Professor Karen Wells
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Professor Wells has over twenty years of experience in research on the intersection between international political economy and socio-cultural fields in the formation of childhood. She has published widely on this research including in her monographs Childhood in a Global Perspective (Policy, 3rd edition, 2021) and Childhood Studies: making young subjects (Polity, 2017) and Visual Cultures of Childhood (Rowman and Little 2020). She is book reviews editor of the journal Children’s Geographies, and a board member of the journal Global Studies of Childhood. She is currently involved in two significant book projects, as co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Childhood Studies and Global Development and Bloomsbury’s forthcoming Handbook of Theory in Childhood Studies. She holds adjunct membership in the graduate faculty of the Graduate School at Rutgers University-Camden of the Childhood Studies department at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey. She is PI of two global challenges research projects with British Academy, one on translanguaging in Amhara region, Ethiopia and one on community approaches to early learning in rural villages in West Africa.
Office hours
I do not keep regular office hours. If you wish to arrange a tutorial with me please email me at k.wells@bbk.ac.uk
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Research
Research
Research interests
- How international political economy (e.g. war, international law, global capitalism) impacts on children/childhood
- visual research methods
- visual cultures of childhood
Research overview
My research is focused on childhood subjectivity. It aims to address the question of how broad structural forces at different scales from the global to the local enter into everyday life and make children into different kinds of gendered, racialised and classed persons. My research has shown not only that racism, sexism, class discrimination and other forms of inequality are critical to the formation of young subjects, but also that childhood itself has been deployed to elide the deep roots of these inequalities in modern liberal capitalism and its globalisation through international development.
I am interested in pursuing questions on how the dialectic between local and global forces enter into the everyday life of children and structure childhood in ways that both perpetuate and ameliorate conditons of inequality in children's lives.
I am PI of two current research projects. One on how children learn knowledge through exchanges with people (family, peers and community) and everyday activities in rural villages in West Africa. You can find out more about that research here:
And, a project on translanguaging in Amhara schools in Ethiopia with Partners in Education Ethiopia.
I am also on the steering group of Plan International's longitudinal research project Real Choices - Real Lives (https://plan-uk.org/policy/real-choices-real-lives).
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Current doctoral researchers
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HAROON FORDE
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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NELLY ALI
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JAHAN FOSTER ZABIT
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PAULINE O'DWYER
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MICHAEL BOAMPONG
Teaching
Teaching modules
- International Political Economy of Childhood (FDDV025S7)
- Research Methods (SSGE083Z7)
- International Development and Social Justice (SSGE125S7)
- Rebels, Riots and Revolutions in International Development (SSGE128S7)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Wells, Karen (2024) Generation and gender: theorising social reproduction in rural West Africa. Children's Geographies ISSN 1473-3285.
- Wells, Karen (2023) Docudrama and the agential child: treading a path between melodrama and National Geographic. Sociology Lens ISSN 2832-5796.
- Wells, Karen and Bailey, Ain (2020) Sound art and the making of public space. Social and Cultural Geography 21 (8), pp. 1083-1102. ISSN 14701197.
- Wells, Karen (2019) ‘I’m here as a social worker’: immigration status issues and safeguarding children in Private Fostering arrangements in the UK. Child Abuse Review 28 (4), pp. 273-286. ISSN 0952-9136.
- Wells, Karen (2014) Children, youth, and subjectivity. Children's Geographies 12 (3), pp. 263-267. ISSN 1473-3285.
- Wells, Karen (2014) Marching to be somebody: a governmentality analysis of online cadet recruitment. Children's Geographies 12 (3), pp. 339-353. ISSN 1473-3285.
- Wells, Karen (2013) The melodrama of being a child: NGO representations of poverty. Visual Communication 12 (3), pp. 277-293. ISSN 1470-3572.
- Wells, Karen (2012) Children and violence. Oxford Bibliographies: Childhood Studies
- Wells, Karen (2011) The strength of weak ties: the social networks of young separated asylum seekers and refugees in London. Children's Geographies 9 (3/4), pp. 319-329. ISSN 1473-3285.
- Wells, Karen (2011) The politics of life: governing childhood. Global Studies of Childhood 1 (1), pp. 15-25. ISSN 2043-6106.
- Wasiuzzaman, S. and Wells, Karen (2010) Assembling webs of support: child domestic workers in India. Children & Society 24 (4), pp. 282-292. ISSN 1099-0860.
- Wells, Karen (2010) Child-saving or child rights: depictions of children in international NGO campaigns on conflict. Journal of Children and Media 2 (3), pp. 235-250. ISSN 1748-2798.
