Dr. Daniella Bendo

Dr. Daniella Bendo

Dr. Daniella Bendo

Assistant Professor

Phone: 519-433-3491
Email: dbendo2@uwo.ca

Daniella is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Childhood and Youth Studies. She is a critical children’s rights and childhood studies scholar. Daniella completed her PhD in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University. She is interested in research that focuses on advocacy, children’s rights, participation, child-centered research methodologies and community engagement with young people. Daniella enjoys hiking/exercising, spending time with family and friends, hanging out at the cottage, and travelling.

Daniella received King's King's Research Excellence Chair – Early Career on April 27, 2023.

Daniella was chosen by King's students to present the Last Lecture in both 2023 and 2024.

Teaching

  • CYS 1025 – Introduction to Childhood and Youth Studies
  • CYS 3311 – Researching Childhood
  • CYS 3355 – Rights-based Community Engagement
  • CYS 3380 – Approaches to Child Participation
  • CYS 4402 – Emerging Childhood Topics II

Research

Child and Youth Participation; Children’s Rights and Citizenship; Child and Youth Advocacy; Research Methods Involving Children and Youth; Social, Legal, and Theoretical Constructions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; The Sociology of Childhood; Community Research; Youth and Digital Worlds; Child and Youth Disabilities; Youth Justice System; Climate Change; Indigenous Child Removal System in Canada.

Current Projects

Principal Investigator, “Exploring the lived experiences of youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the criminal justice system,” SSHRC Partnership Development Grant

Principal Investigator, “Exploring the lived experiences of youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the criminal justice system,” King’s Strategic Research Opportunities Grant

Co-Investigator, “Evaluating Protections in the Youth Criminal Justice Act in Relation to Justice Involved Youth with Disabilities: A Pilot Project,” SSHRC Explore Grant

Co-Investigator, "Children's rights, climate change, and emotional wellbeing: equipping young Canadians to thrive in times of crisis," SSHRC Insight Development Grant 

Collaborator, “Children as Human Rights Defenders,” SSHRC Insight Grant

Project Lead/Report Writer, “A Report on Youth Engagement focusing on Bill-S-21: A Children’s Commissioner for Canada’s Children,” Senate of Canada

External Involvement/Links
  • Be Your Best Self Inc. - Senior Advisor, Child and Youth Rights
  • Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children - Executive Board Member
  • Landon Pearson Centre Advisory Board - Executive Board Member
  • Child Rights Academic Network - Executive Board Member
  • Equipping Kids – Academic Advisor
  • Canadian Sociological Association – Member
  • Childhood, Law, and Policy Network - Member
  • First Nations Child and Family Caring Society – Member

Selected Publications

Bendo, D., Ketterling, J., & Spencer, D. (Forthcoming, 2023). Enmeshed Realities: Young People’s Lives in Digital Ecologies. The University of Toronto Press.

Bendo, D., Alayche, A., Moodie, R., Griffith-Reid, J., & Dadjo, J. (2022). “A Look into Our Thoughts: A Youth-led Initiative on the creation of a Children's Commissioner for Canada.” The Office of Senator Rosemary Moodie, The Senate of Canada. Report accessible at the following link: https://sencanada.ca/media/wb3etzxn/children-and-youth-commissioner-report_4-12-2002.pdf

Bendo, D., Goodwin-De Faria, C., & Ciufo, D. (2022). Contestation and Perseverance in a time of Competing Crises: An Intersectional Analysis of Young Women and Girls’ Climate Activism During COVID-19. The Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights, 9(1), 25-48.

Bendo, D., Goodwin-De Faria, C., & Maggi, S. (2022). Child and Youth Participation: A Catalyst for Change in Canadian Child-Serving Institutions. In S. Frankel (Ed.), Establishing Child Centered Practice in a Changing World. United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing.

Bendo, D. (2021). Roles, Responsibilities, and Rights: An Organizational Analysis of Provincial and Territorial Child and Youth Advocates and Offices in Canada. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 29(4), 809-834.

Bendo, D., Hepburn, T., & Spencer, D. (2021). Compensating for stigma: Representations of ‘hard to adopt’ children in the Today’s Child. Journal of Childhood Studies, 46(4), 1-16.

Goodwin-De Faria, C., Bendo, D., & Mitchell, R. (2021). Post-covid Childhood-s?: Transdisciplinary Reflections on Participatory Praxis in the Lives of Children and Youth. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 29(2), 371-399.

Morrison, B., Osachoff, A., Caputo, V., & Bendo, D. (2021). Rights, Restoration and Justice for Children: Shaking the Movers in Canada. In A. Wolthuis (Eds.). Restorative Justice and Children’s Rights, (1-25). The Netherlands: Eleven International Publishing.

Bendo, D. (2020). “Sometimes all it takes is one person to make a difference.” Reflecting on the Importance and Impact of Quality Mentorship in Early Career Development. In V. Caputo (Eds.) The Children’s Senator, (176-181). Montreal, Quebec and Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s Press.

Hepburn, T., Bendo, D., Spencer, D., Sinclair, R., & Bennett, J. (2020). “Their reward will be a lovely daughter in the full meaning of the adjective”: The mobilisation of ‘Hard to Adopt’ and the portrayal of adoption as a gift. Adoption & Culture, 8(2), 228-244.

Layton, H., Bendo, D., Amani, B., Bieling, P., & Van Lieshout, R. (2020). Public Health Nurses’ Experience Learning and Delivering a Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Intervention for Postpartum Depression. Public Health Nursing, 37(6), 863-870.

Bendo, D. (2019). Parallel Lines? Childhood Discourses Emphasized by the Children’s Rights Movement and the Emerging Field of Children’s Rights Studies. Childhood, 27(2), 173-187.

Bendo, D. (2019). “Can Disability be Positive?” Reflecting on Children’s Rights and Disability Through Shaking the Movers: A Youth-led, Consultative, Collaborative, Participatory Model. The Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights, 6(1), 227-241.

Bendo, D., Hepburn, T., Spencer, D., & Sinclair, R. (2019). Advertising “Happy” Children: The Settler Family, Happiness, and the Indigenous Child Removal System, Children & Society, 33(5), 399-413.

Bendo, D., & Mitchell, R. (2018). The Role of Canada’s Child and Youth Advocates: A Social Constructionist Approach. In M. Freeman (Ed.), Children’s Rights: New Issues, New Themes, New Perspectives (pp. 66-88). Leiden and Boston: Brill. (Reprinted from The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2017, 25(2), pp. 335-358).

Bendo, D. (2018). Discourse Analysis: Investigating Canada’s Child Advocates as Catalysts for Change. In S. Singer, & M. Harkins (Eds.), Educators on Diversity, Social Justice, and Schooling: A Reader (pp. 194-214). Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars Press.

Bendo, D., & Mitchell, R. (2017). The Role of Canada’s Child and Youth Advocates: A Social Constructionist Approach. International Journal of Children’s Rights, 25(2), pp. 335-358.

Bendo, D. (2017). An Interview with Landon Pearson: On the Role of a Commissioner for Canada's Children. The Canadian Journal of Children's Rights, 4(2), pp. 92-104.

Bendo, D. (2015). Children Have Rights, Right? Child Advocacy in the Lives of young People. Youth Voice Journal, 2056 – 2969, pp. 1-26.