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Dr Fadia Dakka

Fadia Dakka Profile Photo

Senior Research Fellow in Education

Email:
fadia.dakka@bcu.ac.uk

Dr. Fadia Dakka is a social scientist based in Birmingham, UK. She studied International Relations (BA, MA) at Bologna University (Italy) and King’s College London (MA) before earning a Doctorate in Social Sciences from the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol (2014), where she lectured on Social Policy and Education before moving to Birmingham City University (2016).  At Birmingham City, she served as Deputy Research Centre Director of CSPACE (2018-2022) and is currently the Academic Lead for Research in the Department of Education (School of Law & Social Sciences) and the co-Director of STERG (Space, Time & Everyday Life Research Group).

Her interests lie at the intersection of philosophy, sociology and theory of higher education.  Researching in the field of Critical University Studies, she explores how universities adapt, transform and reproduce intense competition and commodification, foregrounding institutional and psychosocial dimensions and implications (e.g. mental health and wellbeing of staff and students). She examines university crises and activism as epiphenomena of intersecting, global challenges, trying to prefigure alternative ecologies of knowledge production and forms of infra-political resistance by developing Lefebvre’s rhythmanalytical insights and exploring rhythm-informed methodologies.  

She is currently working toward theorising rhythm as a distinct form of ethics that informs critical pedagogy in higher education and has recently received a BA/Leverhulme grant (2024-25) to research doctoral reading practices and habits in the UK and Norway, through rhythmanalysis and phenomenology.    

She co-convenes the S.T.R.E.A.M. network (Spaces, Times and the Rhythms of the Education of Adults and its Movements) for ESREA (European Society for Research on the Education of Adults) Spaces, Times, and the Rhythms of the Education of Adults and its Movements (S.T.R.E.A.M.) | ESREA, and she is also Associate Researcher of the Temporalities, Rhythms and Complexity Lab (TRC) at the Sunkhronos Institute (Geneva) where she hosts and co-convenes a number of international seminars and initiatives (Our Team).

She held the position of Visiting Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Lifelong Learning at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), collaborating with Norwegian colleagues on international projects, research partnerships, and teaching. She serves on the editorial boards of esteemed journals such as Time & Society, Ethics & Education, and Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education, and has published extensively in the pioneering field of Rhythm and Education. 

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

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