Photo: the international Co-Investigators at the University of Leiden with the Teaching Fellows joining online

Team members from Leiden University, Université Mohammed V de Rabat, University of Birmingham, University of Cologne, University of Nairobi and University of the Western Cape had their kick off meeting in Leiden to plan the SPOC on the 13th – 14th October 2022.

The team will recruit student participants from all the partner universities with which to trial the first ever SPOC conducted jointly between multiple European and African universities. Team members from the six universities will investigate three overlapping themes of environment, knowledge and intersectionality, and their relationships to wellbeing. The students will perform wellbeing fieldwork in the six cities where the partner universities are located. Through collaboration with their international peers, they will synthesize their results into global perspectives. In addition to the wellbeing themes, the intercontinental team will use the case studies to explore how wellbeing relates to the decolonization agenda and how to guard against extractive or ‘parachute science’ between the Global North and South. The outcomes of the SPOC will form the basis of a conference at Leiden University in 2023.