Yinka Olusoga University of Sheffield, UK
Dr Yinka Olusoga is a Lecturer in Education and Course Director of the BA Education, Culture and Childhood at the University of Sheffield. Her research explores histories of childhood and of play with a focus on children’s creative and digital literacies and on the inter-generational co-construction of play and storytelling. Her approach draws on critical discourse analysis, visual analysis and ethnographic research methods. She engages in critical work with archives, examining the operation of power in intersecting discursive constructions of social class, gender, sexuality and race. Yinka is Director of the British Academy Research Project “Childhoods and Play: The Iona and Peter Opie Archive” and she is a co-investigator on the collaborative UCL/University of Sheffield project “A National Observatory of Children’s Play Experiences During Covid-19” (funded by the ESRC), leading the research team from the University of Sheffield. She has a background as an early years teacher and as a teacher educator. She is a co-editor of the best-selling book Perspectives on Play: Learning for Life. Yinka also serves on the committee of the Children’s History Society as Children's Officer.