Tel: 020 8240 4000
Biography
Anna is a visiting lecturer and creative based between Margate and London. She holds a PhD in the philosophy of addiction, engaging in the existential and phenomenological approach of Levinas and Kierkegaard from St. Mary’s University, London, under the supervision of Dr. H M Altorf and Dr. P Matthews. Anna has published in places such as the Journal of Medical Ethics and the New Bioethics Journal and is a visiting lecturer at LST, Canterbury Christ Church University and Azusa Pacific University. She is the Director of The JAM Network UK, a creative anti-trafficking collective and is involved in various independently affiliated research projects and creative collaborations. As a folk singer-songwriter, Anna has performed internationally across the UK, in the Middle East and Canada and is engaged in using music and story as a tool for healing and reconciliation.
As Director of The JAM Network UK, Anna’s role includes linking different cultural pillars in the exchange of information, awareness raising and development of alternate forms of social activism. This includes writing stage-based productions, facilitating events for survivors, and collaborating with UK-based anti-trafficking NGOs and academic organisations. This requires having access to current research and being involved in the anti-trafficking exchanges at institutional levels.
As a philosopher and ethicist, Anna is interested in developing and disseminating academic research related to human trafficking. She has published and presented papers on creativity and justice-based discourses in health care and human rights, and is interested in furthering work on hope and suffering through normative applications of progressive community activism. This serves as one of the key theoretical drivers for the work of The JAM Network UK, which is to use free creative expression in a way that gives voice to the unfree modern slaves in the UK. Currently the Network is hosting a night for survivors, in association with the Sophie Hayes Foundation, as well as developing material for stage productions, whilst partnering with NGOs to develop innovative ways to spread information and raise impact-based awareness. Using the creative arts to develop the discourse on modern slavery has enabled access to broader audiences that often do not come to academic events, and provides connection points for survivors who are able to tell their stories to a population whilst maintaining anonymity. The arts are also used as a tool of healing in post-survivor work, and provide a means of sharing narratives in safely monitored relationships.
Having previously engaged with the internationally recognised work of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery, it would be a privilege to develop this partnership. This partnership would further benefit the growth of ongoing strategic and effective social change towards issues of modern slavery in the United Kingdom.