UAL Open Doctoral School: Wellbeing & Research

Three times a year the Doctoral School welcomes research communities from within and outside University of the Arts London (UAL) to gather around a topic of concern. At these events we will share practices, build knowledge, test methods and debate ideas.

For the first Open Doctoral School on wellbeing and research, we are interested in discussing themes including (but not limited to) researcher safety; prospective and retrospective ethics and integrity; “emotionally demanding research” and emotional safety; risk, harm and danger at work; working with participants and stakeholders, and more, as related to “real world” dilemmas and lived experience.

The afternoon will comprise a keynote and seven (optional) workshops on themes including healing, care, burnout and more, facilitated by researcher-practitioners from within and external to UAL.

Contributors include Tim Stephens and Manrutt Wongkaew, Tonicha Child, R.M. Sánchez-Camus, Carole Morrison and Liz Bunting, Alison Green, Rachel Marsden, Jane Bacon and our keynote speaker, Petra Boynton.

The event is open to all, including people undertaking academic studies or working within Higher Education, as well as those working in different organisations and fields (beyond).

We invite people interested in the above themes to join us, AND to bring along those from your support networks: your supervisors, colleagues and collaborators, your friends, partners and family members. The event is open to all, including people undertaking academic studies or working within Higher Education, as well as those working in different organisations and fields (beyond).

Please note: Due to the potential sensitivity of topics discussed, we ask that attendees are age 16+. Throughout the event we will respect a need for compassion, mutual respect, and confidentiality.

Accessibility: Link to AccessAble guide to Central Saint Martins.

Please indicate who from your support network will be attending with you in the relevant ticket option. Also, please let us know of any access requirements, allergies and / or dietary requirements that we can support on the day: Dr Alison Green, Director of Doctoral Research Training and Development a.green@csm.arts.ac.uk.

Please note, lunch is not included in this free event, however there will be refreshments provided mid-afternoon.

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We will be delivering this event in a hybrid format, please choose the right ticket option for you - in person or online.

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Contributor Biographies

Prof. Em. Jane Bacon, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Dance and Somatics at University of Chichester, Jungian Analyst, Focusing trainer, teacher of the Discipline of Authentic Movement and artist/maker. All her work - academic, creative and therapeutic- is deeply informed by her experience of working with Janet Adler, Jung’s work on the inexplicable inter-relationships of mind, body and spirit, Gendlin’s notion of the ‘felt sense’. Over her long career she continues to return to the complex and necessary healing potential of articulating our embodied experience. http://janebacon.net , http://disciplineofauthenticmovement.com,

http://choreographiclab.co.uk

Dr Petra Boynton is a Social Psychologist who supports universities, charities, research organisations and government departments to undertake and use research in pragmatic, inclusive, accessible, ethical, and safe ways. She specialises in teaching the ‘how to’s’ of research that are often neglected or forgotten. Petra’s key focus is on mental health, rights and wellbeing found in her PEEPS Model for prioritising safety and wellbeing in teaching, research, and pastoral care (available on request). Petra’s background is in International Health Services Research, and she has applied this through working as an Agony Aunt (advice columnist) for print, broadcast, and online publications. Using that experience to create self-help resources for researchers including The Research Companion: a practical guide for the social sciences, health and development (2nd Ed, 2016); Coping With Pregnancy Loss (2018); and Being Well In Academia: ways to feel stronger, safer and more connected (2020). LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/petra-boynton, Self-help for scholars www.theresearchcompanion.com

Liz Bunting is an educator, researcher and creative strategist. In her role as an Educational Developer in the Academic Enhancement team at University of the Arts London she supports colleagues in nurturing socially just experiences and outcomes for students. Her research focuses on ecologies of belonging in Higher Education, entangled within the messy complexity of interconnecting relational knowledge domains including compassion, posthumanism, and trauma-informed education. Liz co-runs the QAA-funded Compassionate Assessment Network which builds on her research into compassionate assessment policies during the 2021 QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project ‘Belonging through Assessment: pipelines of compassion’. She is a Senior Fellow HEA, a recipient of the Advance HE CATE Award 2020, and about to embark on a PhD Education and Social Justice at Lancaster University.

Tonicha Child is a multidisciplinary designer and lecturer on London College of Communication’s MA User Experience Design course at UAL. Tonicha creates digital and tangible experiences based on themes such as community, codesign and material exploration. Her passion is the social benefit of participatory design and promotes the selective and sensitive use of technology in her practice. Tonicha had a background in Graphic Design before completing her Master's Degree in UX Design. An alumni of the course, she offers students a fresh perspective on how to incorporate collaborative making into UX projects. Tonicha's most recent project called 'Contours of Self' explores the material embodiment of the lived and felt experiences of people with invisible disabilities, using a somaesthetic design approach.

