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- Lecturer
- IOE - Education, Practice & Society
- UCL Institute of Education
Dr Alexandra Lewis is the Programme Leader for the MA in Education and International Development. She specialises on the connections between education, conflict, violence, identity and authoritarianism. She has carried out field work in a variety of complex contexts worldwide, including; Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Russia, Somalia/Somaliland and Yemen.
Early on in her career, Dr Lewis worked mainly on Middle East and North African security, looking particularly at the connections between Somali and Yemeni conflict and peace. However, she has now turned her attention back to Russia, owing to her heritage and the changing nature of the educational challenges that have emerged there in recent years.
Dr Lewis was awarded her PhD at the University of York from the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit (PRDU) in 2012, where she worked under the supervision of Professor Sultan Barakat. She has since carried out commissioned research for a range of media, academic, non-governmental and governmental organisations. Among the United Nations and associated agencies, she has worked with: the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, the International Organisation for Migration, the United Nations Development Project, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, and others. She has also contributed research to the Department for International Development and the World Bank.


Dr Lewis is currently writing a book on "Pre-Conflict Imperialism" as it is replicated through education, culture and media in Russia. For a short example of her current writing and interests, please see her
CEID blog entry.. You can also find her views on the invasion of Ukraine here.
Dr Lewis is also currently engaged in collaborative research and teaching projects with Dr Tejendra Pherali and the Somaliland University of Hargeisa, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, on global partnerships to support higher education for peacebuilding. She is interested in the role of education in promoting peace and conflict in Somali settings specifically, but has also worked in a variety of other conflict-affected and fragile settings.
Alongside the above projects, Dr Lewis is involved in a long-standing collaboration with Dr Neil Winn at the University of Leeds, School of Politics and International Studies, through a series of publications addressing the securitisation of EU aid in the Horn of Africa region.
Dr Lewis tutors on the MA in Education and International Development at the UCL Institute of Education. She tutors on several modules, including 'Education, Conflict and Peace', 'Concepts, Theories and Ideas', 'Migration, Education and Development' and 'Education in Muslim Communities'. However, most of her teaching is devoted to the 'Dissertation with Integrated Research Methods Training' module. Alongside these responsibilities, Dr Lewis currently supervises five doctoral candidates working on education and peacebuilding.