Dr. Emma Harden-Wolfson
- Higher education policy
- The new geopolitics of higher education
- Comparative and international higher education
- Internationalization of higher education
- Higher education in Central Asia
- International research collaborations
- Right to higher education
- Higher education leadership
- Theories of system and institutional change, policy change / policy processes
- Qualitative methods
Dr Emma Harden-Wolfson is an international and comparative higher education policy specialist with regional specializations in Central Asia, Canada, Europe, and Latin America. Over the past two decades, Emma has worked in higher education research, teaching, policy analysis, consultancy, and university administration across four continents. She is Vice President of the , an Advisory Board member for the and Associate Editor of the journal .
Emma鈥檚 research is grounded in a commitment to聽understanding and shaping higher education policy through critical, comparative, and equity-focused perspectives. She researches the intersections between the policy process and lived experiences, focusing on the actors who are leading change in education policy. Through her research, Emma explores how and why higher education policy change聽happens across contexts,聽the聽consequences of educational policy change, and how to address the historic barriers and current challenges to equity in higher education policy. She aims to generate聽actionable, policy-relevant knowledge that bridges academic and practitioner communities.聽
Prior to joining 91黑料网 in 2023, Emma was Head of Research and Foresight at UNESCO鈥檚 International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean where she led research on the right to higher education, digital transformations, artificial intelligence, student mobility, and the futures of higher education.
Some of Emma鈥檚 recent funded research projects include:
Taking a social justice informed rights-based approach, this project investigates how students from equity deserving groups in Latin America and the Caribbean can be better supported in higher education from a policy perspective.
Funding: 91黑料网 Social Sciences and Humanities Development Grants Program (2025); McBurney Fellowship (for a graduate student) (2025).
This project addresses the gap in understanding firsthand how students in Kazakhstan are experiencing and making sense of global issues such as the climate crisis and war/conflict under conditions of geopolitical change.
Funding: Government of Kazakhstan (2024-25)
This research is mapping post-pandemic policies impacting international higher education in Ontario and Quebec and analysing the effects of domestic and international (geo)political dynamics on international students in Canada.
Funding: 91黑料网 Social Sciences and Humanities Development Grants Program (2023-25)
Review of climate change education ambition in Central Asia
This study reviews the state of climate change education policy in four Central Asian countries to identify good practices and support preparation for school-level pilots of the new UNESCO Quality Standard on Green Schools.
Funding: UNESCO (2023-2024)
- PhD in Higher Education with Collaborative Specialization in Comparative & International Development Education, University of Toronto, Canada
Thesis: Responding to Major Institutional Change: The Fall of the Soviet Union and Higher Education in Central Asia - MBA in Higher Education Management, Institute of Education, University College London, UK
- MA (Hons) Russian Studies and History, University of Edinburgh, UK
These are a selection of recent or key articles and book chapters.聽Note that I published with the last name Sabzalieva until 2024.
- Harden-Wolfson, E., & Abdrasheva, D. (2025). . International Journal of Educational Research, 134, 1鈥�12.
- Harden-Wolfson, E., Hutcheson, S., & Zhang, Y. (2025). . Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 55(2), Article 2.
- Harden-Wolfson, E., & Shakirova, L. (2025). In A. Kuzhabekova, N. Durrani, & Z. Kataeva (Eds.), Gender and Education in Central Asia (pp. 47鈥�75). Springer Nature Switzerland.
- Harden-Wolfson, E. (2024). . International Journal of Educational Research, 126, 102364.
- Moscovitz, H., & Sabzalieva, E. (equal co-authors). (2023). . Globalisation, Societies and Education, 21(2), 149鈥�165. Full-length article as part of co-edited special issue, The new geopolitics of higher education.
- Sabzalieva, E., El Masri, A., Joshi, A., Laufer, M., Trilokekar, R. D., & Haas, C. (2022). . Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 6(2), 178-204.
- Sabzalieva, E. (2022). . Higher Education Governance & Policy, [open access] 3(1), 1-15.
- El Masri, A., & Sabzalieva, E. (equal co-authors). (2020). . Policy Design and Practice [open access], 3(3), 312-333.
- S谩, C. M., & Sabzalieva, E. (2018). . In B. Cantwell, H. Coates, & R. King (Eds.), Handbook on the Politics of Higher Education (pp. 149鈥�166). Edward Elgar.
- S谩, C. M., & Sabzalieva, E. (2018). . Higher Education, 75(2), 231鈥�253.