- Wells, Karen (2007) Symbolic capital and material inequalities: memorializing class and "Race" in the multicultural city. Space and Culture 10 (2), pp. 195-206. ISSN 1206-3312.
- Wells, Karen (2007) Narratives of liberation and narratives of innocent suffering: the rhetorical uses of images of Iraqi children in the British press. Visual Communication 6 (1), pp. 55-71. ISSN 1470-3572.
- Wells, Karen (2007) Diversity without difference: modelling 'the real' in the social aesthetic of a London multicultural school. Visual Studies 22 (3), pp. 270-282. ISSN 1472-586X.
- Wells, Karen (2007) The material and visual cultures of cities. Space and Culture 10 (2), pp. 136-144. ISSN 1206-3312.
- Wells, Karen (2005) Strange practices: children's discourses on transgressive unknowns in urban public space. Childhood 12 (4), pp. 495-506. ISSN 0907-5682.
- Wells, Karen and Watson, S. (2005) A politics of resentment: shopkeepers in a London neighbourhood. Ethnic and Racial Studies 28 (2), pp. 261-277. ISSN 0141-9870.
- Watson, S. and Wells, Karen (2005) Spaces of nostalgia: the hollowing out of a London market. Social & Cultural Geography 6 (1), pp. 17-30. ISSN 1464-9365.
- Wells, Karen (2002) Reconfiguring the radical other: urban children's consumption practices and the nature/culture divide. Journal of Consumer Culture 2 (3), pp. 291-315. ISSN 1469-5405.
Book
- Abebe, T. and Dar, A. and Wells, Karen, eds. (2024) Routledge handbook of childhood studies and global development. London, UK & New York, U.S.: Routledge. ISBN 9780367740436. (In Press)
- Wells, Karen (2021) Childhood in a global perspective, 3rd edition. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 9781509541713.
- Wells, Karen (2020) The visual cultures of childhood: Film and television from The Magic Lantern to teen vloggers. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 9781786611048.
- Wells, Karen, ed. (2019) Teen lives around the world: a global encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calafornia, USA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781440852442.
- Wells, Karen (2017) Childhood studies: making young subjects. Short Introductions. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745670249.
- Wells, Karen (2014) Childhood in global perspective, 2nd edition. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745684949.
- Wells, Karen and Burman, E. and Montgomery, H. and Watson, A., eds. (2014) Childhood, youth and violence in global contexts. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137322593.
- Wells, Karen Wells, Karen, ed. (2009) Childhood in global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745638362.
Book Review
- Wells, Karen (2009) Heather Montgomery. An Introduction to Childhood: Anthropological Perspectives on Children’s Lives, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 281 pp..
- Wells, Karen (2008) Invisible Hands: Child Labor and the State in Colonial Zimbabwe. Beverly Carolease Grier. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 2006. xii + 284 pp.
- Wells, Karen (2008) Pam Nilan and Carles Feixa (eds), Global Youth? Hybrid identities, plural worlds. New York and London: Routledge, 2006, 218 pp..
- Wells, Karen (2007) Jennifer Ritterhhouse. Growing up Jim Crow: How black and white Southern children learned race. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 2006, xii + 306 pp..
- Wells, Karen (2007) Roxanne Varzi, Warring Souls: Youth, Media, and Martyrdom in Post-Revolutionary Iran. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. 290 pp..
- Wells, Karen (2005) Annette Lareau Unequal Childhoods: class, race and family life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. xii + 331 pp..
Book Section
- Wells, Karen and Muluneh, G. (2024) Language policy, development and translanguaging in Africa. In: Abebe, T. and Dar, A. and Wells, Karen (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Childhood Studies and Global Development. London, UK & New York, U.S.: Routledge. ISBN 9780367740436. (In Press)
- Balagopalan, S. and Wall, J. and Wells, Karen (2023) Introduction. In: Balagopalan, S. and Wall, J. and Wells, Karen (eds.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781350263840. (In Press)
- Balagopalan, S. and Wall, J. and Wells, Karen (2023) Introduction to The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies. In: Balagopalan, S. and Wall, J. and Wells, Karen (eds.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies. Bloomsbury Handbooks. London, UK: Bloomsbury. pp. 1-15. ISBN 9781350263840.
- Wells, Karen (2023) Theorizing 'surplus populations' in racial capitalism through juvenile justice. In: Balagopalan, S. and Wall, J. and Wells, Karen (eds.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781350263840. (In Press)
- Wells, Karen (2023) Theorizing ‘Surplus Populations’ in racial capitalism through juvenile justice. In: Balagopalan, S. and Wall, J. and Wells, Karen (eds.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies. Bloomsbury Handbooks. London, UK: Bloomsbury. pp. 309-321. ISBN 9781350263840.
