I joined Christ Church in April 2019, after almost 10 years at Edge Hill University where I served as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Education and prior to this as Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
My previous roles include Assistant Undergraduate Dean and Director of the Combined Honours Centre at Newcastle University and before this Head of the Department of English (and Principal Lecturer in Romantic Literature) at Oxford Brookes University.
In my role here I am responsible for the achievement of the University’s strategic aims within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education.
My research interests are in historical anthropology, and anthropological and postcolonial methodologies. I have published widely on transcultural identification in Victorian travel writing and the development of participant observation as a method of data collection in late nineteenth-century anthropology.
What are your current priorities?
The Faculty of Arts, Education and Humanities was created in 2020 through the merger of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities with the Faculty of Education. Bringing the two faculties together has strengthened our existing partnership and stakeholder engagement work and has enabled the development of exciting new initiatives.
We are proud of our internationally recognised research excellence and the strength of our reputation for the quality of student experience. Interdisciplinary work is a strategic priority, as too is maximising the potential of digital tools and platforms for teaching and research. We continue to build on opportunities for students to experience the interconnectedness of subjects, working collaboratively and with compassion and sensitivity. We are committed to promoting an open approach to conducting research and the diverse range of our public-facing activity testifies to our strong collaborations with external audiences and partners. I feel privileged to lead a faculty with an ethos of ambition and creativity and which includes a large and dynamic provision for student teachers and teacher educators. We will continue making a major contribution to educational practice and policy and to supporting the aspirations of children and young people in the region.
What inspires you about Christ Church?
Our core values and our genuinely inclusive approach to all aspects of what we do and how we work.