Speakers
ALEX BLOWER
Further Education Project Leader, Southern Universities Network
Prior to commencing my doctoral research at the University of Wolverhampton in September 2016, I worked for a number of years in UK university outreach teams, delivering activity with the goal of widening access to Higher Education. Using my experience as a professional to inform the research, my study centres around social justice in education, with a specific focus on the negotiation of white working-class male students’ expectations for their future in education and work. Alongside my research I am keen to open a conduit between educational research and practitioner communities; especially amongst those who individuals who engage in activity to widen participation in Higher Education. Since starting my PhD I have spoken about my research at numerous practitioner events, including the delivery of a closing keynote at the Higher Education Liaison Officers Association Newer Practitioners’ Conference. I continue to work full time in widening participation practice as a Further Education Project Leader for the Southern Universities Network.
ALEXANDROS KALLEGIAS
Transformation North West
Alexandros, based at the University of Liverpool, focuses on the investigation of urban data as drivers for design, interaction and robo tics in architecture. His work includes the exploration of generative design techniques, incorporating design through coding coupled with large-scale digital fabrication tools. Alexandros is a researcher and educator in collaboration with different schools of architecture such as the Architectural Association in the UK, and abroad; the Bartlett UCL, Oxford Brookes and the University of Cardiff. His practice background includes being Senior Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects, acting as BIM Coordinator for numerous international projects.
PROFESSOR ANDREW CHITTY
Professor of Creative and Digital Economy, AHRC’s first Creative Economy Champion
Andrew trained in neuroscience where he got interested in the human visual system. This led him to film school, and then into the world of broadcasting, specifically Granada’s educational department and then BBC Science. He spent a few years trying to work out how the ‘new digital thing was going to work’ alongside Television – producing CD ROMs and building the BBC’s first website. He left to set up Illumina Digital, which became one of the UK’s leading digital content producers. He has worked with heritage institutions, government departments, educational providers and broadcasters developing their presence in the digital world. He has worked in government, on the Digital Britain Report, as a non-Executive at the communications and media regulator OFCOM, and prior to taking up his new role has been working with healthcare providers to encourage the NHS to develop new digital services.
​
ANGELA CHAN
StoryFutures
Angela is currently a doctoral researcher with StoryFutures, a VR and immersive lab within Royal Holloway and part of the government’s creative clustering programme. Angela has worked in the UK television industry for twenty years as a documentary maker, commissioning editor and senior manager. Most recently she was C4’s Head of Creative Diversity. Prior to this she worked at the BBC leading their external supply strategy. Angela’s research focuses on creative clustering and diversity in the value chain. It explores the business models and behaviours that drive inclusive growth in the digital and immersive sector and assesses the role of universities as catalysts. She holds an Executive MBA in the Creative Industries from Ashridge Business School, a degree in Social Anthropology from Cambridge & a Masters in Fine Art Photography.
DR. ANNE WILSON
​Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow
Anne combines a strong background in journalism and corporate visual communications with teaching and facilitating in academia. She is adept at creating compelling narratives from dry, obscure and technical subjects and is skilled at helping anyone - from Chief Executives to teenagers - tell their own story in an engaging and persuasive way. As a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow, Anne runs bespoke workshops on writing, which consistently get excellent feedback. She uses her experience of competitive pitching to run a workshop on the art of grant proposal writing and works with academic staff on impact statement for the REF.
DR CHRIS KEMPSHALL
Impact Assistant, University of Kent
Chris is an historian focusing on allied relations in the First World War as well as popular representations of warfare. He has taught on war and European history at the Universities of Sussex, Kent, and Goldsmiths College, London. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Army Leadership, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. His current job role is ‘Impact Assistant’ at the University of Kent, working on the Impact Case Studies for the School of History.
CLARE SMITH
Dover Arts Development
Clare works from a studio in Dover, Kent and has a BA from the University for the Creative Arts and an MA from University of the Arts London (Central St Martins). She has exhibited across the UK and is cofounder of Dover Arts Development with Joanna Jones. Smith works across media and genres in drawing, printmaking, painting and filmmaking. Her recent work reflects a growing interest in place and memory and a stronger focus on the autobiographical. She was shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2019.
ED NEWELL
Cumberland Lodge
Edmund Newell has been Principal and Chief Executive of Cumberland Lodge since 2013. An economic historian and priest in the Church of England, he was previously a Research Fellow at Nuffield College in Oxford, Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where he was the founding Director of the St Paul’s Institute, and Sub-Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Ed is a regular contributor to Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2. His publications include the co-authored books, Ethics & Investment Banking (with John Reynolds) and What Can One Person Do? (with Sabina Alkire), a theological reflection on the Millennium Development Goals. His latest book, The Sacramental Sea: A Spiritual Voyage through Christian History, was published in 2019. Ed is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.
