Dr. Jo Kelcey is an assistant professor of education in the Department of Social and Education Sciences at LAU. She holds a PhD in International Education from New York University. Her research spans interdisciplinary concerns of education, politics, sociology and history, with a focus on how to improve education systems for the most marginalized learners. Dr. Kelcey has written and published on global governance in education, refugee education and the importance of historical methods for understanding contemporary education policies and practices.

She is a former P.E.O. International Peace scholar and a co-PI of the Racial Equality Research Grant titled “Disrupting Dispossession: Teaching Palestine in Exile”, awarded by the Lyle Spencer Foundation. Dr. Kelcey has worked and consulted for several UN agencies, the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education, international education networks and civil society organizations in Lebanon and abroad.

Research Interests

Dr. Kelcey’s research interests include education leadership and management, the relationship between education and situations of crisis and conflict and critical education studies. 

On the side, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three children, long-distance running and encountering new cultures. She is persistent and likes a challenge, a character trait reflected in her lifelong support for the English football team.

SDGs Research Mapping

Dr. Jo Kelcey conducts research relevant to the following SDGs:

Selected Publications

1. Kelcey, J. (2023). Curriculum Choices for Refugees: What UNRWA’s History Can Tell Us about the Potential of UN Education Programs to Address Refugees’ “Unknowable Futures.” Journal of Refugee Studies, 36(4), 629–648. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fead034
2. Kelcey, J., Guven, O., Burde, D. (2022). Education on the move: How migration affects learning outcomes. Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education in Low-Income Countries, 2022, pp. 45-76.  https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0256.02
3. Kelcey, J. (2022). An (A)Political Education? UNRWA, Humanitarian Governance, and Education for Palestinian Refugees During the First Intifada (1987–1993). Harvard Education Review, Harvard Educational Review, 92(3), 391–412. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-92.3.391
4. Kelcey, J., & Chatila, S. (2020). Increasing Inclusion or Expanding Exclusion? How the Global Strategy to Include Refugees in National Education Systems Has Been Implemented in Lebanon. Refuge (0229-5113): Canada’s Journal on Refugees / Revue Canadienne Sur Les Réfugiés, 36(2), 9–19. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40713
5. Kelcey, J. (2019). “Incredibly Difficult, Tragically Needed, and Absorbingly Interesting”: Lessons from the AFSC School Program for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza, 1949 to 1950. Journal for Education in Emergencies, 5(1), 12-34. https://doi.org/10.33682/0414-3308

Academic Degrees

• PhD in International Education, 2020, New York University, USA.
• MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development, 2009, University of London, UK.
• BA in Economics and French, 2003, University of Sheffield, UK.