Researchers

Susan Meriläinen

Susan Meriläinen is professor of Management at the University of Lapland and PI of the AECED consortium. She is an organization studies scholar whose current projects relate to the embodied and material aspects of feminist knowledge production practices. Together with her like-minded colleagues Susan has actively sought to counter hegemonic academic practices that (re)produce inequalities and hierarchies in academia by using both conventional (e.g. academic writing, curriculum redesign) and more unconventional (e.g. organizing shared knowledge production retreats in the wilderness) means. Susan’s recently co-edited (with Saija Katila and Emma Bell) Handbook of Feminist Methodologies in Management and Organization Studies is a good example of her passion and commitment to change the taken-for-granted practices in organization studies and academia in general.

Susan’s partner is a bird and butterfly enthusiast, so hiking and nature walks have been a big part of her leisure time for the last 40 years. Susan's newest hobbies are crocheting and powerlifting. You can read more about Susan’s work at: https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/persons/susan-meril%C3%A4inen https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2413-7450

Pilvikki Lantela

Pilvikki Lantela (Master of Science, administration) is the AECED project manager. She enjoys the consortium’s international, artistic, and intellectual climate. As the project manager, Lantela is keen to consider how the consortium can not only research but exercise democracy-as-becoming. Beyond the project, Lantela is a PhD candidate at the University of Lapland in organization studies and cultural history. Her academic interests include microhistory and feminist knowledge production and theorizing.

In her free time, Pilvikki enjoys finding beauty in the mundane – the river Kemi that crosses across Rovaniemi is an everyday source of aesthetic inspiration, in winter as a frozen, vast, peaceful walking route, and during other seasons as a mirror reflecting the changing colours of the north. You can read more about Pilvikki’s work at: https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/persons/pilvikki-lantela https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0020-089X

Pauliina Jääskeläinen

Pauliina Jääskeläinen (Dr. Soc.Sci/Management and Organisation Studies, DMT) is working as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Lapland, at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her research interests move within the fields of embodiment and body movement in Management and Organization Studies. As a dance and movement therapist (DMT), she is keen on developing body movement-based research and facilitation methods. In the AECED Horizon project, Pauliina uses ideas and methods from DMT practices as part of researching and fostering democratic agencies in higher education as well as in professional and organisational learning.

Dance belongs to Pauliina's life also in many other forms as she teaches ballet and flamenco and works as a dance and movement therapist in her spare time. As a form of exercise - surprise, surprise - Pauliina takes Latin dance classes. Especially during the summer, she enjoys also swimming in the cool natural waters of Northern Finland. You can read more about Pauliina’s work at: https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/persons/pauliina-j%C3%A4%C3%A4skel%C3%A4inen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1732-885X

Joonas Vola

Joonas Vola (Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Lapland) is a post-doctoral researcher and scholar in Political Science. His academic interests concentrate on the incorporation of societal power relations in aesthetics, and the contemporary interplay of aesthetics with ethics in the recognition of injustices, emerging identities, and opening of sites for political interventions. He seeks to find opportunities for transformative pedagogical practices and educational cultures to open the senses and sense-making for democratic futures.

In free time Joonas shares his love for cinema with friends and colleagues, and gets rhythm to his days from various genres of music, in different formats. Besides living in the Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, when opportunity emerges, he visits the waters of the lake district of Eastern Finland. You can read more about Joonas’ work at: https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/persons/joonas-vola https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6279-4788

