The Cumberland Lodge Programme Team delivers a range of workshops, conferences, training sessions and digital content. These are designed to explore the causes and impacts of social division in order to promote more inclusive and just societies.
Our activities
All our activities are youth-centred, supporting the development of ethical leadership through intergenerational, intercultural, and cross-sector dialogue.
A primary focus of our current activity is working with young people around the UK to explore how democracy can be re-imagined to create better systems of governance to address the key challenges they are facing, including the climate crisis, inequality and uncertain digital futures.
Accompanying this work on democracy is our new annual cohort programme on the Rule of Law. Each year we will bring together emerging leaders in the legal and policing sectors with experts in the field, to discuss and debate how laws are made, contested and enforced in the UK and internationally.
In addition to residential workshops at Cumberland Lodge, we host events throughout the year in Windsor and London. For example, with Goodenough College we are running the annual London Dialogue series, bringing together panelists to discuss and debate a theme related to the Youth & Democracy project. We’re also bringing together artists and young people to explore what democracy means across disciplinary borders, generating creative interventions in the process.
We continue to offer support for PhD students through the Cumberland Lodge Fellowship and PhD workshops (Life Beyond the PhD). Aditionally, we bring together international students each year to share the Christmas holidays together at the Lodge. These activities are part of our long-running ambition to create spaces where young people from diverse backgrounds can form networks of exchange as a means to further cultural understanding.
Our team comes from a range of backgrounds with interests in social geography, international development, history and politics, along with expertise in programme design, research, and youth work.
Meet the Cumberland Lodge Programme Team
Professor Melissa Butcher
Programme Director
Christina Ogwang
Programme Officer
Munny Purba
Programme Officer
Bea Raffan Gowar
Interim Programme Officer
Natalja Lipka
Programme Administrator