Sally is Chair of the key Level 1 module MU123 Discovering Mathematics and a Staff Tutor working with wonderful tutors working with the Open University in Scotland. When not enthusing about mathematics, over the years Sally has been involved in numerous ventures as a dancer, teacher of dance and a singer. She is also currently a keen research student.
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Dr Sally Hayes started her time at the OU as Director of Strategy Planning and Development in the Faculty of Wellbeing Education and Language Studies in 2017 and then acted as the Interim Executive Dean of WELS (and VCE member). These experiences have given her great insight in both the academic and professional services life of the University, within and now outside of the Faculties. Before that, she spent time working as Independent Chair of Third Sector Leeds; in a number of academic roles at Leeds Beckett University including Associate Dean, Strategic planning and Development and Head of the School of Health and Wellbeing. Her leadership journey began as a nurse in clinical roles before joining a Primary Care Trust in 2001, her final role being Lead Nurse, as a member of the Executive Committee and Board with many and varied accountabilities.
Sally Jordan is Head of the Department of Physical Sciences. She joined the OU nearly 25 years ago as an associate lecturer and has also studied OU modules as a student. She is passionate about using assessment to help students to learn, and in ensuring that the feedback given on assignments is useful. She blogs under the title “e-assessment (f)or learning” and her main interest outside of work is walking long-distance footpaths.
Sally Storr is an Educational Adviser, and tutors on an OU counselling module, D240 Exploring Fear and Sadness. Sally is an OU graduate so she knows how challenging study can be as a mature student.
She has a passion for managing stress and for wild animals – but doesn’t think the two are linked!
Sam is an Internal Communications Manager at the OU and although not celebrating 50 years just yet, first joined the OU back in 1999. Her role in Communications is focused around working with Academic Services as a business partner to support their strategic communications and working with other partners across the OU to support change communications and improving employee voice.
In her spare time, Sam loves spending time with her pooches strolling along muddy country lanes and exploring hidden woods or experimenting with different ingredients or new ways of whipping up a cake or batch of biscuits.
Dr Sam Murphy is Associate Head of School, Health and Social Care at The Open University. She was originally recruited to the OU in 2010 to contribute to its teaching and research expertise around death and dying. Her specific interest in this area is pregnancy loss, in particular, stillbirth and neonatal death. Her doctoral thesis was entitled Parenting the Stillborn: Gender, Identity and Bereavement.
Since joining the OU in 2010, Sam has worked on modules at all levels of the undergraduate programme in Health and Social Care, as well as the Masters in Advancing Healthcare Practice. At present she is also supervising four PhD students, one of whom is exploring experiences of miscarriage in the workplace.
Sam has been academic adviser on several co-produced television programmes (with both the BBC and Channel 4) which include the BAFTA-nominated documentary How to Die: Simon's Choice.
Sam is Head of Student Success in the Faculty of Business and Law, responsible for working with colleagues to help more business and law students succeed in their modules and qualifications. Sam has worked at The Open University for 12 years and in that time has been a regular OU student on the side, completing two OU qualifications – in Online and Distance Education, and Creative Writing.
Sam is a qualified solicitor and has a PhD in Maritime Law. She started tutoring for the OU in 2006 and became a Student Experience Manager in 2021. Aside from her legal and teaching career she has done lots of other jobs that have added to her skill set. These include Archaeologist, Usherette in a theatre, reading the local papers of the South West as a Press Reader, and six scary weeks working in a pasty shop. She also volunteered for the National Trust running residential working holidays for 25 years. Sam is a keen musician and plays oboe and trumpet in local orchestras. She is also a part-time student at the OU and has just finished her Open science degree. She has a keen interest in maritime archaeology, made her own long bow and joined a local archery society!
Hello, my name is Samantha Fletcher and I’m a lecturer in criminology at the Open University and deputy chair for the module DD804 Crime and global justice, which is a 120 credit core module for the F75 MA Crime and justice.
My research is concerned with sites of protest, resistance, contestation, and activism, such as the Occupy movement, where I seek to learn from these phenomena to further inform critical scholarship regarding matters of crime, harm and justice. My research takes an interdisciplinary approach, borrowing from multiple works in the humanities and social science. But central to all my research concerns is active scholarship that seeks to make contributions to redress inequalities related to harm(s) associated with capitalist accumulation of wealth and inequality.
