Research Team

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Dr. Roberta Comunian is Reader in Creative Economy at the Department for Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London.   She is interested in: relationship between public and private investments in the arts, art and cultural regeneration projects, cultural and creative industries, creativity and competitiveness. She has been Marie Curie Fellow at University of Newcastle (Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies) investigating the relationship between creative industries, cultural policy and public supported art institutions. She has also undertaken research on knowledge transfer and creative industries within an AHRC Impact Fellowship award at the University of Leeds.  She has previously researched the role of higher education in the creative economy and has recently explored in various papers the career opportunities and patterns of creative graduates in UK. 
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Brian J. Hracs is a lecturer at the School of Geography and Environment at the University of Southampton, UK. He is interested in how digital technologies and global competition are reshaping the marketplace for cultural products and the working lives and spatial dynamics of entrepreneurs and intermediaries in the creative economy. He has published articles about the contemporary music industry, aesthetic labour, cultural intermediaries, the linkages between music and fashion and the factors that motivate 'talent' to move within and between cities. In 2016 he co-edited a book for Routledge entitled ‘The Production and Consumption of Music in the Digital Age.’ Brian is currently conducting research on curation in the music industry and the trans-local nature of cultural scenes.
  

Researchers & Collaborators

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​​Lauren England is a PhD student at King's College London working in partnership with Crafts Council UK. Her research investigates professional development pedagogy in craft higher education and the requirements for sustainable business development in the UK’s contemporary craft sector. As part of her PhD Lauren has published reports via Crafts Council UK on craft entrepreneurship and higher education policy. Her research interests include the dynamics of creative work and entrepreneurship, creative graduates, higher education in the creative economy and creative cluster development. 
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Damilola Adegoke is a Doctoral Fellow and Research Associate with the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London. His research seeks to explore the roles and place of Big Data in Security Leadership Decision-making in Crisis Situations. He has a BA in Philosophy and a MSc  in Sociology of Development from the University of Ibadan. Damilola also holds a MSc in Security, Leadership and Society from King's College London. He was a Peace, Security and Development Fellow at the African Leadership Centre, King's College London. He taught Africa in International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis at the University of Buea in Cameroon. 
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Irma Booyens is a Senior Research Specialist in the Economic Planning and Development unit at the Human Sciences Research Council in Cape Town. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Johannesburg (2015), and a Masters in Development Studies from the University of the Free State (2008). She is a National Research Foundation rated researcher, also affiliated with the School of Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Johannesburg. Her research interests include local and regional economic development and planning particularly in relation to tourism, innovation and creative industries.
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Taylor Brydges is a Postdoc Researcher at Stockholm University and the University of Zurich. Originally from Toronto, Canada, I completed my HBA in Urban Studies (with Minors in Political Science and Sociology) and my MA in Human Geography from the University of Toronto. In September 2017, I completed my PhD in the Dept. of Social and Economic Geography at Uppsala University, Sweden. 
My research explores economic competitiveness, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative industries. A dominant theme in my research relates to exploring the contemporary nature of work in the creative economy, and the impact of digital technologies on patterns and spaces of labour & entrepreneurship I am also interested in issues relating to sustainability and the circular economy, with a focus on the fashion industry.  
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Charlotte Campbell is a Postgraduate student within Geography and Environment at the University of Southampton. She is currently working on a project that explores the role of local physical anchors in trans-local scenes and ideas, knowledge and practices diffuse across space. Charlotte is also interested in the Creative Economy and process of curation and value creation in particular. 

