Dr Helena Cook is a Samoan/Irish lecturer in the School of Educational Studies and Leadership, specialising in the sociology of higher education. Her research has two broad areas of interest: historically ‘othered’ bodies within institutions, and centring Pacific and Indigenous ways of knowing and being in higher education. These interests draw on her background in tertiary education and political science as well as her passion for telling stories about the world we inhabit. Her teaching and research seek to disrupt colonial essentialist framings of identity within educational spaces and highlight the importance of interdisciplinary and intersectional theoretical approaches to research. Informed by decolonising methodologies, she examines concepts of identity and representation, and supports young people to develop their capacity for intersectional, equitable, and representative leadership.