Sam Harrison-Emm is an Employer Engagement Coordinator focusing on social sciences, the arts, sports and leisure and the third sector. He is passionate about finding and creating opportunities for OU students through innovative collaboration with employers. Sam joined the OU in 2018 as a Senior Recruitment and Support Advisor in the Student Support Team, learning the needs and ambitions of OU students first-hand. Prior to that he worked as a Digital Marketing Executive at The Private Clinic of Harley Street. Outside of work, Sam is the lead singer in the band Hurtsfall, is learning to play the piano and enjoys rock climbing.
I’m a member of the department of English & Creative Writing at the OU. I’m currently chairing Y031, the Arts and Languages Access module, and I am passionate about helping to launch students on their Open University career. It’s an inspiring experience to engage with students as they find their enthusiasms and interests being met and developed in the module materials and in their relationships with their tutors. If you start right, it’s amazing how far you might choose to go!
My favourite thing about the OU is its ability to unlock potential.
Sara Haslam is Senior Lecturer in English at the Open University. She has written material for modules at all levels of study, and soon after joining the department she also worked as an Associate Lecturer, teaching the MA.
Her research is focused on the British novelist Ford Madox Ford, on the literature of the First World War, and on scholarly editing. She spends a lot of time poring over manuscripts and deciding if an ellipsis of 8 dots should be reduced to 3 in a published edition. Meeting Benedict Cumberbatch when he was playing Christopher Tietjens in Parade’s End has been her only voluntary experience of a golf course. Her research and teaching have been happily merged in production of A335, a new module for which she has written teaching material on The Good Soldier, Ford’s modernist classic.
In the Graduate School, Sarah Allman is responsible for looking after core skills training for students reading for research degrees in STEM subjects. Sarah’s main aim is to make sure the OU’s PhD students have access to opportunities throughout their studies, so they are prepared for their chosen path when they finish their training. Sarah supervises PhD students herself, some of whom work on campus at the OU and others who carry out their research in Malaysia. Her research team mainly works on analysing sugars, particularly those which coat the surface of protein drugs to help ensure that those drugs are both effective and safe.
Sarah Badger is about to graduate from the MA in Education: Leadership and Management pathway. She has over 30 years’ experience of teaching Maths in secondary schools, in both state and independent sectors. For the last six years she has been an Assistant Head with responsibility for the curriculum. After a long break from formal studying, Sarah undertook the MA as a way to develop her career. Her dissertation was based on a perceived need for a more effective induction programme for newly appointed middle leaders in her school and she is hoping to implement her recommendations in the next academic year. Last year, she volunteered to be a peer coach supporting other Masters students with their Personal Development Planning.
Sarah is a Lecturer within the Open University Law School. Currently working on the authoring and development of online undergraduate law units, Sarah has a key interest in the ways in which digital teaching methods can enhance the student experience and academic outcomes. Current scholarship projects are centred around the provision of feedback to distance learners and the ways in which both tutor and peer support can be most effectively delivered in an online environment.
Outside of university life, Sarah likes to bake cakes, walk her dog and host cocktail events for friends. She also finds herself roped into babysitting for younger family members often!
Sarah Jones has been a student with The Open University since October 2017.
She started a Masters in Education in September 2020, having completed a Primary Education degree, gaining a First Class honours in the summer of 2020. Sarah is interested in Lego Therapy and the benefits it has for children with English as another language, as well as the benefits of using Lego in research with adults using Lego Serious Play.
Sarah is interested in Digital Inclusion and making a difference for others. She is the OU Ambassador to the Digital Poverty Alliance and Past President of the OU Students Association (2020-2022).
Sarah lives in Bristol with her husband and two sons.
Sarah is a Staff Tutor for Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport (ECYS) with The Open University. She is also an Associate Lecturer for module E102, Introduction to childhood studies and child psychology.
Sarah worked in children’s services and education for around twenty years, primarily within the field of early intervention and prevention. Since becoming an academic six years ago she has published journal articles and book chapters, and is co-editor of Childhood well-being and resilience: influences on educational outcomes (forthcoming, Routledge). Describing herself as a ‘serial student’, Sarah continues to study for a Doctorate in Education, researching the ability of early help services to adequately safeguard children and young people.