Monika Pažur

Monika Pažur (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0936-0048; CROSBI: https://www.bib.irb.hr/pregled/profil/34208) is an associate professor on Department for pedagogy and didactics at Faculty for Teacher Education, University of Zagreb. She holds PhD in pedagogy, that she has gained on Postgraduate doctoral study program in Pedagogy on Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in University of Rijeka, Croatia, with the topic of the doctoral dissertation: "Elementary School Teachers' Perception of the correlation between Democratic School Leadership and Democratic School Culture". Within the candidates` doctoral research a research instrument that measures the presence of democratic school leadership (DSL) characteristics has been developed. The process of development and validation of a research instrument has been published. At the moment she is a researcher on two scientific competitive projects: Researcher and Project Leader at the Faculty for teacher education in the project Transforming Education for Democracy through Aesthetic and Embodied Learning, Responsive Pedagogies and Democracy-as-becoming, that is funded under the call HORIZON-CL2-2022-DEMOCRACY-01 (2022 – ongoing) and a researcher in the project Models of Response to Educational Needs of Children at Risk of Social Exclusion in ECEC Institutions, Croatian Science Foundation; http://morenec.ufzg.hr/ (2020 – ongoing). Her fields of interest are democratization of education, human rights education, school leadership, parenting, and education policy. She sees herself as a dancer, a teacher and an activist, and that is what shapes her free time altogether.

Vlatka Domović

Vlatka Domović is a full professor at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb. Her research interests include initial teacher education and continuous professional development, comparative education and education for democracy. She participated in or led 21 research projects in Croatia and was a researcher in several international projects in the field of education. She is a member of the editorial board of two scientific journals in the field of education. Besides academic career she has been involved in development of programs for in – service teacher education especially in the field of school curriculum development, school leadership, inclusive education as well as in educational policy projects. She is the winner of the state award for the improvement of higher education.

Katarina Aladrović Slovaček

PhD Katarina Aladrović Slovaček (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0706-9436 ; CROSBI: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=hr&user=_yFoNF0AAAAJ ) is an associate professor at the Department of Croatian Language, Literature, Stage and Media Culture of The Faculty for Teacher Education, University of Zagreb. In her scientific work, he deals with applied linguistics, i.e. the acquisition, learning and teaching of Croatian as a mother tongue and as a foreign language. At the Faculty, she teaches courses related to the Croatian language: Communication Grammar and Language Expression, and she introduced the courses Language Games and Speaking Skills of Teachers and Educators. She has published about seventy scientific and professional papers, one scientific monograph From the acquisition to the learning of the Croatian language and two manuals Creative language games and Language learning in the time of a pandemic. He is currently participating in the work of two Erasmus projects and one project of the Croatian Science Foundation.

In her free time she writes, plays the piano, engages in logotherapy, and conducts educational and communication trainings.

Maja Drvodelić

Maja Drvodelić, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pedagogy and Didactics at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Teacher Education, Croatia. She participated as a researcher in several National and International scientific projects. Her areas of scientific interests include quality of preschool and primary school education, teacher education, educational evaluation with a particular focus on preschool and primary school self-evaluation process. Her creativity, inventive problem-solving skills, strong intuition, and ability to see, understand and advocate for different perspectives permeates all aspects of her professional and private life.
In her free time, she enjoys creating memories with her kids, preferably trough exploration of different environments, countries, cultures, and cuisines. When at home, just the stillness of togetherness fills her up with joy, delight, and gratitude.
You can read more about Maja’s work at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maja-Drvodelic-2 and https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2633-5573

Susanne Maria Weber

Since 2009, Dr. Prof. Susanne Maria Weber has held the professorship "Social, political and cultural framework conditions of education and upbringing with special consideration of international aspects" at the Philipps University of Marburg, Department of Educational Sciences (Germany). Her research group "Innovation - Organization - Networks" is concerned with research into the enabling contexts, conditions and design modes of organizational and social change. Sustainability and innovation are explored with a focus on their relationship and interplay as discourse, science and practice. Susanne Weber's research and publications focus on methodological approaches to organizational and network development and network consulting from the perspective of practice and discourse theory.

Susanne Weber has been a board member of the Commission for Organizational Education of the German Educational Association (DGfE) since 2005. Since 2014, she has been Chair of the "International Research Network (IRN) 'Organizational Education - Futures in Organizing'" of the "World Educational Research Association (WERA)". She is co-editor of the international journal "knowledge cultures" (Addleton) and member of the editorial board of various renowned international journals such as "Policy Futures in Education (Symposium)", "Educational Philosophy and Theory" (Routledge); as well as book series such as "Evaluating Education: Normative Systems and Institutional Practices" (Springer) and "Creative Education" (Sense).

