Dr Faith Kirigha
Founder and Director
With a passion for supporting early-career researchers (ECRs), Dr Kirigha established GEN to create an inclusive and collaborative platform that connects researchers from ethnic minority groups in the UK and the global majority worldwide.
Inspired by her own journey transitioning from PhD student to early-career researcher, she founded GEN to provide mentorship, training, and networking opportunities that empower ECRs to navigate academic and professional challenges with confidence.
Under her leadership, GEN is building a vibrant global community focused on collaboration, interdisciplinary research, and equitable access to opportunities, helping early-career researchers thrive in academia and beyond.
Dr Emmanuel Uchenna Chidozie
Head of Programmes
Emmanuel is a social and cultural anthropologist affiliated with KU Leuven, Belgium, and St Ignatius College, London.
His research examines trauma, resilience, and religious attachment among survivors of Boko Haram violence in Nigeria and extends to the ethics of care, migration, and mental health among domiciliary care workers in the UK.
He is also a volunteer researcher with the Grae Matta Foundation, London, focusing on workplace wellbeing and mental health policy. His broader interests include trauma studies, the anthropology of religion, and care infrastructures, with a commitment to bridging ethnographic research.
Dr Silas Udenze
Coordinator
Silas Udenze holds a PhD (Excellent Cum Laude) in Humanities and Communication from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain. His interdisciplinary research examines contemporary and historical socio-political movements in Africa, with particular emphasis on digital activism and memory.
Dr Udenze’s scholarship operates at the intersection of media and communication studies, anthropology, and sociology, while also engaging non-media-centric approaches, especially cultural and mnemonic perspectives.
He is committed to collaborative research with early-career researchers (ECRs) and is deeply invested in supporting ECRs as they navigate the complexities of academia.
Eng. Michael Atukunda, MICE
Coordinator – African Region
Michael Atukunda is a Chartered Civil Engineer (Uganda), a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) and a Member of the British Geotechnical Association (No. 93870586). He is also a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds, specialising in Geotechnics.
His work focuses on the impacts of climate change on infrastructure, particularly the erodibility of soils in African earth dams. His wider interests include ground improvement on weak soils, unsaturated soil behaviour, and Discrete Element Modelling of earth materials.
Motivated by improving livelihoods in resource‑limited communities, he aims to advance impactful engineering research and support the development of early‑career researchers in these regions..