Sarah is the Awards Officer in the OU’s Disabled Students Allowance Office and also provides support to the OU’s Disability Support Team.
Sarah is a PhD student in the life, Health and Chemical Sciences department at the Open University. Proteins are the workhorses of cells and their structure is essential to correct functioning. Under stress or pathological conditions, such as neurodegenerative diseases, misfolded proteins form aggregates which can have a severe impact on health. Sarah studies how these aggregates form and how the cell can remove them to restore proper function.
Scott Sherriff is currently working within the ‘Enhanced Employability and Career Progression’ stream of the Open University’s ‘Student First Transformation Programme’.
Scott studied for a BA (Hons) in History with Politics at the University of Buckingham following a CertHE in Humanities with The Open University. Higher education was a real draw for Scott, as he has always had a thirst for knowledge, but it served as more than just a remedy for his History and Politics obsession. It has enabled him to develop new skills, such as critical thinking, as well as drawing out talents that he didn’t think he possessed, along with opening doors for a change in career and fresh start. His own experiences within this environment have invigorated a passion for increasing social mobility through study and he is pleased to be part of delivering this ethos at The Open University.
Dr Sean Cordell’s OU teaching and long-term research has, broadly speaking, been in social, political and moral philosophy. More specifically he has recently been working on the ethics and politics of social roles (such as professional or familial roles), which includes the legitimacy and justice of institutions that define those roles. He is deputy chair of the module A222 Exploring Philosophy and member of the Philosophy MA course team
Sean began as an apprentice engineer and studied his HNC in Mechatronics. Once his apprenticeship finished, he left and returned to college to study HNC in computing. Unfortunately, he didn’t complete it. He went back to work as a technician and progressed his career to Engineer, Shift Leader and then to his current position, Equipment Engineering Manager. He always regretted dropping out of his computing HNC. He thought he his time had passed and was too late start studying again. He supported his wife through her nursing degree after she went back to studying after having their 4 children.
Sean Williams is a senior lecturer in music at the Open University. His background is in music technology, and as well as performing using analogue synthesizers, he designs and builds electronic instruments. His main research is conducted into the early electronic music practices of the 1950s and 1960s. He has reconstructed some early tape pieces using period electronic instruments, and performs live electronic music from the same period using reconstructed instruments. He is here to talk about the new short courses in Music, specifically Sound Systems in Popular Music.
Shafquat Towheed is a Senior Lecturer in English and a member of the A233 module team. He contributed to Part 1 of the Module (Realism) and wrote two of the units on Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country as well as the introductory material in the Book Club weeks on Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. Shafquat has been a big fan of Wharton’s writing for a long time and has published on her as well – he is the editor of Wharton’s letters to her British publisher, the House of Macmillan.
Shane has been at The Open University for 3 years, both as a student and editor. His main focus on module production has been mathematics modules in LaTeX – the typesetting software, not editing while wearing the material.
When not at work, Shane can be found in the nearest ScrewFix branch or out of breath on a football pitch.
Dr Shaun McMann is an Associate Lecturer with The Open University, specialising in criminology and sociology. He is also a Senior Lecturer in critical media theory at Nottingham Trent University. In terms of research, Shaun's work evaluates the link between social inequality and imprisonment. His most recent paper was an assessment of the rehabilitative potential of Higher Education in prison.
Sheila Cameron is the Disabled Students Group (DSG) Chairperson. She has found being part of the DSG has enhanced her studying, which she has been doing with The Open University since 1990 via various short courses, and in 2017 was awarded a BSc (Hons) Env Studies and a BA (Hons) Open Degree.
She is a member of PLEXUS and is the Caucus Representative for Disabled Students. She is also a Volunteer with the Students Association in various roles, including Central Committee Rep, Community Champion and Learning Experience Reporter.
Sheila Cameron is the Disabled Students Group (D S G) Chairperson. She has found being part of the D S G has enhanced her studying. She has been studying with the Open University since 1990 doing various short courses. In 2017 she accepted a BSc (Hons) Env Studies and a B A (Hons) Open Degree and is now studying her M A in Online & Distance Education. She is a member of PLEXUS and is the Caucus Representative for Disabled Students. She is also a Volunteer with the Students Association in various roles such as a Central Committee Rep, Community Champion and Learning Experience Reporter.
