- Dr Nicole Brown
I conceptualise my work as sitting on the cusp of practice/teaching/research, thereby emphasising that through thinking-doing-being each area of expertise intersects with and impacts on another. I therefore work with participants to generate, analyse and disseminate data using arts-based and creative methods, but I also engage in my own creative work. In that sense, my practices as a fiction writer, poet, and educator as well as my activist work in response to, on the back of and as research represent an extension of her conceptualisation of research practice.
My most recent project "Disclosure dances in doctoral education" explored the lived experience of doctoral researchers with disabilities, chronic illnesses, and/or neurodivergences. In this Embodied Inquiry participants were asked to share photographs of their handbags, rucksacks, and day bags. My premise was that the contents of our bags will visibly demonstrate our lived experiences, and that by asking disabled, chronically ill, and/or neurodivergent doctoral researchers to share the contents of their bags, we can gain a glimpse into the reality of what it means to navigate disclosure in doctoral education.
I have written about some lessons learned about sharing photographs for the Photovoice Worldwide newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/step-5-option-choose-photos-sharing-hidden-power-inherent-6wgce/
Find out more about Nicole's research on her UCL Profiles page.
- Sarah Ferner
I am interested in how young British Muslims and young British Jews think and speak about Israel, Palestine and the Holocaust.
My research will immerse young British Jewish and Muslim co-producers/enquirers in different kinds of thinking (creative, collaborative, critical and caring) to investigate Israel, Palestine and the Holocaust as entities, distant geographically and in time, but inextricably intertwined with their everyday lives and formative experiences. This research views listening to children’s ideas and opinions on matters that affect them as central to ideas of participation, social justice, democratic practice and agency. My research centralises children’s meaning-making and validates children’s voice and agency.
The design of my research is focused on the creation and curation of a cache of objects, stories and artefacts by British Jewish and Muslim co-producers/researchers/experts, including myself, with some of these arising specifically from my own (auto-ethnographic) back story. This research acknowledges objects, stories and artefacts as carriers of complex visual, material, cultural and social meanings generating multiple narratives and interpretations.
As a working teacher with twenty years experience in the classroom, the opportunity arises for me in addition, to combine a range of research methods with my pedagogic expertise in facilitating Socratic conversations using the pedagogy known as Philosophy for Children (P4C). The use of P4C as an experimental research method requires me to engage with the paradox of being at the self-same time an authority figure (a teacher) and facilitator, embracing both interdisciplinary, inclusive, participatory research methods and P4C which mirrors them; in being an inclusive and democratic pedagogy; bucking those trends in mainstream education which tend to position children as passive acquirers of knowledge, imparted mainly through direct instruction.
Find out more about Sarah's research on her UCL Profiles page.
- Helen Omand
I am an art therapist currently doing PhD research on art therapy in a time of climate breakdown. I'm exploring how material art processes can be used therapeutically to make visible the emotional experiences of living in a world impacted by ecological crisis.
How might our apocalyptical fears, fantasies and future imaginaries come into being in a tangible way, to be seen and related to by self and others? What are our emotional landscapes in an era of climate breakdown?
My visual art practice runs alongside and investigates elements of my research process. As I begin my PhD I explore themes of care, as a therapist, and for the environment outside of the therapy room, through embodied processes of detailed looking, repetition and labour.
Find out more about Helen's research on her UCL Profiles page.
- Prof Wendy Sims-Schouten and the Eclectic Resilience Hub
Find out more here.
Find out more about Wendy's other research on her UCL Profiles page.
- The Culture Nature Health Research Group
The Culture Nature Health Research Group, led by Professor Helen Chatterjee, is interested in the biopsychosocial impacts of arts, culture, and nature on health, wellbeing, and social inclusion, with a focus on underrepresented communities and health inequalities. Additionally, the group's work emphasizes the intersection between public health and the health of the environment, known as ecological public health.
Currently, the group is leading a £30Million national research programme entitled ‘Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities’ in partnership with the National Centre for Creative Health: https://ncch.org.uk/mobilising-community-assets-to-tackle-health-inequalities
Our research projects promote people-powered change, by amplifying lived experience voices. Together, we are exploring how collaborative community, cultural and nature-based activities can improve health inequalities in the UK. The programme is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), including Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Medical Research Council (MRC); it is funded across three phases from 2021 to 2027.
The Culture Nature Health Research Group also work with a range of partners and a variety of audiences to explore the role of cultural and natural engagement in enhancing quality of life, and physical and mental health and wellbeing, and combating health inequalities. For more information about our work and publications see: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/culture-nature-health-research