Role
Dr Raúl Valdivia-Murgueytio, MA (Nott), MSc (Edin), PhD (Lond) is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Social Sciences and Decoloniality in the Department of Psychology at NTU. His teaching deals with critical and decolonial issues in psychology in Year 1 and 2. He also supervises final-year students in the Social Transformation Research Lab as well as postgraduate students with an interest in decolonial approaches to psychology.
Career overview
Raúl has a multidisciplinary background which includes psychology, health promotion, sociology and Latin American cultural studies. His interest in issues around decoloniality began during his undergraduate years, when he took part in a series of seminars taught by Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano, one of the central figures in decolonial theory.
Raúl started his professional career working as a counselling psychologist in a helpline for children and adolescents in Lima, Peru. This experience made him acutely aware of the external and structural factors affecting young people’s mental health. He then worked for a few years in the National Office for Health Promotion at the Ministry of Health in Peru, at a time when the country was going through a process of peace and reconciliation after two decades of political violence and human rights violations. This formative period, which involved working with individuals and communities afflicted by the internal armed conflict, had a profound effect on his understanding of psychology and its limitations as a discipline.
Raúl’s work in the UK has mainly taken place within the field of education, beginning in the School of Education at Nottingham University back in 2005. He has trained PGCE students and school teachers in decolonial pedagogies, critical literacies and global citizenship education. Raúl has also held teaching and post-doctoral research positions at Birkbeck, Newcastle University, Bristol University and Birmingham University. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Research areas
Raúl’s research is grounded in postcolonial/decolonial theory, subaltern studies, Foucauldian discourse analysis and visual studies. His research interests include:
- Psychology and decoloniality
- Liberation psychology
- Indigenous systems of knowledge and holistic healing practices in Latin America
- Social identity and mental health among Latin American migrants in the UK
- Participatory visual methodologies (photovoice)
He is an core member of the Groups, Identities, & Health Research Group in the School of Social Sciences.
External activity
Aside from academia, Raúl has been actively involved in supporting the Latin American community in London through his role as trustee of Latin American House. During his time on the Executive Board, he fostered collaborations with universities and mental health projects such as the Usemi Racial Trauma Clinic.