Prof Mimi Tatlow-Golden

Professional biography

Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies of Childhood & Youth

Co-Director, Centre for Children and Young People's Wellbeing

Co-Director, RUMPUS Fun Research Group 

I research contemporary issues of consequence for childhood and youth. Examining the self, schooling, food, and fun, through inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue, I integrate insights from psychology and childhood studies with public health, media studies, education, law, and child rights. I have examined adult and child constructions of self-concept and of ‘school readiness’; argued for socio-developmental constructions of children/young people's 'evolving capacities' and agency; and tackled exploitative food marketing that affects their health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on digital food marketing. 

After a career as a food writer and journalist in Ireland (following a first degree in the humanities, BA Hons, History and German, Trinity College Dublin), I returned to higher education to study psychology, securing a fully-funded PhD at University College Dublin from Ireland's Department of Children and Youth Affairs for a critical study of 'self-concept' and the scales psychologists employ to study it, identifying children and young people's own priorities and highlighting the ways these differ from those that preoccupy adults.

I researched and lectured on a range of topics in psychology, mental health, children's well-being, and research methods from 2006 at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, and Dublin City University, before joining The Open University in 2016.

Research

Interdisciplinarity is fundamental to my stance and I advocate for holistic, ‘both/and’ frameworks to bridge knowledge from child psychology and childhood studies, disciplines that are still often positioned in opposition to one another. 

My OU publications page can be found here and in the listings below 

My Google Scholar profile is here

I examine topics relating to food, fun and digital media and welcome queries from potential doctoral students in these fields.

​Research funding

My diverse funding portfolio includes competitive peer-reviewed grants from major national and international funding bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (Ireland), Safefood (the all-Ireland Food Safety Authority); Public Health England; and the National Institutes of Health Research (UK). I have carried out research consultancy for the Irish Heart Foundation, the World Health Organization and UNICEF.  

Teaching

My interdisciplinary research consistently informs curriculum development and renewal and developing materials to engage students with contemporary and fresh research, policy and practice insights.

Reflecting my interest in integrating different disciplines exploring childhood, I chair An Introduction to childhood studies and child psychology (E104), an open-access Level 1 60-credit module.

Graduate research supervision

I have supervised PhD and EdD students examining fun in formal and informal learning, embodiment in early school transitions, and everyday violence in a Bihari camp setting.

I welcome queries from potential doctoral students in the fields of fun, food, learning, and digital media.

Impact and engagement

A large body of my work examines children and young people's understanding of food, food brands, and food advertisements, and activities of industry to market food in digital media. 

New digital media raise major social justice concerns regarding the influence of data extraction on children and young people – whether by advertisers, platform designers or others. They also present great methodological challenges to researchers outside the closed, private corporations that dominate the digital landscape. I led on a major World Health Organization report (November 2016) specifying these issues. I was a member of the Global Steering Committee on digital food advertising for the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe and an expert advisor for UNICEF studies across Latin America, the East Asia Pacific and Eastern and Southern Africa Regions as well as for the European Union across Member States. I have given keynote and invited conference and workshop presentations to international and national conferences, policy and government forums for the European Commission, the WHO, and in England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Portugal, Austria, Norway, Malta, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, The Philippines, Argentina, the United States and Canada. I also sat on a Food Safety Authority of Ireland Working Group on early years food and nutrition.

External collaborations

I collaborate with leading national and international experts including colleagues at universities and NGOs in the UK, Ireland, Europe, the US, Mexico, Canada and Australia, including, among others, at  Cambridge University; the University of Liverpool; University of Galway; Ulster University (Coleraine); University College Dublin; Trinity College Dublin; Deakin University; the University of Ottawa; the World Health Organization (Europe); the Center for Digital Democracy; and UNICEF globally.