My PhD research explores youth volunteering during the Ebola response in Sierra Leone, looking at how experiences of volunteering have shaped young people’s understandings of citizenship through the navigation of the socio-economic context in which they live. I use narrative methods to place young people’s stories at the heart of research, combining interviews and focus-groups with young volunteers with context level data gathered through expert interviews and policy analysis. My research seeks to understand what times of crisis can reveal about young people’s sense of identity and belonging in the hope of informing youth development policy and the improved inclusion of young people within responses to crisis contexts. 

At a broader level I am interested in youth participation in Sub-Saharan Africa, volunteering in development and humanitarian response and the anthropology of development.