Mr Hitendra Kanji Solanki

I started my journey with LSBU as a student, in 2000, undertaking the MSc Development Studies degree. Since graduating in 2003, I have now been teaching at LSBU for two decades. Currently, I am the Senior Lecturer / Course Director for the MSc Development Studies / MSc Refugee Studies.

In parallel to teaching, I also continue to work as a Humanitarian Aid and Development Worker, having previously worked with several international NGOs and donor organisations including, Comic Relief, Action Against Hunger UK, Africa Educational Trust, and the Start Network, across Africa and Southeast Asia.
I am also a qualified mindfulness trainer, from the Centre for Mindfulness Research & Practice (CMRP) at the University of Bangor, with experience as a Training Assistant with the Center for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts, for their 9-day teacher training practicum course. These experiences led me to become the Project Leader for a three-year, pioneering mindfulness and wellbeing project, focused on helping humanitarian aid workers dealing with stress and trauma, as part of the UK government-funded Disasters & Emergency Preparedness Programme, across Thailand, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
My teaching is therefore informed by real-world experience and covers a broad range of core themes: the history of development work and the practical, applied, and operational aspects of global humanitarian work. In leading the Research Methods module for MSc students, supervising dissertations, as well as supporting PhD students, for over a decade, I have a keen interest in qualitative research methodology, especially related to locally focused participatory and emergency-based needs analysis. Mindful self-awareness in the research process is also a key interest, which I have aligned within my teaching pedagogy, as well as presented at the Vitae Conference and the 1st Postgraduate Conference on the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Postgraduate Researchers (2019).
In addition to my teaching duties, I am also the Co-Chair for the Sustainability Research Group at LSBU, working on advocating the need for expanding the definition of sustainability and in promoting initiatives, research, and innovations, and expanding the group within, and beyond, LSBU.
As part of developing real-world impact and building upon on my development and humanitarian teaching experience with LSBU, I am also currently a consultant with the United Nations Foundation. This involves designing and developing mindfulness-based wellbeing programmes for their Crisis Response Working Group, comprising the key UN organisations (including, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, etc.).
Additionally, I am also working on preliminary PhD research on developing Mindful Organizations and embodied leadership within the humanitarian and development sectors.

Course Director MSc Refugee Studies / MSc Development Studies

Research Methods
Human Development in a Globalised World
Economies in Transition
Contemporary Issues in Development
Risk, Resilience & Decision-Making