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Melanie Hani
Melanie Hani is a member of The Animation Academy, Loughborough University, ‘a centre for animation research, scholarship, practice and exhibition dedicated to excellence at a national and international level in all its activities’. Melanie is also a founding member of Healing Education Animation Research Therapy (HEART), a research organization comprised of practitioners, researchers, filmmakers, educationalists and student practitioners who use the process and outcome of animation practice and film in a therapeutic, educational and informative way – locally, nationally and internationally. Melanie has now developed a new branch of HEART in the East Midlands at Loughborough University (HEART EM). Melanie’s research examines the effectiveness of the animation practice within therapy, criminology and education, and as a methodological and translational device. Service users are from statutory (health, education, social care, research and probationary services) and voluntary sector organizations. Melanie’s work has received recognition by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, and she was invited to an award event at Buckingham Palace, ‘marking those who have made a significant contribution to local or national life’; similarly, her inclusive strategies for children excluded from mainstream education and her work with the severely bereaved have been commended by Baroness Morris of Yardley and the Duke of Gloucester. Melanie has also won an NHS Innovation Award and the Enterprise Award for social and cultural impact, and has been awarded a community fellowship. Melanie has worked nationally and internationally with diverse groups such as children who were first-generation child immigrants in the United Kingdom, have transgendered parents, are suffering with attachment disorder in Slovakia, are bereaved, are from the travelling community, are bereaved and also have a diagnosis of ASD and are high-risk sex offenders. Additionally, Melanie has developed the Good Hearts Model (GHM) (2011), a programme of therapeutic practice that produces animated films and allied materials. Melanie continues to test the facility of animation and creative practices when working with people who are marginalized and/or have physical, social, emotional, educational and cognitive issues, whilst combining it with person-centred approaches and psychotherapeutic theories.