Research

WINDOWS ON THE WORLD (WOTW) - University of Edinburgh and Univeristy of Essex, is an action research project delivering creative arts programmes for children living in protracted displacement in Greece.

More than 47% of the world’s 123 million forcibly displaced people are children. Addressing their mental health needs is essential.

Greece continues to host thousands of refugee and migrant children, many of whom have fled conflict, persecution, and hardship in their countries of origin. These children often experience protracted displacement, limited access to formal education, and exposure to multiple adverse childhood experiences. Research indicates that such conditions are associated with heightened risks of trauma, social isolation, and developmental delays. At the same time, evidence demonstrates that access to creative arts and psychosocial support can play a critical role in fostering resilience, improving mental health, and supporting positive identity formation.

Windows on the World, delivered by the creative and research team in partnership with the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum, has been delivering a programme of music-based creative arts projects since 2017.

However, the exact mechanisms through which art-based interventions provide both tangible and intangible benefits remain unclear.

This research project is an interdisciplinary collaboration among academics, creative practitioners, clinical specialists, policy experts, and educators from Greece and the UK.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the team are developing conceptual frameworks by systematically exploring the psychological, educational, and social pathways through creative action, that connect music-based art interventions to better mental health outcomes for displaced children.

RESEARCH TEAM

Dee Isaacs

Dee Isaacs is a musician, composer, and academic whose work connects music composition with social impact. Her action research emphasizes the transformative role of the creative arts in marginalized and displaced communities. As a composer, she investigates the intersections of music with language, memory, identity, space, and landscape, creating works that engage deeply with social and cultural narratives. Her compositions often stem from cross-disciplinary collaborations and are rooted in pedagogy and participatory arts practices.
Dr. Amalia Giannoutsou

Dr. Amalia Giannoutsou is a researcher, educator, and pedagogical assessor specialising in differentiated learning strategies at the Ralleios Experimental Schools of Athens University. She holds a PhD in Education from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Department of Corporeal Expression, Visual Arts, and Music Education). Her dissertation, developed within the context of a community-theatre project with migrant adolescents, drew on the politics of emotion and decolonial pedagogies, focusing on how the participants navigated identity and produced counter-narratives through storytelling.
Professor Anuj Kapilashrami

Professor Anuj Kapilashrami is an interdisciplinary social scientist and Professor of Global Health Policy and Equity at the University of Essex. She has long standing research interest and experience that spreads over two decades in South Asia and the UK. Her work lies at the intersections of health policy and development praxis, with particular interest in the social and structural determinants of health, and the rights and equity implications of global public health policy and governance. She is the principal investigator for the NIHR funded global health research group, GEMMS, examining migration as a structural determinant of health. A related area of her study and praxis is participatory governance, community and stakeholder participation in priority setting, and the role and impact of social movements in health governance.
Dr Roomi Aziz

Roomi is a global public health (policy & research) professional, originally from Pakistan, having spent over a decade working in health system and social sector projects. She is a medical doctor and is now completing her PhD from University of Essex. As Senior Research Officer in GEMMS and regional coordinator for MiHSA network, Roomi has been working around migration, health, and regional inequities in access to health due to precarities associated with migration and resulting policy deficits.
Satu Baylan

Dr Satu Baylan is a qualified Clinical Psychologist working in the NHS and as a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to completing clinical training and gaining research and teaching experience within academia, she completed a PhD in Psychological Medicine. Both her clinical work and research is focused on neuropsychological rehabilitation. She has a particular interest in research focused on music-based interventions to support mood, cognition and sleep.
Stergios Magkriotis

Bio coming soon