Supriya Akerkar

As well as being a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes University (UK), Dr Supriya Akerkar is on the university's steering committee which leads the research theme Inclusion, Diversity and Gender. She has worked with people with disabilities and older people in humanitarian contexts and has expertise in critical disability and ageism discourses, and their implications for capacity building for inclusive humanitarian action. She was the research lead for the Age and Disability Capacity Programme (ADCAP) (2014-18) and co-authored The Good Practice Guide: Embedding Inclusion of Older People and People with Disabilities in Humanitarian Policy and Practices which captured ADCAP's lessons learnt. She also reviewed the ‘Humanitarian inclusion standards for older people and people with disabilities’ another of ADCAP's key learning outputs. Dr. Akerkar has given expert inputs to UN led bodies such as UNDESA and WHO to further inclusion of older people and people with disabilities in humanitarian crisis, including the current and ongoing Covid-19 crisis. She is the founding member of the Disability Hub, Lebanon and has also worked with several international/bilateral development organisations including Action Aid International, DFID, HelpAge International, Islamic Relief Worldwide, advocating for the rights of socially marginalised groups. Find out more about her research interests and current projects.