Meet the team

Dr Helen Manchester

Dr Helen Manchester is a Reader in Digital Inequalities and Urban Futures at the University of Bristol. She started out as a teacher in secondary schools, and a community media practitioner, before entering academia. She works at the intersection of education, technology and cultural studies. In the last six years she has led a number of UKRI funded research projects leading interdisciplinary and cross sectoral partnerships to tackle urban challenges, particularly concerning demographic ageing.

Helen specialises in conducting participatory, arts-based research and is currently working on a variety of projects around the theme of urban learning and smart technologies, in the UK and in Mexico. She works alongside city leaders to design approaches to tackling challenges faced by the city that involve citizens. Helen is an active member of the global sociogerontechnology network.

Helen Manchester
Email: helen.manchester@bristol.ac.uk

Prof Keri Facer

Prof Keri Facer is Zennström Chair of Climate Change Leadership at The University of Uppsala, Sweden and Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the University of Bristol. From 2012-2018 she was Leadership Fellow for the AHRC’s Connected Communities Programme. From 2001-2008 she was Research Director for the Futurelab research and development lab.

Her research focuses on how educational institutions and practices might best adapt to address technological, social and environmental change. Her work ranges from participatory collaborative projects with local communities to large scale foresight projects for the UK government.

Keri was chair of the 2017 Anticipation Conference and edits two book series: Anticipation & Futures Studies for Routledge and the Connected Communities Series for Policy Press.

Keri Facer
Email: keri.facer@bristol.ac.uk