The Keynote speakers of the Conference:

Prof. Michal Molcho, Dept. of Children's Studies, NUI Galway who is a world-renowned expert in the sociology of children and youths. She founded the Department of Children's Studies at NUI Galway in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: the only such department in Europe with a child-centred, multidisciplinary perspective.

Prof. Kay Tisdall is Professor of Childhood Policy at the University of Edinburgh.

She is part of the Childhood and Youth Studies<https://www.ed.ac.uk/…nts> at Moray House School of Education and Sport. Her policy, academic and teaching work is centred around childhood studies and children’s human rights. She undertakes collaborative research with children, young people and adults on such as areas as children affected by domestic abuse, family law, inclusive pedagogy for young children, young people’s mental health, and children’s participation and activism. She is involved in a number of partnership projects, with teams in countries ranging from Brazil, Canada, Eswatini, India, Palestine, and South Africa, funded by such organisations as the British Academy, the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the European Commission, Global Challenges Research Fund, and UK Research and Innovations.

Professor Marek Tesar is Head of School of Learning Development and Professional Practice, and the Associate Dean International at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland. He is also the director of Centre for Global Childhoods. His award-winning scholarship is focused on early childhood education in both New Zealand as well as in cross-country contexts. His academic work and consultancy focuses on educational policy, philosophy, pedagogy, methodology and curriculum, and draws on his background as a qualified teacher. Currently, Marek serves as a leader of two leading learned societies in his fields; he chairs the Steering Committee of the Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE), and is elected President of Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA). Marek’s scholarship and activism merges theoretical work with a practical focus on the everyday lives of children and their childhoods in Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas. Since 2018, Marek has been leading a team of New Zealand early childhood experts to deliver a curriculum framework, and teaching and parenting programmes in China. In 2020, Marek was appointed as a Research Fellow at SEAMEO to provide expertise on future research and development initiatives and programmes, and enhance cooperation in education, science and culture in Southeast Asia.

Doctor Lenka Vochocová is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, where she graduated in journalism and media studies. Her research interests cover the fields of political economy of communication, gender media studies and public sphere theories. She currently studies political participation in the social media environment with a special focus on gender aspects of online deliberation, polarisation of the online public sphere and discursive exclusion of vulnerable actors, including youth. She has been a member of the Gender expert chamber of the Czech Republic since 2015. She regularly participates as a principal investigator and member of research teams of both domestic (Czech Science Foundation) and international projects (COST Action).

Lenka is also member of the PolCoRe group:

www.polcore.cz<http://www.polcore.cz>