Hilary is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University.  She researches, publishes and teaches in the areas of conflict resolution in schools and communities and citizenship education. She is joint editor of the British Education Research Journal, and chairs the Forum for Youth Participation and Democracy which is an international cross-disciplinary and cross sector forum for debate, research and impact on policy and practice. 

She has worked in the public, private and voluntary sector as a school teacher, educational consultant, project coordinator and academic. She has carried out research funded by the Society for Educational Studies that investigated the civic action and learning of young people from socio-economically disadvantaged communities, and research funded by the ESRC exploring restorative approaches to conflict in schools.