Simon Bell is an OU Professor with a keen interest in the innovation of methodology and with questions about contemporary life, and has a lot of concerns about trends in society and nature. Right now he is writing up his research on fear of climate change, both as a conventional book and as a graphic novel. He is interested in reaching beyond academia to wider populations who might be interested in this work. He tries to practice what he preaches about climate change, having a wind turbine and solar panels on his house, and tries to lead an ethical life but worries that this is not enough. His key method is to visualise and use diagrams in ‘systems thinking and practice’.
The Open University is, in his humble opinion, the best university in the UK for people who want to live their careers and integrate their work with their wider life.
Simon Kelley is Interim Executive Dean for the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
His research interests cover a wide range of Earth Science, and he has developed several techniques for dating geological processes involving focussed lasers, both UV and IR, to melt minute samples to release and measure noble gases in rocks and minerals. This has led him to date a huge range of geological processes including:
Simon joined the Open University as a Lecturer in law in October 2013 and has been Chair of module W203 Public law and criminal law since early 2014. Simon initially studied history to masters level at the University of Sheffield, before converting to law via the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at the University of Law, Guildford. He trained as a solicitor at commercial firm DLA Piper UK LLP (currently non-practising) and entered academia via an LLM from the University of Birmingham. He completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham, awarded in 2015, and his research explores the nexus between history, theory and law, primarily in relation to Nazi Germany. Simon has been an OU Associate lecturer since October 2016 and has tutored on various level 2 and 3 law modules, as well as LLM module W821.
Simon Lee became Professor of Law at The Open University in December 2015 and is now also Director of Citizenship & Governance Research. He is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence, Queen’s University, Belfast. He has held scholarships and fellowships at Balliol College, Oxford, and Yale Law School. After being a lecturer in law at Trinity College, Oxford, and King’s College London, he became Professor of Jurisprudence at Queen’s (1999–2005) and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law. He was then Rector & Chief Executive of Liverpool Hope University College (1995–2003) and Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University (2003–2009), both institutions winning various awards during his leadership. He was awarded honorary doctorates by Virginia Theological Seminary in 2011 and Liverpool Hope in January 2016.
Simon Penn is a lecturer in the Sport and Fitness programme at the Open University. He is in charge of the first year module E119 Working with people in sport and fitness. Simon is also a student with the OU because he is completing an Educational Doctorate by researching the effectiveness of video feedback.
Simon Rea is a lecturer and writer in Sport and Fitness at the Open University. Since joining the OU in 2007, Simon has written study guides on sport psychology, physiology, biomechanics and most recently nutrition. Previously, he worked as a personal trainer and ran his own personal training company.
Simon is particularly interested in current issues in sport, such as cheating, and the role of politics and sport.
Simon has been interested in the Olympics since, at the age of nine, he watched the 1976 Games in Montreal, on a grainy black and white television. His Olympic claim to fame is that he ran against Olympic champion Alan Wells at an open meeting in 1987 - Alan won, despite being well advanced in years!
Simon is a physicist who has been working in Space and Planetary Sciences at the Open University for nearly 20 years. During his time at the OU, Simon has been responsible for designing and building space flight instruments for the Rosetta and the Beagle2 missions. He has been an Associate Lecturer for the last six years and has taught on a number of Level One and Level Two modules. Simon also has first-hand experience studying with the Open University, as he has recently completed an OU law degree.
Dr Sinead McEneaney has recently joined the OU as a Staff Tutor in History, so she is still a little wet behind the ears. She has spent most of her career teaching US history at universities in the UK and Ireland, particularly around the themes of gender, sexuality and protest. She is a member of the module teams for A225 The British Isles and the modern world, and A326 Empire. Her research focuses on women, protest and the sixties in the US, and she is currently writing about women’s autobiography and the civil rights movement. She has published on sex and sexuality in the counterculture of the 1960s. In her free time, she likes to play tennis and eat cheese, but rarely at the same time.
Siobhan is a Careers and Employability Consultant linked to the Schools of Psychology and Counselling and Social Sciences and Global Studies. Siobhan works with academics and others to develop careers resources and content in the curriculum, which includes podcasts, forums and webinars.
Sonia started as a production editor at the OU in June 2019, having previously worked as a scheduler at BBC Worldwide and VICE. She is slowly getting to grips with all the OU’s acronyms!
