Daniella is an Associate 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 received 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 4401/4402 – Emerging Childhood Topics
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.
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
Landon Pearson Centre Advisory Board – Executive Board Member
Child Rights Academic Network – Executive Board Member
Canadian Sociological Association – Member
Childhood, Law, and Policy Network – Member
Selected Publications
Bendo, D. & Spencer, D. (Forthcoming). Enmeshed Realities: Young People’s Lives in Digital Ecologies. The University of Toronto Press.
Levesque, A., Bendo, D., Hübsch, J., & Paré, M. (2025). How to Make Legal Proceedings in Canada More Child Friendly? The Canadian Bar Review, 103(2), 546-570.
Spencer, D., Innocente, N., & Bendo, D. (2025). Legal Counsel, Moral Expectations, and Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Economies of Worth in Youth Courts. Social & Legal Studies, 1-22.
Frankel, S., & Bendo, D. (2024). Children as change makers: A resource to enhance child centred practice and extend active learning opportunities. Emerald Publishing.
Bendo, D. (2024). Child rights and realities: Implementing children’s rights in Canadian advocate and international commissioners’ offices. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 32(2), 1-25.
Bendo, D., Goodwin-De Faria, C., Baruth, C., & Moore, M. (2024). Difficult ‘by design’: Viewpoints of crown attorneys and defense council working with youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the youth justice system. Youth Justice, 1-20.
Maggi, S., Pocchi, S., & Bendo, D. (2024). Unlocking the power of listening: the neuroscientific case for fulfilling child and youth rights. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 32, 119-149.
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.