Psyche Talks

The research section PSYCHE at The Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University is proud to present the fith round of PSYCHE Talks.

Erica Burman, Professor of Education at the University of Manchester, will be interviewed by Noomi Matthiesen, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Aalborg University.

Erica Burman is well known as a critical developmental psychologist and methodologist specialising in innovative and activist qualitative research, about which she has lectured all over the world. ‪She is author of Developments: child, image, nation (Routledge, 2020, 2nd edition), Fanon, education, action: child as method (Routledge, 2019), Deconstructing Developmental Psychology (Routledge, 3rd edition, 2017, 4th edition in preparation), and Child as method: othering, interiority and materialism (Routledge, 2024).

Erica's research has focused on critical developmental and educational psychology, feminist and postcolonial theory, childhood studies, and on critical mental health practice (particularly around gender, cultural and decolonial issues). Her recent work addresses the connections between emotions, mental health and (social as well as individual) change, in particular as anchored by representations of, and appeals to, childhood. She has co-led transnational research projects on conceptualising and challenging state and interpersonal violence in relation to minoritised women and children, on educational and mental health impacts of poverty and 'austerity', on superdiversity and ‘traditional’ Muslim healing practices. She was a co-investigator on a crossnational project exploring postsocialist childhoods. Recent collaborative projects include the PACCT (Pakistani Community Calls to Action) Project, a community-based advocacy project which grew from the racializing and racist state responses to a local minoritised community during the Pandemic, and on conceptualising solidarity and collective action between community, university and state actors. She sees debates about children and childhood as central to current theories and practices around decolonisation, as indicated by her current work elaborating what she calls ‘Child as method’.

Noomi Matthiesen studies the normative cultural practices and conditions of care in famlies and welfare state institutions. She is particularly interested in how the history of psychology has co-constituted these norms and practices. She explores this empirically in the encounters between famlies (parents and children) and professionals in welfare institutions (teachers, pedagogues and social workers). Her work focus’ primarily on famlies in vulnerable positions, including refugee families and families under investigation for potential forced removal or forced adoption of the child(ren).

In this interview, they will explore how ”child as method” turns the figure of the child into a critical analytical tool, and discuss the liberating potentials of critical psychology.