Professor Paul Cooke

Paul Cooke is Centenary Chair in World Cinemas at the University of Leeds and is part of the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures. His main research focus is on the use of participatory arts as a tool for community-led research and advocacy, with a particular emphasis on use of participatory filmmaking.  He has run projects in South Africa, Nepal, India, Germany, Cambodia, Kosovo and Brazil and is currently the principal investigator on the AHRC/GCRF Network Plus project ‘Changing the Story: Building Civil Society with and for young people in post-conflict countries’. This is a 4 year project currently running in 12 countries across the Global South.

This work has also led him to develop a particular interest in the potential of community engagement and participatory methodologies within the context of Global Health, from smoking cessation in LMICs to supporting youth recovery from drug addiction in India (The Big Picture).  However, the main focus in his Global Health work is AMR. This began with the development of an AHRC/MRC funded project focussed on using participatory video as a tool for developing community-led approaches to reducing antibiotic misuse in Nepal. He now leads the international ‘Community Engagement for Antimicrobial Resistance’ (CE4AMR) network, along with Dr Rebecca King at the University of Leeds.

Paul is also a Co-Investigator on Praxis: Arts and Humanities for Global Development.