Dr Bianca Fadel

Research Fellow

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

Dr Bianca Fadel is a Research Fellow in Human Geography Policy and Development at the Centre for Global Development (CGD) of Northumbria University. Her PhD research analysed identity and belonging in local volunteering experiences during protracted crises, particularly in the case of Burundi, in East Africa. She is part of the Refugee Youth Volunteering Uganda (RYVU) research team and involved in policy-focused projects with volunteer organisations including VSO, Habitat for Humanity International and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. As a practitioner, she has previously worked as advisor for humanitarian diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brazil; and her experience also comprises the implementation of local youth engagement volunteering projects with the Brazilian Red Cross.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Key areas of interest: Volunteering; Community Development; Humanitarian Action; Resilience; Participatory Methodologies; Global South; Decolonisation

Working languages: English; French; Portuguese; Spanish

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Reconceptualising volunteering, crisis and precarity: the experiences of refugee youth in Uganda during COVID-19, Mills, S., Baillie Smith, M., Fadel, B., Okech, M. 14 Sep 2025, In: Social & Cultural Geography
Refugee volunteering and responses to displacement in Uganda: navigating service-delivery, work and precarity, Baillie Smith, M., Fadel, B., Ahimbisibwe, F., Turyamureeba, R. 14 Mar 2025, In: Journal of Humanitarian Affairs
Digital Transformation in Development Settings: Remote Volunteering and Digital Humanitarianism, Fadel, B., Elert Soares, T. 12 Feb 2024, The Palgrave Handbook of Everyday Digital Life, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan
The reproduction of inequality through volunteering by young refugees in Uganda, Okech, M., Baillie Smith, M., Fadel, B., Mills, S. 1 Aug 2024, In: Voluntas
The scale, forms and distribution of volunteering amongst refugee youth populations in Uganda, Fadel, B., Baillie Smith, M., Mills, S., Rogerson, D., Sahasranaman, A., Okech, M., Turyamureeba, R., Tukundane, C., Ahimbisibwe, F., Boyle, O., Kanyandago, P. 1 Nov 2024, In: Population, Space and Place
Volunteering by Displaced Youth in Uganda: Livelihoods, Skills, Employability and Inequalities, Fadel, B., Baillie Smith, M., Ahimbisibwe, F., Boyle, O., Freimane, I., Kanyandago, P., Mills, S., Okech, M., O'Loghlen, A., Rogerson, D., Sahasranaman, A., Tukundane, C., Turyamureeba, R. 1 Sep 2024, Zivilgesellschaftliches Engagement und Freiwilligendienste , Baden-Baden, Germany, Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft
A New Generation of Volunteers as Changemakers, Okech, M., Baillie Smith, M., Fadel, B. 10 Sep 2023
Working with refugee youth, Mills, S., Baillie Smith, M., Fadel, B., Okech, M. 7 Dec 2023
Uneven geographies of youth volunteering in Uganda: Multi-scalar discourses and practices, Baillie Smith, M., Mills, S., Okech, M., Fadel, B. 1 Aug 2022, In: Geoforum
Volunteering hierarchies in the global South: remuneration and livelihoods, Baillie Smith, M., Fadel, B., O'Loghlen, A., Hazeldine, S. 1 Feb 2022, In: Voluntas

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2022
Other: Member of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) 2019
Other: Member of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Expert Group to support the Plan of Action for Integrating Volunteerism into the 2030 Agenda 2019
Other: Member of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Working Group on Volunteering in Dangerous Situations 2018
Other: Member of the Volunteering in Conflicts and Emergencies Initiative (ViCE) 2018
Other: Global Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS), Brown University 2016