• Youtube-Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCctbXCXpFUrWhjSeOkb71bA
• Web Info: https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/fb21/erzwinst/arbeitsbereiche/ion
https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/fb21/erzwinst/arbeitsbereiche/ion/personen/prof-dr-susanne-maria-weber

Lea Spahn
Dr. Lea Maria Spahn sees herself as a researcher and performer with a feminist attitude - mostly in and through movement. In addition to the EU research project, she is a teacher for special tasks for body education/dance and module leader in the continuing education master's program "Cultural Education in Schools" at the Philipps University of Marburg. Together with Anne Decker, she is developing participatory projects as a resident artist in rural areas of Hessen from 2022-2024 (funded by FLUX Netzwerk Theater und Schule e.V.). She used to live part-time in Brno, Czech Republic, where she was part of the German-Czech Agronauts*Collective, which combines performative research and environmental activism in annual international symposia.

Lea has been a dance mediator for many years with a focus on somatic experiences, improvisation and sensual experience. She reflects on her scientific and practical experiences in writing processes - in the examination of corporeality and physicality under conditions of digitality, (more-than-human) collectives, aesthetic and cultural education, movement and dance, feminist and intersectional theories as well as political ecologies.

Kardelen Dilara Cazgir
Kardelen Dilara Cazgir studied "International Relations" at Ege University (Turkey), including a stay abroad at Matej Bel University in Slovakia. She completed her Master's degree at the Gender and Women's Studies department of Middle East Technical University (Turkey). She spent her Erasmus semester in Marburg, at the Philipps University. Here she worked at the Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futures Research.

During her studies, she attended a summer school on Commoning, Arts & Culture at the Central European University as well as the summer school course "Fighting for Justice: Delivering Social Value and Tackling Climate Action" at Bradford University. In addition to her studies, she was involved in various NGOs, including in the field of gender justice. Kardelen Cazgir is currently doing her doctorate in political science at the Philipps University of Marburg. She has contributed to numerous scientific works in the fields of gender studies, labor & migration, and social & solidarity economies.

Julia Petzold

Julia Petzold completed her Master's degree at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde (HNE) with a focus on regional development and education for sustainable development (ESD). During her studies, she worked for several years as a tutor for a student-organized module on the topic of Commons & Commoning. The main focus here was on testing self-determined & needs-oriented learning settings within the university context. After graduating, she worked with various youth groups on the topic of climate change and social justice. Julia co-published the card deck “Pattern Language of Commoning” - a card deck that can be used to explore and reflect patterns of social togetherness, peer governance and care economy and how to bring them into action.

Karine Oganisjana

Dr. paed Karine Oganisjana is a professor and leading researcher at the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management of Riga Technical University and an expert of two sub-branches of Social Sciences of the Latvian Council of Science - Economics and Entrepreneurship, and Educational sciences. Karine has taught physics, mathematics, pedagogy, research methods, research methodology, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, etc. Her keen pedagogical interests are to elaborate research-based approaches to promote learners’ multiple types of thinking, metacognitive power, deep understanding, entrepreneurial and research skills, creativity, mindfulness, the ability to adjust their inner and outer worlds to achieve harmony and the feeling of happiness even in crisis. The Erasmus project ENABLES laid a new path of professional thought linked to the use of arts-based and embodied learning (ABEL) to promote learners’ distributed leadership. As a logical continuation of it, the AECED project provides a new opportunity for trying ABEL methods and researching their effect on establishing democratic ethos, experiencing democracy, thinking and acting democratically in schools.

Her hobbies are watching psychological films, singing and listening to opera and symphonic music. Karine’s life motto is “If you cannot have the best, make the best of what you have!”

Natalja Lace

Dr.oec. Natalja Lace is a professor at Riga Technical University Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management. She is the Head of the Research and academic group “Finance” and the Director of the Master's program “Business Finance”, a Member of the Editorial Board of several academic journals and an expert on the Latvian Council of Science. Her pedagogic activities encompass bachelor, master, and doctoral programs: lecturing, supervising, and reviewing bachelor, master, and Ph.D. theses.

