I am Lecturer in Education at the University of Strathclyde, teaching  undergraduate students in the areas of applied theatre, critical theory and research methods.

In my research, I am curious about the theory and practice of participatory art-making as a thinking & philosophical practice in educational research.

I like to map the pedagogical and socio-aesthetic engagement in participatory arts projects (in schools, higher ed & communities) and examine the wider educational, philosophical and political questions that emerge when people - children, young people & adults - create something together in film, theatre & animation.

I was Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University London, where I taught Applied Theatre, critical theory and Directing for the BA Theatre.

Prior to that, I was Research Associate at the University of Glasgow for the 3-year, £2 mill - AHRC-large grant project 'Researching Multilingually at the Borders of the Body, Language, Law & the State', where I theorised the role of arts-based research/teaching approaches in multilingual contexts.

• Researcher: the arts, pedagogy, research (theory, praxis).

• CPD trainer: arts-based language teaching for primary/secondary school teachers; arts-based research for early career researchers; participatory filmmaking for community arts workers and teachers.
  

• Documentary film & community arts worker: I have collaborated on a range of documentary films and particpatory filmmaking projects with filmmaker Simon Bishopp.

• Our documentary 'Speaking your language' explored the multi-sensory relationships people have to their spoken languages.

• The documentary 'Scotland Our New Home' was the result of a participatory filmmaking project with young people from the New Young Peers Scotland group (hosted by YPeople Charity) who wanted to make a film to support other new young arrivals in the process of making home in Scotland.
  

• Language teacher: I have taught German & English in secondary, tertiary and adult education in Scotland, Venezuela and Germany.

I have published on Bertolt Brecht's theatre of estrangement as a form of intercultural pedagogy & philosophical ethnography; the ethics of performative approaches in intercultural education; the role of filmmaking as a migratory research aesthetics; and neo-materialist arts-based education research.

My research interests include:

• Bertolt Brecht's Theatre & Pedagogy
  
• Participatory Art-Making as Educational Research/Thinking Practice/Philosophy
• Neo-materialist Arts-Based Education Research
• Critical/Utopian Pedagogy
  

Research/ Projects:

I have lead on a range of participatory filmmaking/digital animation projects with long-term collaborator filmmaker Simon Bishopp, funded through Creative Scotland and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Our current joint digital arts project 'Little Animation Studio' (LAS) is a partnership with care & education provider Harmeny Education Trust in Balerno (Midlothian) and the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and is funded through Creative Scotland.

I am part of the international 'Performative Arts & Pedagogy' project, comprised of a team of creative arts practitioners, language teachers and academics from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland and the UK. We are aiming at an increased awareness of (culture-) specific concepts and associated terminologies that are applied in Performative Arts and Pedagogy contexts. You can access our latest publication (open-access) here.

I am on the project team of the 'Creative Multilingualism: from Practice to Research to Education' research project (Feb 2020 - Dec 2022) at the University of Thessaly in Greece, led by Prof. George Androulakis and funded through the Greek Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI - ELIDEK).

I am a member of:

• the Scottish Educational Research Asscociation (SERA)
• the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB)

I like to teach and research on educational questions at the overlap of the humanities and the social sciences.

At the School of Education, I lead on the Social Issues in Education module and the drama strand of the Exploring Creativities in Practice & the Curriculum: The Arts modules for the BA Primary Ed/BA Education Studies. I contribute to the Film & Education and the Informal Education modules for the BA Education Studies and am a tutor for the Social Research Methods module.

I received a full PhD scholarship from the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, which resulted in a thesis that explored international students' intercultural experiences through a participatory, philosophical ethnography rooted in a Brechtian notion of Verfremdung (estrangement).

I hold an M.A. in Drama and Theatre Studies from University College Cork in Ireland.

My M.Ed. (Education, with English and German) comes from Universität Hildesheim in Germany, where I also qualified as a secondary (modern) school teacher for German & English in the federal state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen).