Experienced University Academic Providing Support for Social and Political Sciences and Geography Students

I have a PhD and a twenty five year academic career in Higher Education as an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies. My work was recognised by the award of a Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society and the award of a Fellowship in the Royal Society of Arts. In addition I am an internationally recognised and multi-award winning documentary photographer, travel writer and journalist with experience of working with, and supporting people to achieve their potential, in a range of academic and professional contexts.

I have extensive experience teaching and tutoring from High School level, to undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and have taught MA students from over sixty countries, and supervised thirteen PhD students to completion.

My approach to teaching is designed to encourage active engagement rather than passive reception. I utilise a range of participatory approaches that build upon insights drawn from the scholarly literature on Problem Based, Team Based and Enquiry Based Learning as well as the broader literature on participatory and visual methodologies. I regularly use a range of visual methods including photographs, film and other cultural artefacts - posters, artworks etc to aid learning and to deepen associations between learning objectives and the classroom.

This can be demonstrated through clear and detailed course handbooks, thoughtful preparation of class sessions and an emphasis on formative feedback throughout, with well-designed summative assessment that is clearly and closely linked to in-class activities. My emphasis throughout is on active learning and critical inquiry. The success of this approach is evidenced by student feedback which has been consistently excellent.

Notable aspects of my practice include:

Using focused inputs (short lectures) and a mix of learning activities to keep students active and engaged.
Framing aims/learning objectives as questions, thereby encouraging a culture of intellectual inquiry and exploration in the class.
Encouraging/requiring students to use and apply concepts to real-world examples through assessment of case-studies.
Designing assessment to directly connect with in-class activities, to encourage continuous learning from students, and to enable students to both apply and connect knowledge from the whole learning process.