Diya is a DPhil student supervised by Aliya Khalid and Judith Hillier, whose research focuses on preschool education. She hopes to explore how Thich Nhat Hanh’s philosophy of interbeing is understood and practised at the emerging Thich Nhat Hanh School of Interbeing. Through collaboration with early years educators, neuroscientists, mothers and grandmothers, she aims to investigate how this philosophy might inform the development of a preschool. Additionally her research asks what early years experts deliberations reveal about the possibilities and challenges of enacting this philosophy in early childhood education?
Diya holds a BA in Education and Psychology from Smith College and an MPhil in Education, Globalisation and International Development from the University of Cambridge. Her previous research has focused on children living on the streets in India, refugee children, and children experiencing war.
Supervisors