African Partners

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​The South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) was established in 2015 and is funded by the Department of Arts and Culture. It is a national research centre hosted by Nelson Mandela University, in partnership with Rhodes University and the University of Fort Hare. SACO supports the collection and analysis of data, produces policy-relevant research, and builds intellectual capacity in the arts culture and heritage sectors. Its focus is on the potential of the cultural and creative industries to contribute to social cohesion, job creation and economic growth. 
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HEVA - We are an East African company that believes in the transformative social and economic potential of the creative economy sector in the East African region. We invest in East African creative businesses in the following value chains: Fashion Design, photography, crafts and Interior design.  Successful applicants receive tailor-made packages of investment, capacity support and advice from our team. We also have a learning program ‘HEVA Forum’ where we organise special skills training workshops, international exchanges, networking events and master classes, all with the aim of supporting creatives to build high-value and profitable businesses where new ideas will come to life.
Website: http://www.hevafund.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hevafund
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/hevafund
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 Ayeta Anne Wangusa (Culture and Development East Africa (CDEA)) is the Executive Director of CDEA a creative think tank in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She holds a master’s degree in New Media, Governance and Democracy from the University of Leicester, UK and a master’s in Literature from Makerere University, Uganda. Her interests are in the areas of: Cultural policy, creative economy and impact investment as an alternative funding model for the cultural and creative industries in East Africa, as well as digital marketing and distribution of creative products. She is currently organizing the first inaugural regional Mashariki Creative Economy Impact Investment Conference scheduled for May 11-12, 2016, which is an activity of the DANIDA funded project: Research in Culture and Creative Industries focusing on the film and music sub-sectors contribution to creative economy in Tanzania and EAC Common Market. She designed CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator and in November 2016, CDEA launched its GIZ-EAC funded incubator for selected incubatees from fashion and design accessories, film and music industries from Uganda and Tanzania. With support from Hivos to implement the Creative Economy Research and Advocacy in East Africa project, she led the research team collecting artists’ views on the proposed National Arts Policy of Tanzania.  She is currently a member of the UNESCO Expert Facility for the 2005 Convention (2016-2017). She provided capacity support to the Government of Zimbabwe in 2015 to prepare its first quadrennial report on the implementation of the UNESCO 2005 Convention.

African Academic & Cultural Research Partners

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Jen Snowball is a professor of Economics at Rhodes University, South Africa. She is also a researcher at the South African Cultural Observatory. Her research interests are focused mainly in the field of cultural economics (or the economics of arts and culture). She has more than 40 articles published in national and international peer reviewed journals. Her book, Measuring the Value of Culture: Methods and Economics in Cultural Economics (2008), was well received both locally and internationally. She is a member of the Association of Cultural Economics International, and regularly presents at South African and international conferences. Her research in cultural economics has focused on the use of market and non-market valuation methods, especially as they apply to cultural festivals. Her recent work for the Cultural Observatory has been on cultural mapping studies, employment in the cultural and creative and developing a framework for the monitoring and evaluation of publically funded arts, culture and heritage.
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PROFESSOR DURO ONI, Professor Duro Oni is currently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Management Services) at the University of Lagos with research interests in Theatre, Design and Aesthetics and the Nigerian Film industry. He was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from August 1, 2009 to February 3, 2013. Before then, he was Professor and Head of the Department of Creative Arts at the University of Lagos from 2005 – 2009. He was also the Director-General/Chief Executive of the Federal Government Parastatal, Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) from 2000-2006. A versatile Academic and Administrator, Professor Duro Oni has nine books and over 50 academic papers in national and international publication outlets. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL), Fellow, Society of Nigerian Theatre Artistes (SONTA), Fellow, Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, (RSA), UK, and a Member of the University of Lagos Governing Council (2007-2011, 2013 to present). He holds the BFA & MFA degrees from the California Institute of the Arts and a Ph.D. in Theatre Arts from the University of Ibadan.
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​Yemisi Mokuolu, CEO & Founder, HATCH Ideas
 Yemisi Mokuolu is an accomplished and highly regarded creative industries consultant and independent producer at the forefront of Africa’s creative industries. She founded HATCH in 2002 with a focus on profiling and promoting African arts and artists and established HATCH Africa in 2012 to offer specialist support developing the creative industries across Africa. Through her consultancy, she works closely with government agencies and private businesses providing extensive creative business advice, mentoring, research and training programmes across Europe and Africa. These have included; Bank of Industry (Nigeria), British Council, City University, Department for Industry & Trade (UK), Goethe Institute, Institut français and the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce. As an independent producer, she has produced some of London’s largest African arts festivals and co-produces the ‘Asa Baako – One Dance’ festival in Ghana and “Oliva Tweest: An Afrobeats Musical”. Today, Yemisi’s main focus is in the development of funding and financing options to better serve Africa’s rapidly growing Creative Economy. www.hatchafrica.com @hatchafrica 