Natalja is also an author, co-author, and editor of more than 100 scientific papers and books. She is involved in executing research projects sponsored by the Latvian Government and the Scientific Council of the Republic of Latvia. Her research interests are focused on critical success factors of small and medium-sized enterprises and innovation as well as financial aspects of business. Aesthetic and embodied learning for democracy and arts based and embodied learning methods bring new insights into professor’s pedagogical and research life allowing not only promote holistic nature of student professional and personal development at the university, but also to contribute to the transformations in education in Latvia.

Konstantins Kozlovskis

Dr. oec. Konstantins Kozlovskis is an associate professor, PhD in economics, at the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management of Riga Technical university. His academic interests are concentrated on the implementation of mathematics and statistics in different fields of sciences mostly focusing on economic, finance, investment & portfolio management, risk management, and similar fields. In cooperation with colleagues, he wrote several books dedicated to model building and statistical analysis in SPSS, eViews, and EXCEL. Metadata organisation and analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data collected when trying three models for embedding aesthetic and embodied learning for democracy using drama sketch and collage-creation in secondary schools is the key task of Konstantins in the AECED project.

In his free time, Konstantins works on the series of books devoted to the practical application of the R programming language in the analysis of financial information, business forecasting, and portfolio managements adapted for non-mathematicians.

Rolands Ozols

Rolands Ozols is a lecturer for the MSc course “Leadership: strategies and tactics” and a research assistant at the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management of Riga Technical University. His professional career includes also the leadership of the Quality Assurance Department at the State Education Quality Service of Latvia, formerly also a Secretary General of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO and representation of Latvia to the Board of the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, different international stakeholders’ working groups in the field of education, science, culture and ICTs. He used to be also a founder of the Institute of Lifelong Learning and Culture “Vitae” in Latvia.

Rolands holds trainer certificates in leadership development, lateral thinking, critical thinking, argumentation skills and creative thinking development and has done more than 1000+ group training sessions for in-service teachers and different private, public and non-governmental organisation managers in Latvia and the European Union. His professional interests encompass also transformations in education using aesthetic and embodied learning for democracy, social emotional learning and distributed leadership which all previously united in the ERASMUS+ project ENABLES and now in the HORIZON Europe project AECED.

Cláudia Neves

Cláudia Neves has been an assistant professor at Universidade Aberta since 2010, where she teaches curricular units in the Department of Education and Distance Learning, of which she is the 2020 director. Since 2017 she has been coordinator of the Master's in Educational Administration and Management, where she has supervised several dissertations. Her research interests are anchored in the Education and Distance Learning Laboratory (LE@D) and centre around Education Policies and new forms of education regulation in the national and international context, with special emphasis on the role of the European Union in defining the education policy of its member states. Currently, her research seeks to explore and deepen training scenarios in digital environments and the exploration of complexity theories in education. Her interest in deepening the relationship between Education and Democracy led her to join this project and since 2023 she has been the coordinator of the national team of the AECED project.

Ana Patrícia Almeida

Ana Patrícia Almeida completed her PhD in Education in Educational Administration and Policy in 2015 at the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon. She received her master’s degree in educational administration in 2005 from the FPCE - University of Lisbon and her bachelor’s degree in educational sciences - Educational Administration in 1999 from the FPCE - University of Lisbon. At ISEC Lisboa she held the position of Director of the School of Education and Human Development. She is, currently, an Assistant Professor at Universidade Aberta (Open University - Portugal). Since 2001, has participated in national and international networks in the field of educational administration and educational policies. Between 2013 and 2015 was president of the European Forum for Educational Administration and is currently vice-president of the Portuguese Forum for Educational Administration. Has received two awards, one of them for Best Doctoral Thesis in the area, in 2015. She has published and done research in the following domains: Public Policies on Education, Public Policy Analysis, Educational Administration & Management and Teacher Training. She is currently principal investigator, at the Open University, of the UNESCO Chair "City that Educates and Transforms". In the UNESCO Chair "City that Educates and Transforms", she represents the Open University in the Steering Committee and is part of the International Committee of this same Chair.