When not at work, she can usually be found under the floor of her mid-renovation Victorian terraced house or being a bit too competitive at a local pub quiz.
Soo has been working at the OU’s Disabled Students Services since 2013, and is now the Disability Support Adviser in the Disability Support Team, where she has been assisting students who have applied for Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) since May 2014.
Based in Chichester, West Sussex, Sophia is the OULS Vice-Chair. Sophia is currently studying full time for the LLB and hopes to graduate in 2018 although we will see if the workload next year makes her change her mind and go part time!
Previously a Taxation Officer in Winchester, Sophia now works for a firm of solicitors as well as volunteering for various charitable/non-profit organisations. She also does freelance consultancy work for law firms both in the UK and abroad, however she wouldn’t have the time to study if she pursued this full time. Work and study aside, she has a very active dog who keeps her very, very busy!
I’ve recently returned to The Open University and sit within the Widening Access and Success team with the aim of helping more people access higher education. I have been involved with Student Hub Live for a while now, normally sitting on the social media desk. I also study Mathematics and Statistics with the OU, and will be starting my Level 3 modules this year.
Sophie Watson is a professor in sociology. She is currently on the team producing the new module DD218. Her main research interests are in urban sociology, multiculturalism, public space, the cultures of water and street markets. She has written extensively on different aspects of cities. When she is not working Sophie enjoys playing tennis, walking, visiting other cities, art galleries and socialising with friends.
Dr. Stefanie Schneider is a Lecturer in Intercultural Communication in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Open University. She was awarded a PhD in Management and Busines and Applied Linguistics by Newcastle University in 2020, and has since studied the role of intercultural (communicative) competence in professional settings. She was a Research Associate for the Erasmus + funded project "Critical Skills for Life and Work: Developing the Professional Intercultural Communicative Competence of Highly-Skilled Refugees' and currently creates short courses on intercultural competences for a range of workplace settings for the Open Centre for Languages and Cultures.
Dr Stefanie Sinclair is the module team chair of AA100 The arts past and present and A332 Why is religion controversial? As a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, she has been involved in the production and presentation of a wide range of OU modules, and can also draw on 16 years of experience of working as an OU tutor in the North West of England. She has a special research interest in the relationship between religion and identity (gender and national identities in particular).
Stefanie is originally from Germany. She is married, with three children (a boy and twin girls) and a little white dog. In her free time she likes reading, doing arty-crafty things with her kids, walking the dog, dancing, watching films, and playing the violin and the piano.
Steph is a Staff Tutor in the School of Education, Childhood and Youth Studies (ECYS). She works predominantly within Sport & Fitness, with responsibility for the management and delivery of specific modules by providing academic leadership to Associate Lecturers. Steph is also an Associate Lecturer herself, tutoring on E117 and E314. Steph’s research interests focus on the sociology of sport – specifically athlete activism, media framing, and the social construction of athletes. Steph is also a Student Voice and Wellbeing Champion within ECYS. For more details, visit: https://www.open.ac.uk/research/people/sd24695
Steph is the student association’s Deputy President. She’s studying business and really enjoys it! She has found studying with the OU to be a life-changing experience and she is passionate about volunteering and bringing the OU student community together. She has founded a student society, in addition to taking on several other volunteer roles.
Stephanie Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology. She wrote about belonging in her 2010 book ‘Narratives of Identity and Place’ and she continues to research in related areas. She is also interested in belonging because of her own experience as a migrant to the UK.
Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski (AFHEA) is an associate lecturer in criminology with The Open University (OU), a regional manager for the OU’s Student’s in Secure Environments (SiSE) team, and a PhD candidate with a focus on higher education in prisons. Before going to university, Stephen, who left school at age 15 without achieving any formal qualifications went to prison. This is where he was introduced to The Open University.
During an 8-year period of incarceration, Stephen gained an undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees before embarking on a PhD programme in criminology following his release in 2010. Stephen currently works with over 60 prisons to facilitate OU study as a regional manager for The Open University’s Students in Secure Environments (SISE) team whilst tutoring 1st and 2nd year criminology students as an associate lecturer and conducting research in prisons as part of his doctoral degree.
