Welcoming new team members to the Exchange
This new year we’re pleased to have several new faces joining the Exchange for 2022. Please join us in warmly welcoming them all.
Jacqui Rudd
Jacqui joins the Careers and Employability team as an Employability Educator.
Jacqui is a multi-hyphenate freelancer, coach and mentor. She has an MA in Culture Industry and a PgCert in Coaching, accredited by the ILM.
You can find some of her freelance writing focused on creative careers at ARTSTHREAD and connect with her on Linkedin.
Lucy Nicholson
Lucy starts as a Graduate Enterprise Specialist in the Careers and Employability team.
Lucy joins UAL from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she was Communications and Alumni Relations Manager.
At Trinity Laban she set up the Alumni Relations team supporting student recruitment and institutional reputation as well as providing a programme of bespoke support and benefits for graduates.
Lucy created and ran annual programmes to support graduates and artists in the early years of their careers. These included two awards, TL Ignite and the TL Innovation Award, and a performance platform for graduates’ choreographic work.
Originally trained as a dancer, Lucy also has many years of experience working in brand and communications as well as a few years in the world of fashion.
Rahul Patel
Rahul (re)joins the Exchange as Senior Lecturer in the PgCert and MA Academic Practice teaching team. He adds this to his portfolio of roles with UAL:
- Associate Lecturer: BA/MA Culture, Criticism and Curation I Central Saint Martins
- Co-curator: Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives on Higher Education zine1 & zine2
- Leader: Decolonising Narratives reading group | University wide Academic Support Team
- Organiser: Challenging Times talks – Global Pandemic, Black Lives Matter and Climate and Ecological Emergency | CSM Culture and Enterprise
Santanu Vasant
Santanu starts as Educational Developer (Reward and Recognition). He has a BSc (Hons) in Multimedia Technology and Design, a PGCE in Secondary ICT from Brunel University London and a Masters’ in Education from UCL. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Santanu has over sixteen years’ experience in higher education in a variety of Learning Technology and Academic Development roles across number of London Universities, as well as a secondary school teacher of ICT.
His research interest is in the field of designing physical and virtual learning spaces. His latest chapters include:
- Vasant, S. ‘Academics’ Understanding of Learning Spaces: Attitudes, Practices and Outcomes Explored through the Use of Social Media’ in Rowell, C. (Ed) Social Media in Higher Education: Case Studies, Reflections and Analysis London: Open Book(2019)
- Page-Tickell, R. Yerby, E. Vasant, S. Heer, S. ‘Developing praxis through active blended learning and authentic assessment’ in Black, K. and Warhurst, R. (Eds) Organisation Studies and Human Resource Management: An Educator’s Handbook London: Routledge (2021)
Sergio Fava
Last but not least, Sergio is interim Course Leader for the PgCert Academic Practice.
Sergio’s research has been mostly devoted to the role of the visual arts in social change, especially in relation to climate change mitigation. He is interested in understanding the catalysts and the inertias of large social systems, and their configurations, which are often hard to analyse within established disciplinary boundaries.
His teaching reflects the breadth of interests that led him to degrees in Philosophy of Science (BA), Photography (practice-based MA), and Sociology (PhD). He has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Religious Studies, Sociology, and in Art & Design, as well as supervised interdisciplinary doctoral research in Art & Design, Theology and Sociology.
More recently, Sergio has developed an active interest in the social change and social justice roles of educational research and critical pedagogical. In this, his practice is informed by current developments in cognitive sciences and consciousness studies, by neo-pragmatism, and by very old Eastern radical empiricism approaches to emancipation (usually going by the name ‘buddhism’). His work in this area has led to a Principal Fellowship of the HEA.
Sergio spends much of his free time listening to music and exploring new musical landscapes, or riding a bicycle as far as he can go.
Selected publications:
- Fava, S. (2013) Environmental Apocalypse in Science and Art [Monograph]. Studies in Social and Political Thought. New York and London: Routledge.
- Fava, S. (2012) ‘When Rome Falls, Falls the World’: Biblical Symbolism in Apocalyptic Folk’, in Partridge, C. (ed.) Apocalypse and Popular Music. [Book Chapter] Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press
- Fava, S. (2006) ‘Three Gardens: Apocalyptic Narratives of Nature in Science and Art’, The International Journal of the Arts in Society , Volume 1, Issue 3, pp.141-148.