Marta Abelha

Marta Abelha is one of the Portuguese team members in the challenging project "Research to Enhance Democracy through Aesthetic and Embodied Learning. Responsive Pedagogies and Democracy-as-Becoming" (AECED). She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Distance Learning at Universidade Aberta, Portugal, where she teaches in the Education and Teacher Training programmes. She believes that education is the key to building a more equity society, and this is what drives me daily, trying to be a catalyst for the development of conscious and active individuals in society.

Outside of the academic environment, she is an enthusiastic advocate of family time and a good dose of fun with friends. Walks by the sea are a special refuge, providing not only serenity but also inspiration for my work. She also enjoys sharing laughter and good conversation at lively dinner parties with friends. She is a fortunate to be the mother of two children and the aunt of four adorable nephews, whose curiosity and vitality challenge me daily to grow as a person. This personal commitment is directly reflected in her teaching practice, where she seeks to implement innovative ways to inspire and positively impact her students. She joins the AECED project with enthusiasm and determination, hoping that each step along the way will contribute to a deeper understanding of democracy and education.

Pedro Abrantes

Pedro Abrantes holds a bachelor’s degree and a PhD in Sociology, from ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Over the last twenty years, he has taught and researched in several higher education institutions, in Portugal and Mexico, focusing on the areas of education, social inequalities and life paths. Simultaneously, he was committed with education development, through successive collaborations with local and national administration, as well as international organizations and foundations. He is Assistant Professor at Universidade Aberta, since 2013. From 2016 to 2022, he was commissioned in the Ministry of Education, as advisor and afterwards as Deputy-Director of the statistics directorate. Member of the Portuguese Sociology Association, currently coordinating the Classes, Inequalities and Public Policies section. Among other articles, he published: "Socialization and inequality” (Current Sociology, 2013), “Gendering social mobility” (Gender & Education, 2014), “Full-time Schools in Portugal” (JNAER, 2023), “Analysing biographies in transnational educational spaces” (Globalisation, Societies and Education, 2023).

Juliana Gazzinelli

Juliana Gazzinelli holds a PhD in History, Politics and Cultural Heritage at Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV- CPDOC), Brazil (2019). Master in Built Environment and Sustainable Heritage from the School of Architecture at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil and bachelor´s degree in Tourism, from Universidade FUMEC. From 2021 to 2022 she was an Associated researcher at CIES, Iscte and from 2022 to 2023 she was an integrated researcher at Interdisciplinary NOVA University Lisbon - Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA), with a post-doctoral scholarship in the project SMOOTH - Educational Common Spaces - Passing through enclosures and reversing. Continuing her research in the field of Democracy and Education since 2023 she joints the AECED project in Portugal team as a post-doctoral researcher in Universidade Aberta and becomes a member of the Education and Distance Learning Laboratory (LE@D).

Philip Woods

Philip Woods is Professor of Educational Policy, Democracy and Leadership and Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. His work focuses principally on education for democracy and educational leadership and policy, including distributed, collaborative and democratic leadership and change towards more democratic environments fostering collaborative and holistic learning. He has developed a vision of democratic leadership founded in a model of holistic democracy. In this model, democracy is conceived as a way of being together in which people participate in the co-creation of their social and organisational environment and, through this, are able to make the most of an innate capacity to develop their highest capabilities, ethical sensibilities and meaning in their lives as social individuals. One of the roots of this work is a love of history, especially the seeds of democracy sown in the ‘English Revolution’ of the 17th century. A former Chair of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS), Philip has wide-ranging experience in major funded projects. Besides the AECED project, recent European projects include ENABLES (2019-2021) which explored use of arts-based and embodied methods in distributed leadership development. Recent publications include: ‘Nurturing Change: Processes and outcomes of workshops using collage and gesture to foster aesthetic qualities and capabilities for distributed leadership’, P. A. Woods, S. Culshaw, K. Smith, J. Jarvis, H. Payne & A. Roberts, Professional Development in Education, 49:4, 2023; ‘Democratic Leadership’, P. A. Woods, in R. Papa (Ed), Oxford Encyclopaedia of Educational Administration, Oxford University Press, 2021; Handbook on Leadership in Education (Eds: P. A. Woods, A. Roberts, M. Tian & H. Youngs; Elgar, 2023) and Communication and Education: Promoting Peace and Democracy in Times of Crisis and Conflict (Eds: M. J. O’Hair, P. A. Woods & H. D. O’Hair; Wiley-Blackwell, 2024).