- Wells, Karen (2017) Making young subjects: liminality and violence. In: Worth, N. and Dwyer, C. and Skelton, T. (eds.) Identities and Subjectivities. Geographies of Children and Young People. Singapore: Springer Singapore. pp. 215-230. ISBN 9789812870223.
- Wells, Karen (2017) Globalising child circulation: the care of children who are privately fostered across international borders. In: Horton, J. and Pyer, M. (eds.) Children, Young People and Care. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 218-233. ISBN 9781138920880.
- Wells, Karen (2017) Children’s experiences of sexual violence, psychological trauma, death, and injury in war. In: Harker, C. and Horschelmann, K. (eds.) Conflict, Violence, and Peace. Geographies of Children and Young People. Berlin, Germany: Springer. pp. 19-34. ISBN 9789812870377.
- Wells, Karen (2016) Governing the global child. In: Ansell, N. and Klocker, N. and Skelton, T. (eds.) Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat. Geographies of Children and Young People. Berlin, Germany: Springer. ISBN 9789814585538.
- Wells, Karen (2015) Violent lives and peaceful schools: NGO constructions of modern childhood and the role of the state. In: Parkes, J. (ed.) Gender Violence in Poverty Contexts: the Educational Challenge. Education, Poverty and International Development. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 168-182. ISBN 9780415712491.
- Wells, Karen and Burman, E. and Montgomery, H. and Watson, A. (2014) Everyday violence and social recognition. In: Wells, Karen and Burman, E. and Montgomery, H. and Watson, A. (eds.) Childhood, Youth and Violence in Global Contexts. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-15. ISBN 9781137322593.
- Wells, Karen (2013) Mobility and social reproduction: key issues for early childhood research in developing countries. In: O’Riordan, J. and Horgan, D. and Martin, S. (eds.) Early Childhoods in the Global South: Local and International Contexts. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang. pp. 11-26. ISBN 9783034308793.
- Wells, Karen (2012) Becoming a gendered subject: genital cutting, liminality and normative African girlhood. In: Imoh Twum-Danso, A. and Ame, R. (eds.) Childhoods at the Intersection of the Local and the Global. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. ISBN 9780230342323.
- Wells, Karen (2012) Melancholic memorialisation: the ethical demands of grievable lives. In: Rose, G. and Tolia-Kelly, D.P. (eds.) Visuality/Materiality: Images, Objects and Practices. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Press. pp. 153-170. ISBN 9781409412229.
- Wells, Karen (2012) The gaze of development after the cultural turn. In: Roseneil, Sasha and Frosh, Stephen (eds.) Social Research after the Cultural Turn. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 110-123. ISBN 9780230241589.
- Wells, Karen (2012) Making gender and generation: between the local and the global in Africa. In: Twum-Danso Imoh, A. and Ame, R. (eds.) Childhoods at the Intersection of the Local and the Global. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 143-159. ISBN 9780230342323.
- Wells, Karen (2012) Melancholic memorialisation: the ethical demands of grievable lives. In: Tolia-Kelly, D.P. and Rose, G. (eds.) Visuality/Materiality: Images, Objects and Practices. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781409412229.
- Wells, Karen (2009) Embodying englishness: whiteness, gender and class in the children's film 'The Secret Garden'. In: Carrol, R. and Helyer, R. (eds.) Adaptation in Contemporary Culture: Textual Infidelities. London, UK: Continuum. ISBN 9780826424648.
- Wells, Karen (2009) Mimesis and alterity: representations of race in children's films. In: Horschelman, K. and Colls, R. (eds.) Contested Bodies of Childhood and Youth. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 53-67. ISBN 9780230201385.
- Wells, Karen (2009) Children and international politics. In: Montgomery, H. and Keller, M. (eds.) Children and Young People's Worlds: Developing Frameworks for Integrated Practice. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. ISBN 9781847423887.
Conference Item
- Wells, Karen (2012) The political and geographical boundaries of identity and ethnicity. I-D The Boundaries of Identity, 2012, Birkbeck, University of London
- Wells, Karen (2011) Whose children: child protection in the global world. The Importance of Being Human, 2011, Birkbeck, University of London
- Wells, Karen (2011) The place of children and childhood in social reproduction. The political economy of social reproduction across the lifecourse: global perspectives, 2011, Birkbeck, University of London
Monograph
- Wells, Karen (2002) Strangers in the city: the structure and significance of children's fears of urban spaces. Milton Keynes, UK: The Open University.