rights Law and Time-Space: A Rythmanalysis of Prosecuting Search and Rescue’, in The Times and Temporalities of International Human Rights Law(McNeilly, K.; Warwick, B. eds.), Hart Publishing.

Dakka, F. (2021) ‘Rhythm and the Possible: Moments, Anticipation and Dwelling in the Contemporary University’, in Inquiring into Academic Timescapes (Filip Vostal ed.), Emerald publishing Ltd.

Dakka, F., Smith, R. (2019) ‘An Exploration of Rhythms in the Contemporary Academy: Time, Space and Affect’, In edited volume Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, Vol. 5 2019 (Jeroen Huisman, Malcolm Tight eds.), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 153-171. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S2056-375220190000005010)

Dakka, F. (2015) ‘Differentiation without Diversity. The political economy of higher education transformation’ (Chapter 18), in The Palgrave International Handbook of Higher Education Policy and Governance. Palgrave MacMillan (J.Huisman, H.de Boer, D. Dill eds.)

Journal Articles

Forkert, K., Nahaboo, Z., Dakka, F. (2023) "The Chronopolitics of the Left Behind and Global Britain: Presentism, Populism and Inequality." Submitted for consideration in the special issue "Transformative and Political Uses of Time", Time & Society (in preparation)

Dakka, F., Forkert, K., McKeon, E., Robinson, J., Sergeant, I. (guest editors) (2023) ‘Voice and Listening as Techniques of Political Life’, Special Issue Journal of Sonic Studies,
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/558896/1937426

Dakka, F., Wade, A. (2023), ‘Postgraduate Research in a Sick Society’, Special Issue ‘Sociological perspectives on the mental health and wellbeing agenda in education’, Research Papers in Education (forthcoming)

Bohm, C., Dakka, F., Morini, L. (guest editors) (2022) ‘Academic Activism in the 21^st Century: Challenges and Opportunities’, Special IssuePTHE (Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education) journal. Dakka, F., Editorial Perspective – An Ethics of Rhythm for the Activist University?https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/plg/ptihe/2022/00000004/00000002;jsessionid=frl6s9rbwh9o.x-ic-live-03

Dakka, F. (2019) ‘Competition, innovation and diversity in higher education: dominant discourses, paradoxes and resistance’, British Journal of Sociology of Education.
(DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1668747 ) - nomination (best article) for the CIES Higher Education SIG Awards (International and Comparative Issues in Higher Education) 2020

Dakka, F. and Wade, A. (2018) ‘Writing Time: A Rhythmic Analysis of Contemporary Academic Writing’, Higher Education Research and Development, ‘Special Issue: Reading and Writing Across Disciplines’ Eds: Tully Barnett and Judith Seaboyer 38(1): 185-197 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1540555 )

Project Reports

Dakka (2020), Postgraduate Researcher Mental Health and Wellbeing, Research Project Final Report (July 2020), report available on demand.

O’Leary, Smith, Cui, Dakka (2019) The role of leadership in prioritising and improving the quality of teaching and learning in further education available at https://fetl.org.uk/publications/the-role-of-leadership-in-prioritising-and-improving-the-quality-of-teaching-and-learning-in-further-education/

Blogs

Dakka (2020) The Post-Pandemic University, Connectivity and Dis-Junction in the Post-Pandemic University: Preliminary Thoughts, https://postpandemicuniversity.net/2020/09/16/connectivity-and-dis-junction-in-the-post-pandemic-university-preliminary-thoughts/

O’Leary, Smith, Cui, Dakka (2019) BERA Research Intelligence (Special Issue), guest editorial, ‘How Leadership Can Influence the Improvement of Teaching and Learning in Further Education’, p. 19 https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/winter-2019

Henderson, Thomas, Dakka, Gamsu (May 2020) SRHE blog, ‘Making space in higher education research: Reporting back from our higher education geography conference symposium’ https://srheblog.com/?p=2018&preview=1&_ppp=e42fce635b

Recent Events (organised/convened)

(2023-) Spaces, Times and the Rhythms of Adult Education (STRAE) Research Symposium series 2023 co-organiser and presenter. Temporalities, Rhythms and Complexity Lab (Sunkhronos Institute Geneva, prof. Michel Alhadeff-Jones) https://www.sunkhronos.org/strae2023#section-1667216487537

Towards an Ethics of Rhythm in (University) Education: from Philosophy to Praxis (30.1.23)

2023 Launch event (BCU): ‘Voice and Listening as Techniques of Political Life’, Special Issue Journal of Sonic Studies (10 March, BCU) with co-editors Ed McKeon, Ian Seargent, Kirsten Forkert, Jill Robinson.

2022 Disruption, Voice and Listening, (flipped) Conference (CSPACE, Cultural Theory Cluster), November (21.11.22). https://bcmcr.org/event/disruption-voice-and-listening-one-day-flipped-symposium/

2022,CSPACE Annual Conference 5-6 July (City South) Hopeful Matters: a 1000 Little Fires, Prof. Heather Smith (Newcastle) opening Keynote.

2021 CSPACE Annual Christmas Lecture 15 December, (online), Assemblin Place-Spaces In Early Childhood Research, Dr. Nikki Fairchild, University of Portsmouth.

2021 CSPACE Annual Conference 7-8 June (online) Conference organiser/convenor Invited Keynotes – Sarah Amsler, Paul Warmington – Flipped conference

2021 Voice and Listening: Techniques of Political Life, 25 March (online) ConferenceCo-organiser (BCMCR-CSPACE)

Recent Conference Papers

2023 Invited Keynote – NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Department of Education and Lifelong Learning (June, 9)

2023 PSA Annual Conference, 3-5 April (Political Studies Association), Liverpool U. Marxism Specialist Group, The politics of education activism as reproductive labour, (with Dr. Anthony Armstrong and Rhiannon Lockley)

2022 ESREA, European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, University of Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy, 10^th ESREA Triennial Conference New Seeds for a World to Come. Policies, Practices and Lives in Adult

Education and Learning (29.09.2022-02.10.2022)

Symposium: Spaces, Times and the Rhythms of Critique and Emancipation in Adult Education Towards an Ethics of Rhythm in (University) Education: from Philosophy to Praxis.

2022 Universities Under Siege? 4^th annual Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education. Conference, Uppsala, Sweden (7-9 June) Introducing Rhythmanalysis as a Call for Action: Philosophy, Methods & University Futures.