You are here

  1. Home
  2. Ms Gabi Kent

Ms Gabi Kent

Gabi Kent, Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy (FASS/OU)

Profile summary

  • Research Student
  • Research Student
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences

Professional biography

I joined the OU as a new Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy in December 2015.  Prior to this I was a member of the ESRC funded Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK (PSE UK) project team www.poverty.ac.uk. As community engagement lead on this project, I devised and ran a three-year community action research and digital storytelling collaboration between the Open University, Queens University, CFNI and marginalised communities in Northern Ireland documenting the impact and harms of UK austerity policy. 

My professional background is as a freelance consultant, multi-media producer and academic researcher working on projects in the field of human rights, social justice and social change. I have an MSc in Human Rights from LSE (2008-2009), specialising in transitional justice in the aftermath of violent conflict and did my thesis on a regional grassroots justice process in the Balkans. Between 2010 and 2013 I worked as a freelance consultant with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)  in Geneva, on peacebuilding issues and long-term policy solutions for those who are forcibly displaced by conflict.

As a media producer/director for over 15 years, I have made numerous broadcast documentaries for BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery and advocacy films for NGOs and human rights organization such as The Anti Trafficking Alliance and The Elders.  I continue to maintain my connections with media  practice  by for example my work  as adviser and Associate Producer respectively on two highly commended feature length documentaries:  In the Shadow of War which looks at the long term legacies of conflict in the Balkans and Lost in Lebanon which examines the plight of Syrians exiled and caught in limbo in Lebanon. Both are made by the talented film makers, Sophia and Georgia Scott. I am also working on a long term documentary project about the legacy of AIDS activism.

Research interests

I am currently researching Loyalist and Republican perspectives on the role of education in social, political and conflict transformation for my PhD. This research is linked to my work with colleagues from Open University Ireland on their unique oral history archive documenting the OU's work in Northern Ireland prisons during the conflict (1972-2000).

More generally, my research concerns social and structural crimes and harms and grassroots-led processes of transitional justice and peacebuilding. In particular I am interested in bottom up or grassroots approaches to social, political and conflict transformation within and between divided communities and/or between communities and the state. My research is situated in contexts of conflict and in transitional states, from my MSc looking at grassroots-led transitional justice processes in the Balkans to novel justice, peacebuilding and peaceful co-existence approaches through my work with UNHCR.  Previous research in Northern Ireland meanwhile, examined the social and structural harms of poverty and related 'policies of shame' linked to UK Government austerity measures and collective community responses to these harms.

A common theme across my work is the use of innovative approaches to participatory action research for empowerment, advocacy and to effect political and social change.

Teaching interests

As a module team member on the new Masters in Crime and Global Justice (DD804), I have authored chapters on state crimes and harms, the politics of truth and transitional and global justice in the aftermath of genocide and mass atrocities. I am also teaching on a new Criminology Undergraduate module (DD105) and Deputy Chair of the level three module Personal Lives and Social Policy (DD305).

As a practitioner I enjoy developing and teaching participatory digital media and storytelling techniques with communities and action research projects. Drawing on my work with communities in Northern Ireland I taught a workshop at the 2016 HERC/ OU Post Graduate Research Methods Workshop on Action Research, Digital media and Storytelling.

Impact and engagement

My research and practice fuses academic research and public and community engagement. Currently I am working with colleagues from Open University Ireland (OUI) on their unique participatory oral history archive documenting the educational life journeys of OU students and staff in prisons such as Maze/Long Kesh, during the Northern Ireland conflict (1972-2000).  Our engagement work includes sharing knowledge from this Oral History Archive through teaching material, through public events and in future, via online platforms.

For Poverty and Social Exclusion UK (PSEUK)  I produced a series of short films with families across the UK on the lived experience of poverty. Working with low income communities in Northern Ireland we shared community research findings on the impact of austerity with policy makers and the wider public. This included using online digital media, public screenings, briefings and presentations politicians and policy makers in Stormont. More recently, I was part of a small OU/FASS  team assisting the NGO Community Foundation in Milton Keynes on producing their  Vital Signs report documenting local strengths and challenges such as health, wellbeing and inequality . 

Throughout my career I have pushed the boundaries between research, impact and engagement and I see knowledge sharing as a core responsibility when undertaking academic research.

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

Kent, G (2016) Shattering the silence: The power of ‘Purposeful storytelling’ in challenging social security discourses of blame and shame in Northern Ireland. Critical Social Policy,Vol 36: 124-141, Sage

Kent, G (2013) PSE Methods Working Paper (25): Community Engagement in Challenging times, Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK, Available at: http://www.poverty.ac.uk/pse-research/pse-uk/methods-development

BRIEFINGS, REPORTS AND POLICY DOCUMENTS

Kent G (2014) UNHCR Reintegration Handbook (Online Solutions toolkit: Resources for practitioner working on solutions for displaced persons), UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Available at http://www.solutionstoolkit.org/

Kent G, (2014) The Hard Times Reports 1-3 (The High Cost of Living; Feeling the Strain; Youth Prespectives) . Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Policy Briefing series presenting findings of the Communities in Action community research collaboration. Available at: http://www.poverty.ac.uk/community/northern-ireland/cia/hard-times

Kent G and Wilkins, G (2014) The Hard Times Reports (4) Action research as a community tool, Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, CFNI. 

Kent G, (2013) ‘We are sitting with the big people now” Final report on the PSE’s pilot community engagement project in Northern Ireland (March 2012 - August 2013), Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK (PSE UK)

Kent, G (2011), UNHCR: The Benefits of Belonging: local integration options and opportunities for host countries, host communities and refugees. UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/4e3276e26.html

Kent, G (2010), UNHCR Activities Through a Peacebuilding Lens (Internal document: Preliminary review), OSTS, UN High Commission for Refugees 

SELECTED CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS

Books that Bend Bars: Panel discussion with former political prisoners and OU students on the books that inspired change for the Imagine Festival, Belfast, March 2018

Lessons from Maze/Long Kesh: Education as a strategy of resistance and a tool for conflict transformation amongst political prisoners in Northern Ireland (1972-2000) European Group, Lesvos, July 2017

Community Engagement in Challenging Times: How can poverty related research be made more meaningful for low income communities 3rd Peter Townsend Memorial Conference: Poverty and Social exclusion in the UK: Presentation on Community engagement in challenging times http://www.poverty.ac.uk/take-part/events/final-conference  (July 2014)

Community Engagement for challenging times, Social Policy Association (SPA) Annual Conference (July, 2013)

Reconciliation through politics. European Commission (EC) Brussels, conference on transitional justice in the Western Balkans: Paper and presentation based on my MSc Thesis (Brussels, 2009)