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Noella Binda Niati is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research centres the nonformal educative spaces young people foster to counter sociopolitical inequalities through the lens of hip-hop pedagogy, (reverse) migration and critical development discourses in West and Central Africa.

Academic interests

Noella Binda Niati’s academic interests include:

• Youth engagement, nonformal educative spaces and sociopolitical inequalities in west and central Africa
• Hip-hop pedagogy in west and central Africa
• Critical development discourses in life course studies
• (Reverse) migration (North – South)
• Mixed methods (PAR, Triangulation).

Degrees obtained

• BA, Nebraska Wesleyan University.
• MA, University of Rochester.
• Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Studies, University of South Carolina.
• PhD, University of South Carolina.

Awards and prizes

• SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence Postdoctoral Fellowship, Humboldt University Berlin, 2020.
• Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, Cote d’Ivoire, 2017.
• David L. Boren NSEP Fellowship, Senegal, 2016.

Biography

Noella Binda Niati is an Assistant Professor of Education and International Development. Her research examines the nonformal educative spaces young people foster to counter sociopolitical inequalities through the lens of hip-hop pedagogy, (reverse) migration and critical development discourses in West and Central Africa. She explores these themes through a mixed methods lens examining sociopolitical inequalities, epistemic disobedience, the socio-cultural context of language, and the role of the state in structuring (in)access.

She has worked with the Research, Evaluation and Measurement Centre and the Rule of Law Collaborative in the USA, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Cote d'Ivoire and the Education sector of the UNESCO Regional office in Senegal. Her work is often mixed methods with an emphasis on culturally responsive evaluation and critical statistical analysis. Prior to joining the Education Faculty at the University of Cambridge, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, on a mixed methods project examining returns to education, occupational aspirations and engagement among young people in Senegal.

Other interests

Travel, aspiring chef, walking enthusiast, music lover and unseasoned upright bass player.