PROFESSOR ELEONORA BELFIORE
Loughborough University
Eleonora Belfiore is Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University, UK. She has published extensively on cultural politics and policy, and particularly the place that notions of the ‘social impacts’ of the arts have had in British cultural policy discourses. For Palgrave she has published, with Oliver Bennett, The Social Impact of the Arts: An intellectual history (2008) and co-edited with Anna Upchurch a volume entitled Humanities in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Utility and Markets (2013).
More recently, her research has focused on researching the politics of cultural value, and she was Director of Studies of the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value (2013-5), and co-author of its final report, Enriching Britain: Culture, creativity and growth, published in February 2015. Eleonora is co-investigator on the AHRC funded Connected Communities project ‘Understanding Everyday Participation – Articulating Cultural Values’ and research lead in the Paul Hamlyn-funded 3-year Fun Palaces Ambassador Programme. For Palgrave, she edits the book series New Directions in Cultural Policy Research, and from January 2020 she will be Editor of the Taylor & Francis journal Cultural Trends. Presently, Eleonora is developing new research programmes on cultural democracy and cultural authority.
FRANCES DAVIS
PhD Candidate, School of Art, ECA
Frances works in the contemporary visual arts sector as a freelancer and researches this sector as a part-time, practice-based doctoral researcher at Edinburgh College of Art. She is particularly interested in how we understand and account for the specific impacts of larger systems at smaller scales. Most recently, this has included work with environmental researchers focusing on their individual affective experiences of doing climate change research. She is currently writing about the weather as a metaphor for the conditions in which cultural practice operates.
​
FRANKIE KUBICKI
Curator - Special Projects, Dickens Museum, NPIF Phd Student, Royal Holloway in partnership with Kew Gardens
Frankie is a London based museum professional and researcher. Frankie works as Curator of Special Projects at the Charles Dickens Museum, London. She is currently undertaking a Techne AHRC doctoral award exploring the paper collections held at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London. A graduate of the V&A/RCA History of Design MA programme, her research interests include the sociohistorical significance of paper, nineteenth century material culture, and contemporary museum practice. Frankie previously worked as Senior Curator of Keats House, Hampstead, where her interest in personality museums and paper collections developed.
GEMMA POTTER
Transformation North West
Gemma is a participatory artist, maker and designer who works with cultural industries to engage the public via the intersections of material craft and digital technology. Based at Manchester Metropolitan University, her PhD, “Making sense of craft expertise and creative value in digital gaming“, seeks to explore our understanding of digital skill and craft labour. As part of a Transformation North West (NWCDTP), Gemma is carrying out an applied research approach, investigating where the value in synergies between craft and videogame play could lie for industries in the North West through a series of collaborative projects.
JENNY WALDMAN CBE
Director, Art Fund
Jenny Waldman CBE was Director of 14-18 NOW, the UK’s official arts programme for the First World War Centenary. Working in partnership with arts and heritage organisations across the UK, 14-18 NOW commissioned over 100 new works from leading UK and international contemporary artists.
​
She was Creative Producer of the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and from 1999-2011 she was Public Programmes Consultant to Somerset House Trust, where she created the iconic ice rink and the highly successful outdoor concert and film seasons, as well commissioning site-specific art installations. She has also commissioned large-scale performing arts events for Tate Modern and Tate Britain.
​
Jenny Waldman is Chair of Trustees of, Artangel and is a member of the Barbican Centre Board. She was awarded a CBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the arts and has recently taken up the post of Director at Art Fund
JESSICA ADAMS
PhD Student, University of East London
Jess is a creative and practice-based researcher in the field of cultural studies, working towards her PhD at the University of East London. She is currently doing an internship with The World Transformed as part of her research, and has worked on a number of creative, collaborative projects with a variety of arts and cultural organisations. She is a Cumberland Lodge scholar and is establishing an alumni community for the UK’s leading social mobility charity, The Sutton Trust. She gained a MA in Global Arts with distinction from Goldsmiths and a first-class honours degree in art history and political science from Victoria University of Wellington.
JESS ROBBINS
Transformation North West
Jess is a design PhD student based in the Institute of Contemporary Art at Lancaster University. She is interested in the systems which we are all apart of and how people can use their networks to become more sustainable. The core of her research focuses on the role of community in circular economy organisations, her work aims to shed light on these connections, making them visible and tangible. Prior to her PhD Jess worked as an education designer for Cheshire Fire and Rescue. Her academic background is in media and culture, aspects of which inform her views about the world.
