Dr Liesbeth de Block

  • Qualifications and position:
  • Faculty:
    • Faculty of Children and Learning
  • Department:
  • Centre:
  • Summary:
    • My academic and research interests lie the study of childhood, children and young people and the intersections with media (including new communications technologies), migration, globalization, development and education. I am also interested in exploring participatory research methods using media. I have previously worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, adult literacy organiser and journalist (documentary films).
  • Teaching:
  • Research Projects:
    • European funded cross national project CivicWeb:Young People, the Internet and Civic Participation. The project analysed the potential contribution of the Internet to promoting civic engagement and participation among young people (aged 15-25) ( 2006-2009).

      European funded cross national project entitled Children in Communication about Migration (CHICAM) The project explored the potential uses of media and communication technologies for children to self represent their experiences of migration and settling. The project addressed specific policy areas in community development, education and media.

      Consultancy
      I am currently evaluating an online AIDS/HIV education school exchange programme between schools in the EU and Southern Africa. Funded by the EU. (2010 -2012)
      I previous completed a DFID funded consultancy evaluating social and basic education television programmes with a team of researchers and media producers in Kenya (2008 -2009)
  • Postgraduate Research:
    • I am interested in supervising Doctoral students in the areas of childhood, media, migration, identity, intercultural communication and in the ways that these interrelate. I am also interested in participatory, cross national and mixed research methods

      Current Doctoral students
      Danlu Wang (Centenary scholar): Imagining the Homeland: media use and ethnic identity of British born Chinese adolescents
      Niousha Roshani : Beyond child soldiering: understanding children and violence in Colombia through visual methods
      Samuel Awaku: Hope and Reality: a study of Technology in Education in Ghana
      Katia Narzisi: Children's and Young People's Experiences of Inter-country adoption
  • Conferences/presentations:
    • Education is the key to our lives, so says Kenny from South Park (Keynote) University of Thrace, School of Education, Alexandroupolis, Greece. Conference title: Social Inequalities and Education, March 2008

      Where's the Media in Childhood and Migration? At Childhood and Migration Interdisciplinary Conference. Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA, June 2008

      Children, video-making and research: emerging questions about visual methodologies. ESRC National Centre for Research Methods: Advancing the use of visual methods in research on children's cultures. April 2008
  • Personal Country Knowledge:
    • Caribbean region
      Kenya
      Netherlands
  • Languages Spoken:
    • French - basic
      German - basic
Dr Liesbeth de Block

Contact details

Contact details

Publications

  • de Block, L (forthcoming) 'Entertainment Education and social change: evaluating a children's soap opera in Kenya', International Journal of Educational Development
  • de Block, L. and Buckingham, D. (2007) Global Children, Global Media: migration, media and childhood. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
    Further information
  • de Block, L. (2010) 'At the Crossroads of Childhood, Media and Migration' In M. Ensor and E. Gozdziak (eds), Children and Migration: At the Crossroads of Resiliency and Vulnerability. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
  • de Block, L. (2010) 'Media Talk and Children's Identities' In C. Bazalgette (ed.), Teaching Media in Primary School. London: Sage.
  • de Block, L. (2008) 'The Place to Be: making media with young refugees' In Hart, J., Years of Conflict: adolescence, political violence and displacement. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books.
  • de Block, L. and Rydin, I. (2006) 'Digital Rapping in Media Productions: intercultural communication through youth culture' In Buckingham, D. and Willett, R. (eds) , Digital Generations: children, young people and new media. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    Further information
  • de Block, L. (2006) 'Talking television across cultures: negotiating inclusion and exclusion' In L. Adams and A. Kirova (eds) , Global Migration and Education: Schools, Children and Families. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
    Further information
  • de Block, L. (2002) 'Television as a Shared Space in the Intercultural Lives of Primary Aged Children' Unpublished PhD thesis, Institute of Education