Current work

Dr. Mieke Lopes Cardozo is Associate Professor in Regenerative Education and Development at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the University of Amsterdam, and part of the Governance and Inclusive Development Research Group. Mieke's academic and transdisciplinary teaching, supervision, research and writing focuses on the role of education systems in processes of regeneration, peacebuilding, social justice and inclusive development in the contexts of the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Aceh/Indonesia, Bolivia, and Myanmar. She currently leads the interdisciplinary ethnographic action research project Researching Innovations supporting Education for Regenerative Societies (RISERS). As coordinator of the Fair, Resilient and Inclusive Societies (FRIS) scholarship programme at the the Teaching and Learning Centre of the University of Amsterdam, Mieke conducts and supervises action research and teaching innovation projects in collaboration with colleague education innovators. Mieke is an enthusiastic member of Regenesis Community of Regenerative Practitioners, the Community of Practice Regenerative Higher Education, and the Dutch Reiki Regenerative Resource Development Community.

Highlighted past experiences

Mieke was awarded as one of the first Comenius Teaching Fellowship Laureates (2017) to implement an education innovation project called Critical Development and Diversity Explorations, a co-created, decolonial-inspired and conciousness-oriented teaching innovation in collaboration with students of International Development Studies. She acted as co-founder and elected chair of the Comenius Network Tracé Inclusive Higher Education of the KNAW (Royal Dutch Society for Science, 2018-2022), and board member of the Netherlands Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (NALACS), and the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality Studies (ARC-GS).

Mieke works in several international consortia in the field of education, emergencies and displacement. As part of the Tauwhirotanga team, she took the role of Global Learning Facilitator in complex living systems thinking and regenerative design for the philanthropic Porticus foundation’s global programme on Education in Displacement, called All Eyes on Learning (2020-2023). She is Associate Fellow at the Centre for International Education at the University of Sussex. She co-directed the Research Consortium on Education and Peacebuilding (2014-2016), a partnership with UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy (PBEA) programme. She was appointed as Advisor for the Security Council mandated Progress Study on Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security (2016-2018). She co-founded and chaired the Special Interest Group on Education, Conflict and Emergencies at the Comparative and International Education Societies (CIES), and was an elected member of the Working Group of the Interagency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE).

Personal statement

Driven by a belief in the regenerative potential of education systems for a more conscious, life-affirming relationship between humanity and the planet, I am committed to bring my work as a scholar, regenerative practitioner, yoga teacher and reiki student into all aspects of my life - aiming to be(come) a more regenerative mother, family-member, educator, scholar, supervisor, writer and community-member.

Keywords

• Education for Regeneration
• Inclusive Development
• Co-creation
• Trangressive and inclusive learning
• Contemplative and consciousness-oriented learning
• Social and Gender Justice
• Peacebuilding
• Youth and Teacher Agency
• Teacher Education and Development

For open access PDFs or links to recent publications please visit the personal webpage of Mieke Lopes Cardozo.

Mieke has an academic background in International Relations, Conflict Studies, Latin American Studies (University of Utrecht) and International Development Studies (University of Amsterdam). She formerly worked at UNICEF in the Netherlands at the communications and education/youth department. She joined the UvA in 2007 for her doctoral research on Bolivia and between 2011-2016 she coordinated the ‘IS-Academie’ co-funded research project of the University of Amsterdam and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also led a Research Consortium on Education, Social Justice and Peacebuilding in collaboration with the University of Sussex and the University of Ulster and co-directed the Research Consortium on Education and Peacebuilding (2014-2016), a partnership with UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy (PBEA) programme, together with prof. Mario Novelli (University of Sussex), and prof. Alan Smith (University of Ulster). Mieke is also a certified yoga teacher.

Mieke conducted doctoral research on teachers and social change in Bolivia (2007-2011). Other research areas include the role of (non)formal peace education in Sri Lanka, peacebuilding education and female education leaders in the Islamic context of Aceh/ Indonesia, the relation between education policy, teachers roles’ and young people’s agency in Myanmar and teaching innovations for social justice and inclusivity in higher education.

Fostering the transformative potential of education

Mieke supervises a number of post-doc and PhD researchers and (Research) Master students in International Development Studies working on similar research topics. She also lectures in several BA and MA courses within the International Development Studies programme at the University of Amsterdam. She was involved in GLOBED, an EU Erasmus Mundus Plus-funded joint Masters on Education Policies for Global Development (2014-2018). She is associate fellow at the University of Sussex and has guest lectured at Sussex (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020), LSE Institute of Education (2012, 2013, 2014, 2017), University of Malta (2014, 2017), Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (2014, 2015, 2016), University of Auckland (2013), Hogeschool Rotterdam (2010), UMSA La Paz (Bolivia, 2008, 2012), CEDLA (2011), Teachers College Columbia University (2016), University of Maastricht (2016), University of Groningen (2017), University of Minho, Portugal (2017), University of Oxford (2017).

Connecting a passion for research and teaching that focuses on social justice and transformation, the recently awarded Comenius Fellowship allows her to implement the Critical Development and Diversity Explorations innovation project in close collaboration with students. Through a co-created course with Research Master students from the International Development Studies Programme, we work on developing critical reflective skills to 1) recognise and unlearn deeply rooted, embodied and societal structures of othering, discrimination and exclusion; and 2) explore new, more socially just and transformative ways of relating to the world as a development-scholars/practitioners, by drawing on a range of alternative pedagogies.