Hélène Neveu Kringelbach is Associate Professor of African Anthropology at UCL, working to decolonise research and shift the conversation around race, interracial relationships, and African cultures.
Hélène was born in Paris to a French mother and a Senegalese father, moving to the Côte D’Ivoire with her mum when she was ten years old. Her 5 school years there were formative: “My commitment to West Africa comes in large part from that experience”.
Joining UCL in 2015, Hélène has been involved in several initiatives to address complex social issues through intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches.
This includes the UCL Grand Challenges Cultures of Decolonisation initiative, where she played a key role in mapping efforts to decolonise research at UCL, and the UCL European Institute’s [Black Europe] events programme, which aims to decentre Eurocentric narratives on race and identity, and foreground historically marginalised voices in various European contexts. She also served as Vice-Dean of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the Faculty of the Arts & Humanities (2019-22).
In order to be stimulated and have new ideas, I need to be in interdisciplinary spaces. I think UCL has given me that, and it’s allowed me to meet and interact with colleagues across the whole organisation.
Following a graduate degree in Business Studies and an exchange programme in Copenhagen, Hélène ended up staying in Denmark for seven years: “Life happened, and I met my husband!” She worked in industry but knew her passions lay elsewhere.
In 1999, she undertook an MSc in anthropology at the University of Oxford, followed by a doctorate on dance and social change in Dakar, Senegal, motivated by a “lifelong passion for music and dance.” She taught Anthropology and African Studies at Oxford for several years before coming to UCL.
Hélène’s current work focuses on ‘mixed’ marriage and transnational family relationships between Senegal and France, in light of colonial histories and racialised immigration policies in contemporary Europe. She is writing a book about this research.
Reflecting on her own journey, Hélène is critical of the current barriers to higher education:
I grew up in a very modest environment with a single mum who really did not have much and who didn't really have a proper home when I was born. And now I have an academic position at UCL. That kind of trajectory would be very difficult today with the way in which higher education is structured in the UK.
Hélène brings a critical global lens, helping to transform how universities, like UCL, understand and address these challenges through more inclusive and community-rooted research and storytelling.