Dr Alison Green is a researcher, scholar, writer and educator interested in the history and theory of art, and curating as creative and social practices. Her scholarly work is in two main areas: the 1960s as a decade of change that shifted the nature of art, its social purpose and how artists work; and the history of exhibitions and curatorial practice. Current research projects include a history of exhibitions through a critical examination of themes of time. Recent publications include When Artists Curate: Contemporary Art and the Exhibition as Medium (Reaktion, 2018); ‘Why Practice?’ in Curating Art After the Global (MIT Press, 2019). She has an essay, ‘I Really Do Despair,’ in the exhibition catalogue for the Barbican exhibition, Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics (2022) that uses social reproduction theory to consider Schneemann’s art and political activism in relation to gender. At UAL she is Reader in Art, Curating and Culture and Director of Doctoral Research at UAL’s Doctoral School.

Dr Rachel Marsden is a curator, researcher and educator interested in practice-research, creative methods, inclusive pedagogies and ethics of care. This work is informed by her practice in arts and creative health, social prescribing and lived experience of chronic illness and dynamic disability. Currently, she is Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice at University of the Arts London (UAL), including MA and PhD supervisions. She is also a member of UAL’s Health, Arts and Design (HEARD) research hub and on the Advisory Board for UAL’s ‘Better Making’ social prescribing hub. In addition to her involvement as a researcher and co-network lead for 'Stomach Ache: Curating with Guts’ project supported by the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research and Wellcome Trust, Rachel is undertaking the research project 'Mapping Creative Health Assets: Mobilising Arts-based Interventions to Tackle Health Inequalities in Staffordshire' via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), School for Public Health Research (SPHR) and PHRESH (Public Health RESearch for Health) consortium. Since April 2022, in a Voluntary capacity, Rachel has advocated regionally and nationally for the creative health sector via her role as Regional Champion (West Midlands) for the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA), and is also a member of the International Association of Arts Critics (AICA).

Prof. Vida Midgelow, PhD, is Professor of Dance and Choreographic Practices and Dean of Doctoral School at University of the Arts, London. Vida lives in Derbyshire and has over 25 years' experience facilitating and lecturing in performance. Her work focuses on practice research methods with a particular emphasis upon embodied experience, improvisation and articulating choreographic processes. She is a committed educator and mentor, undertaking dramaturgical, curatorial and consultancy roles for artists and organisations. In addition to her research and movement practices Vida is a Thai yoga bodywork practitioner.

Carole Morrison, is Head of Social Purpose in the Curriculum at London College of Fashion, (UAL). She co-creates interventions with staff, students, and neighbourhood representatives to explore, promote and embed issues of citizenship, social conscience, and ethics in the curriculum. Carole has held a variety of roles at UAL, including Education Developer and Outreach Manager and she is also an Associate Lecturer on the Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice; Art, Design and Communications. Prior to working at UAL, Carole held several roles in regeneration, arts, and culture. She has worked both nationally and internationally, including at Arts Council England, Tate Britain, and the Centro Cultural Sao Paulo (Brazil). Carole is interested in critical pedagogy and her research explores anti-colonial thinking and practice. She is a recipient of the Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (2020) and is currently working towards her Senior Fellowship for the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

R.M. Sánchez-Camus Marcelo's work happens in two strands: creative art works working collaboratively with communities, and sector support work developing research and organisational strategy to help improve cultural democracy and participation. He is Artistic Director of Applied Live Art Studio (ALAS), an art studio that focusses on site-responsive and collaborative work and does mentoring and coaching.

Marcelo co-founded various mutual aid groups and networks including: Coalition of Creative Artists in New York, Social Art Network in UK, and Social Art International in Berlin. He was Lead Artist and report author for Social Artists For Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (SAFEDI) AHRC fellowship with Manchester Metropolitan University producing research findings around arts access and arts policy. He is currently Head of Delivery, Participation at Imperial War Museums. Marcelo created and delivers the UAL CSM Short Course Health and Wellbeing Through Artmaking.

Tim Stephens is an Education Developer, with a specialism in Curriculum, at University of the Arts London, a Writer and Photographic Artist. He has 30+ years’ experience of working in Education, with learners, artists, teachers and organisations and his areas of interest are: the inter-play between art and writing practices, embodiment, the relationship between cognitive and non-cognitive experience, equality, western and non-western ethics, organisational and social change.

Dr Manrutt (Manny) Wongkaew is a senior lecturer and a vibrant practitioner, working across the fields of fashion, dance, and art therapy. He is actively engaged with local communities and charitable organisations, delivering creative workshops to a wide range of audience from children in foster care to adults with learning disabilities and male inmates. A list of clients includes Oxfam, Tower Hamlet, HM Prison Dovegate, and the V&A. He is also a keynote speaker for TEDx and the BBC on queer identity and resilience through fashion. His work is never about fashion but how he transcends its boundaries to connect with light and shade of human emotions. Manrutt is currently completing his PgCert in the Therapeutic Arts at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE). It is his vision to transform Arts Education as a space for healing.

http://manrutt.com