DR JENNIFER LEIGH

WISC Vice Chair (People) 

Senior Lecturer in Higher Education - University of Kent (UK)

Dr Jennifer Leigh’s research weaves together threads of embodiment, reflective practice, identity, academic practice, ableism and inclusivity, creative research methods and development in higher education. She edited a book Conversations on Embodiment in Higher Education: Teaching, practice and research for Routledge, and is co-editor on Theorising Ableism in Academia with Nicole Brown, which is currently in press with UCL Press. A trained movement therapist, her book Boundaries of Qualitative Research: Between art, education and therapy is due out with Bristol University Press in 2022.

Jennifer has been a consultant for the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, and completed research with Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance around using creative approaches to teach and capture embodied reflective practice. She has delivered training on using playful and creative methods to capture emotion and rich data through the Society for Research in Higher Education and the National Centre for Research Methods, and led an invited session on embodied research methods at the 2018 NCRM Research Festival. As Senior Lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Practice at the University of Kent, Jennifer works closely with the Graduate School supporting GTAs, instigated a competition to enhance the post-doctoral research environment and opportunities for independent research and undergraduate opportunities, and liaises with the Science Faculty in addition to teaching and leading core MA and PGCHE modules in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education. She has a degree in Chemistry with Analytical Science, and a PGCE in Secondary Science Teaching, an MA in Higher Education and is a Senior Fellow of the HE Academy (Advance HE). One of her aims for WISC is to get lots of chemists playing, being creative, and reflecting in the name of research– why should social scientists get all the fun?