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Advisory Committee

John Davies is a research fellow on the creative and digital economy at Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation. He works on the interface of economics and data analysis. Particularly in the domains of creative activity and places, and in the use of social media and web scraped data. Past projects have included mapping the geography of employment in the UK's creative and high-tech economies and identifying activities at the intersection of technology and art using data from a social network. He has also used social media data to understand people's engagement with London's historic buildings and networking at a tech conference. He has built interactive maps of England's museum access and the state of London nightlife, and written on topics in the data economy and the effects of digital technological change. John is on the UK Intellectual Property Office's research advisory committee. Prior to Nesta he has worked for English Heritage, a leading economics consultancy and the UK civil service. 
Dr Eka Ikpe is Lecturer in Development economics in Africa. She has researched and written on a range of issues in development economics and security and development. Eka teaches on the MSc Degree Programmes at the King’s African Leadership Centre (ALC) and the BA Degree Programme in International Development at the King’s Department of International Development. Eka is also the International Lead for the ALC and the King’s Department of International Development and sits on the King’s Global Challenges Research Fund Taskforce. Eka has participated in a range of policy influencing projects including: contributing to a UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Africa Report on UK Trade with Africa in a Post-BREXIT era; training of Liberian legislators on security sector reform oversight; contributing to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Conflict Prevention Framework and co-authoring the Women Peace and Security Action Plan; participating in the European Union-Africa Research Network; co-authoring a research study on security and development in the Sahel for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; and co-authoring a background document for the UK Department for International Development proposed framework for support to security and justice provision to the poor. 
Genevieve Pace is a project manager, creative industries specialist and Africa advocate. She currently manages Creative United’s business support programme that provides creative businesses in England free advice and access to loan finance. Last year she planned and delivered an international creative enterprise exchange with a partner organisation based in Nairobi. Genevieve’s academic background is in International Relations and Psychology which she studied at the University of Pretoria. She’s since gone on to work in a range of organisations in the creative and cultural sectors, and has been involved in managing a start-up and running her own design business in South Africa. She’s a business mentor for TERN, The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network, and a regular speaker at international conferences and events. Genevieve is passionate about entrepreneurship, promoting the growth of the African creative economy and its contribution to development in Africa, as well as looking at the impact of policies and how Africa’s creative and cultural outputs are valued internationally. Connect with Genevieve on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Yemisi Mokuolu is an independent theatre and festival producer and creative & cultural industry consultant who is best known for her work promoting African creative content and developing creative potential across Africa. As a producer, her credits include; “Amnesty @ Edinburgh Festival” in 2012, the “Out of Africa” festivals, “Asa Baako – One Dance” festival in Ghana and “Oliva Tweest: An Afrobeats Musical”. As a consultant, she has worked for agencies which include; Arts Council England, British Council, Creative Skillset, Goethe and UNITAR providing research, mentoring and training programmes to develop the cultural and creative industries across Europe and Africa. www.hatchevents.com and www.hatchafrica.com. Twitter: @hatchevents @hatchafrica @out_of_africa
Morag Shiach is a Professor of Cultural History in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.  Since 2012 she has been the Director of Creativeworks London, a KE Hub for the Creative Economy, which was funded by the AHRC.  She was also CI on London Creative and Digital Fusion, which was funded by the European Regional Development Fund, 2012-15.  Since October 2016 she has been PI on a Creativeworks follow-on project, Creative Hubs and Urban Development Goals (UK/Brazil) which is focussed on the creative economy in São Paulo. She has recently published a book of essays based on the work of CreativeworkscLondon (co-edited with Tarek E Virani), Cultural Policy, Innovation, and the Creative Economy: Creative Collaborations in Arts and Humanities Research (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). 
Yudhishthir Raj Isar is an internationally recognized policy analyst, advisor and public speaker who straddles various worlds of cultural theory, experience and practice.   His work focuses on contemporary arts and culture across the world, notably the cultural and creative industries.  Professor of Cultural Policy Studies at The American University of Paris.  Eminent Research Visitor (2011-2013) and Adjunct Professor (2014-2016) at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University.  Co-founder of the Cultures and Globalization Series (SAGE).  Trustee of several cultural organizations and consultant to international organizations and foundations.  Past President of the association Culture Action Europe.  Earlier, at UNESCO, he was notably Executive Secretary of the World Commission on Culture and Development and Director of the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture.  In 2013 he was the editor and lead writer for the 2013 United Nations Creative Economy Report
Dr Caspar Melville is convenor of the MA in Global Creative & Cultural Industries and lecturer in music at SOAS, University of London. Formally a music journalist and editor of New Humanist Magazine, he has published in a wide range of journals including Blues & Soul, Touch, Village Voice, On The One, The Telegraph, The Guardian, New Humanist Magazine, openDemocracy, Soundings and Popular Music. His first book, Taking Offence (Seagull books) was published in 2012. He lead the CreativeWorks London -funded project 'Valuing Tradition: Copyright and Mali's jelis', and he is currently undertaking research as part of the ARHC-funded project Bass Culture, on the impact of Jamaican music on the UK.