JOANNA JONES
Dover Arts Development
Joanna's practice over several decades has included a studio based painting practice as well as the lateral collaborative structures she has founded and managed with and for other artists. Following a foundation year at Northwich College of Art, Jones continued her studies at the Byam Shaw School receiving her NDD in painting from Goldsmith’s College in 1966 later graduating from the Royal Academy Schools in 1970. After 20 years in Europe she returned to the UK in 1997 co-founding Dover Arts Development (DAD) with Clare Smith in 2006. DAD is an artist-led, not for profit company that functions as a collaborative, porous framework within which its artist directors conceive, manage & deliver ambitious projects of artistic excellence within the visual arts, poetry & music. DAD advocates for & actively pursues a strategic role for the arts in placemaking & for the benefits artists bring to Dover & the South East.
PROFESSOR KATE O'RIORDAN
University of Sussex
Kate O’Riordan is Professor of Digital Culture and Head of School for Media Film and Music at the University of Sussex. She is the co-author of Furious: Technological Feminism and Digital Futures (Pluto, 2019) with Professor Caroline Bassett and Professor Sarah Kember. She has published widely on digital media and cultures of science and technology including Unreal Objects (Pluto, 2017) and The Genome Incorporated (Ashgate, 2010). She is currently working on sexuality and the algorithmic imaginary as well as a number of smaller projects around biotechnologies and LGBTQ+ identities.
LAURA WAREING
Transformation North West
Laura is a PhD design researcher on the Transformation North West (NWCDTP) programme. Her PhD research explores the role that collaborative design processes can have in raising the aspirations of young people living in overlooked areas of the North of England. She is based at Imagination Lancaster, a design research lab at Lancaster University, where she is also Research Associate as part of the AHRC Fellowship in Design. Previous to her PhD, Laura worked for five years on various co-design focused projects at Imagination Lancaster.
LILY POBEREZHSKA
Media Players International
Lily was born and educated in Kiev, working as an adult educator before coming to the UK, where she worked for nine years at the BBC, as a journalist, producer and presenter. Since leaving the BBC she has worked as a media trainer for 38 British universities, including University of the Arts London, the Courtauld and the RCA.
MARGE AINSLEY
Cultural Sector Consultant
Marge is a well-respected cultural consultant with specialist expertise in audience development, user (and non-user) research and evaluation. A Member of the Market Research Society, she was previously voted one of the 50 best freelancers in the UK by marketing magazine, The Drum. Since launching her own consultancy in 2008, she’s worked with a range of museums, galleries, libraries and archives on several independent evaluation and exploratory research projects. Previous and current clients include Manchester International Festival, London Transport Museum, Leeds Libraries, Arts Council England, National Museums Liverpool, BALTIC, Manchester Art Gallery, Cheshire Archives and Scottish Book Trust.
MARTIN COX
Researcher, artist, low-brow activist
Martin is a cultural producer, musician and researcher committed to addressing inequalities of cultural policy through low-brow activistism. Martin has over 20 year’s experience working in the cultural sector as an artists, producer, director and programmer. He is currently researching alternative models for creative practices, policy and sustainability through an exploration of unfunded, citizen led community arts.
PHOEBE KOWALSKA
Transformation North West
Phoebe is a design PhD student at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. She specialises in investigating how consumers re-appropriate everyday objects, and at times re-appropriate through consumer de-consumption behaviours, in order to assess how this process might be of value for the consumer to producer relationship. Kowalska’s interests lay within consumer everyday interactions and awareness with objects, or the contrary. Key areas of industry focus are design strategy and the experience economy alongside analogue and futurologist ideations.
ROBERT HESLIP
Heritage Officer, Belfast City Council
Robert is a Tourism, Culture, Heritage and Arts Development officer with Belfast City Council working in partnership with the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership. With a degree from Queen’s University in Ancient and Modern History, he spent most of his career as a national museum curator specialising in numismatics. A former chair of the Irish Museums Association, he is the only UK graduate of the long-established US programme The Seminar for Historical Administration (now the History Leadership Institute) as well as completing the UAE museum leadership course. He is a board member of the international body for ‘socio-museology’ - MINOM - and of Co-Operative Alternatives.
TIM GROUT-SMITH
Media Players International
Tim read English at Oxford before training as a journalist in Australia, and then spent 25 years at the BBC working in TV and Radio newsrooms, and current affairs, and helping set up the innovative unit that is now BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity. He reported for the BBC from over thirty countries, and has been training PhDs, early career researchers and academics for more than ten years.