His hobbies include walking and reading (especially history and biography – Eleanor Marx, Sylvia Pankhurst and George III were particularly interesting recent biographies); he enjoyed some years ago, guitar in hand, having a go at song-writing and would love to pick it up again.

Suzanne Culshaw

Dr Suzanne Culshaw is a Research Fellow in the Schools of Law and Education at the University of Hertfordshire. She is an Early Career Researcher who completed her PhD at the University of Hertfordshire in 2019. Her doctoral research explored the experience of struggling as a teacher and she used collage with her teacher participants. She defines struggling as a ‘temporary fractured state’ and has since written about the importance of love and care in education settings. Recent project work has focussed on distributed leadership, specifically supporting educational leaders - through the use of collage and gesture response - to strengthen capacity for collaborative leadership. In 2023 she published a chapter in the Handbook on Leadership in Education on using arts-based and embodied methods to research leadership in education. Suzanne offers creativity, reflexivity and sensitivity in everyting she does as an educator; she is committed to establishing respectful and meaningful relationships and strives to communicate with compassion. She brings to the AECED project her interest in innovative approaches to teaching and learning and her experience of using arts-based and embodied approaches in research.

In her spare time, Suzanne is a full-time carer for her husband and she enjoys blogging and writing haikus about her experience of caring. She is a practising Buddhist, training for ordination within the Triratna movement. Suzanne would love to get back into a regular habit of Nordic Walking in her local country park, but for now she enjoys her daily walks with the family dog – Penny, a dachshund-spaniel cross – in and around the small Suffolk town where she lives.

You can follow Suzanne on Twitter (X): @SuzanneCulshaw, or on LinkedIn.

Karen Mpamhanga

Dr Karen Mpamhanga (formerly Smith) is Professor of Higher Education and Professional Learning in the Schools of Law and Education at the University of Hertfordshire. Karen is a creative and critical education researcher, engaging in research, evaluation, and development projects inside and outside universities, working with a range of different partners, commissioners, and funders. Recent project work has focussed specifically on transnational education and transnational educators; international students; educational development and educational developers; innovative practitioners; alternative approaches to education; and partnerships between creative practitioners and educators. Her work is underpinned by a commitment to collaboration, mutuality, and professional learning, where she seeks to empower professionals through actionable recommendations, accessible toolkits, and enhanced capacity to engage in practitioner research. Karen supports the generation and dissemination of educational research through her work on the University of Hertfordshire’s Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD), her doctoral supervision, as an editor of the book series Critical Practice in Higher Education, and as an executive editor of Teaching in Higher Education. Karen brings to the AECED project her interest in professional learning and her experience of participatory approaches to research.
In her spare time, Karen loves the freedom that swimming, running and yoga give her. In the summer, Karen likes nothing more than spending time at the sea with her family, enjoying warm weather and the peace of paddleboarding.
You can read more about Karen’s work at: https://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/en/persons/karen-mpamhanga
And you can follow Karen on Twitter (X): @karensmith_HE, or on LinkedIn.

Hannah Reeves

Hannah Reeves is a transdisciplinary scholar working across psychosocial studies, sociology, anthropology and environmental humanities; her long-term commitments are to exploring human-nonhuman relations in sites of anthropogenic disturbance ethnographically, particularly in urban settings. Hannah is passionate about fostering collaboration within and beyond academia, including with collaborators based in visual arts, archaeology and the natural sciences.