School of Education

Amplifying the voices of underrepresented and underserved communities through an arts and research project led by Dr Mia Perry in partnership with the Sustainable Futures in Africa Network  

Although COVID-19 is a health issue, the crisis is far more than a health crisis. It is a social and cultural one that is currently poorly understood and minimally represented in marginalised and resource poor contexts, particularly of the Global South.  

Immediate cultural production, critical commentary and public policy are being showcased and circulated globally with substantial affect – this may prove to be the most documented pandemic in history. But the dominant discourses are generated in the Global North – by a minority of privileged authors, reflecting on a crisis that, while impacting the whole world, is experienced in vastly different ways.  

The Whose Crisis? project is funded by the AHRC Urgency Response Scheme to address a rapidly evolving global pandemic whereby the leadership is coming from spaces far removed from the realities of suffering and change that this pandemic is causing. Whose Crisis? strives towards a re-balance – a glimpse of the plurality of our globe and our experiences of this time. 

To this end, the project is co-curating representations and developing understandings of the social and cultural crisis and shifts generated by the COVID-19 pandemic in plural and marginalised communities; the project is exposing unseen and misunderstood aspects of this time. The project will provide critical insights and inform and contribute to more equitable global responses including those related to health, policy, economics, and education.  

The overarching aim is to amplify the voices of under-represented and under-served communities in Africa to contribute to the understanding of Global Health and well being in a pandemic context. It will be achieved through two main objectives:  

1. To document and communicate the plural and diverse lived experiences of, perspectives on, and responses to, COVID-19 in vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa at a community and household level.
2. To share perspectives and experiences in participatory and culturally responsive ways to mobilise Northern and Southern expertise, resources and engagement.

This project will mobilise the rapidly evolving COVID-19 expertise within the Sustainable Futures in Africa (SFA) network, and the capacity of partner communities, to create the SFA COVID-19 Global Voices Hub, that curates, consolidates, acknowledges and catalyses experiences, perspectives and responses to the pandemic. This project will create a platform and a pathway for understanding and exchange for societal, health, economic, government and public stakeholders, to inform responsive action.   

The implications of ignoring cultural perspectives and practices and missing the opportunities to learn from all, will lead to further inequity, misdirected policies, misallocated resources, increased dominance of certain viewpoints and increased ignorance of the plurality of our experiences. 

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First published: 24 November 2020