Hello! My name is Célia. With experience working closely with the social work sector as a Project Officer for anti-poverty NGO ATD Fourth World, and with a background in journalism and sociolinguistics, my expertise includes conducting qualitative research informed by lived experience, and digital communications. I am focused on alleviating inequalities and other human rights-related issues, and I am hoping to use research and communications to create real-world impact.

I am pursuing a PhD with the University of Nanterre in France, as part of the European doctoral network ‘Co-construction in the field of social welfare’. I’ll research effective ways to disseminate co-construction strategies in social services. I will be working with the Agence Nouvelle des Solidarités Actives to support their research efforts to tackle poverty, and promote inclusion and participation.

I was trained in Journalism and English Language, Literature and History in Lille (France), and I completed doing a Masters in Sociolinguistics in London (United Kingdom). I also have experience as a freelance translator in French from and to English. I believe that we can achieve social change by choosing the right words and telling the right stories. I am particularly interested in analysing dominant discourses and finding ways we can shift popular narratives in order to bring about social change, engage every public and include everyone in the story.

I have volunteered and worked with the international non-governmental organisation ATD Fourth World, an anti-poverty and human rights-based charity. Throughout the years, I facilitated ‘Street Libraries’ reading books to children, organised workshops for families, transcribed recordings of hour-long meetings, wrote articles for the international website, produced digital content across social media platforms, participated in study group research sessions on poverty and social work, and facilitated workshops around photography for people with lived experience of poverty. I always feel the most fulfilled when I participate to projects aiming towards equality and justice.

I worked at the Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank aiming to improve the quality of health care in the UK. I supported the communications team to build digital materials and content for our website, social media and publications. In addition, I deepened my knowledge of health and social care in the UK and abroad by working alongside researchers, creating data visualisations for blogs and reports, and editing articles.

In the past, I wrote articles for the student media Pépère News, when I was enrolled in France’s Top 1 school of journalism in Lille. I was a Political Editor-in-Chief for a year, suggesting ideas and supporting our authors with advice and proofreading. Click here to see my articles (in French).

In addition to writing, I love photography. I was a committee member in the Photography Society at Goldsmiths University of London, where I facilitated workshops around photography techniques and careers. I was taught photojournalism by the APJ and Hans Lucas agencies from 2020 to 2022 and distributed my photographs to worldwide media.

You can go take a look at what I’m writing on this blog, what I’ve published elsewhere or get in touch with me!