Stephen originally studied chemical engineering and did a PhD in coal processing and, with great timing, finished just after the government decided to close down the UK coal industry. The need of a job close to his wife in London led him to join the scientific Civil Service where he spent several years developing processes for making fuels from wastes. This sparked his interest in waste and pollution and he ended up managing part of the Environment Agency’s waste research programme. During this time Stephen became an OU AL (telling his wife that it would stop him doing anything silly like becoming a full-time academic). Alas, he was unable to resist the lure of Walton Hall and, 20 years ago, became a lecturer in
Stephen joined the Open University in 2016 as Director of Research & Academic Strategy. The Research and Academic Strategy (RAS) Unit seeks to facilitate Academic Excellence at The Open University. It does this through providing strategic and support services across the University’s curriculum, research, enterprise and wider academic activities. The RAS Unit provides a number of student-facing services, in particular for postgraduate research students through the Graduate School and the Research Degrees Office.
You can find out more about RAS at intranet6.open.ac.uk/research-academic-strategy
Most of Stephen’s time outside of work is taken up by his three school-age children. He is a big cricket fan (and a cricketer with a declining degree of success), a keen cyclist and a long-suffering supporter of Middlesbrough Football Club.
Stephen is the Head of Classics at Redborne Upper School, having been one of the founding pair of teachers who introduced Latin GCSE for the first time in 2012. He subsequently introduced Classical Civilisation A level in 2015. As a non-specialist (originally a mechanical engineering graduate and then physics teacher), he has all the zeal of a convert for the importance of a Classical education and is a member of the ACE Advisory Board.
I’m Student Experience Manager for the undergraduate programme in the Business School. Essentially, I work with both the academics, producing material and Regional Managers and tutors who have responsibility for delivering/facilitating the students’ learning experience. In addition I also work as a tutor on module B100, so I’m very much in touch with what our students are going through!!
When I’m not OU-ing, I’m a big sports fan (and still do a fair bit of cycling), although I have to admit to being a Burnley fan (so currently enjoying the Premier League circus). Occasionally, the two worlds meet and I’m quite heavily involved in the OUs’ BA in Business Management (Sport and Football) which is a labour of love.
Stephen Harrison is Programme Lead for Childhood and Youth Studies (Undergraduate). Along with Mimi Tatlow-Golden he is also co-Module Team Chair for E102 Introduction to Childhood Studies and Child Psychology.
Stephen has been engaged in work with young people in a wide range of contexts and settings including youth work, play work and drug education.
His current research explores digital practices and identities amongst primary school children, and he is a member of the NP3 research team.
Dr Stephen Leverett is a Lecturer in the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care with extensive experience of module production and chairing modules in presentation. He has a professional practice background in social work with young people and a is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Stephen has also studied part time for an MA and EdD whilst working full time. He undertook a research project with colleagues investigating the perceptions of graduates on an OU undergraduate programme identifying factors that contributed to students being able to continue for the duration of their distance learning studies and complete their degree.
Stephen Peake joined the OU in 2000 and has spent many years thinking about climate change, energy security and sustainability in general, and lately, has been experimenting with balancing the thinking bit with other ways of knowing around climate change – such as exploring feelings and emotions. As well as a teacher he is now an artist, performer, activist, and coach. The Open University is an awe-inspiring community of exquisite eccentricity and he revels in playing his part in it.
Professor Steve Tombs is Head of the Department of Social Policy and Criminology at The Open University. He has a long-standing research interest in corporate crime and harm, and the relationship of this to state actors (both local and national). He has recently argued, in relation to the Grenfell disaster, that the law rarely holds powerful individuals to account.
Sue Asbee is a Senior Lecturer in English, and currently the Chair of A230 Reading and Studying Literature, writing a chapter on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for this module. She edited the Twentieth Century book on this module and wrote a chapter on the American poets of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes and Claude McKay. Elsewhere, she wrote about Virginia Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts, and on the Victorian poet Arthur Hugh Clough for A335 Literature 1800 – Present Day.
Sue Callan is an Associate Lecturer with the Open University, who occasionally works as a consultant author on modules in Early Years and Primary Degree pathways. Sue joined the Open University in 2008 and currently teaches across BA Honours programmes in Early Years, Primary, and Childhood and Youth Studies. From a professional heritage of community-based education and pre-school provision, Sue has worked in further and higher education for nearly thirty years, supporting students in vocational, access, undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
In addition to contributing to design, writing and development of Foundation Degree programmes for a number of universities, she is an experienced author for SAGE: editing and contributing to publications on reflective practice, work-based research, mentoring, play, and management in the early years.
Sue has taught with the Open University for 15 years, on most of the undergraduate and, more recently, the new postgraduate modules in psychology. She has taught the three core modules DE100, DE200 and DE300 since their first presentations and has supervised students for both quantitative and qualitative projects for DE300 and previously on DD307 (Social Psychology) and DD303 (Cognitive Psychology). Sue has also looked after DD210 and DE200 cluster-wide forums, and despite being the moderator for the quantitative methods forum for DE200, is actually a qualitative researcher with a particular interest in phenomenology, critical discourse analysis and the dialogical approach. Sue has recently taken up a Staff Tutor role in FASS.
Sue has worked at the OU for nearly 18 years, firstly as a secretarial supervisor in the Faculty of Arts and going through various changes of role until taking on her current role of manager, student experience & nations in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. She enjoys this very much as it is mainly focused on students, including running the student awards scheme, and making sure any complaints that come into the faculty are dealt with by the correct people and in a timely manner.
Dr Sukaina Haider (known as Suki) works for the Open University (OU) on projects that involve students in EDI. For several years she has facilitated student-staff partnership projects to increase the belonging of traditionally marginalised groups. These have drawn on innovation and best practice in the sector by providing student partners with safe and empowering spaces to share their perspectives.
At the OU, Suki enables staff to recognise the educational value of the student voice to the production of inclusive curricula, by facilitating dynamic conversations between staff and their student partners. She also designs EDI training for the OU’s associate lecturers. She uses her experience as a first-generation graduate, racially-minoritised woman, and as a carer, to highlight barriers that limit inclusion. Her research interest is in decolonising histories of African enslavement.
Susan Newman is Professor and Head of Economics at the Open University. She has previously held positions at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She has published research in a wide range of areas including: Finance and Industrial development, Agricultural commodity chains, and the political economy of breastmilk. In her research and teaching, Susan critically engages with mainstream economic approaches and draws from various traditions in political economy as well as from across the social sciences.
Susan took up the post of Director of The Open University in Scotland in December 2015. Raised in Renfrew, Susan is a graduate of St Andrews University and Smith College, Massachusetts. She has previously held senior roles in higher education and government and was Scotland’s first diplomat to the United States. She is a passionate advocate for widening access to higher education and ensuring that the Open University’s aim of promoting social justice through access to knowledge remains relevant today.
Dr Susie West is most interested in the English country house, its contents and landscapes, and particularly how the English country house was designed and used from 1600-1830. As an architectural historian, she investigates the relationship between buildings as design objects and as spaces for living. Her specialism is the library room within the country house, and the relationship of collections of books to the emergence of specially-designed rooms to house them, particularly from 1660. Penshurst Place, Kent, is the ancestral home of Sir Philip Sidney and his relations who contributed to the English literary Renaissance: Susie West has worked on the the great house, its rooms full of books, and the creative circle of writers inspired by their environment. She is currently researching Sir Philip Sidney’s niece, Lady Mary Wroth, who is well known as an author but may also have been the architect of her own house.
Suz is a qualified solicitor, but stopped practising when she became a Student Experience Manager at the OU in September 2021. She has worked in the legal profession for over 20 years and has been delivering OU law modules for about 8 years.
Suz has had various jobs (some paid, some voluntary) which have all provided her with valuable skills. She has worked as a cleaner, a packer in a factory, a waitress, an assistant in a school for children with disabilities, has run a community group for children and young adults with various disabilities, seen and unseen, a volunteer carer in a hospice, and as a teaching assistant, and then lead subject teacher in a Secondary School.
Suz is also currently a student with the OU studying an academic professional qualification, and has previously attended courses with other providers on hat making and creating jewellery.
Suzanne Forbes is a Senior Lecturer in History. Her research focusses on print and political culture in the eighteenth-century. She is also interested in digital research methods and is currently involved in a project creating a digital map of army barracks that operated in Ireland between 1690-1921. She has contributed teaching materials to A111 Discovering the arts & humanities, A225 The British Isles and the modern world, 1789-1914 and A883/A884 the new MA History part 1 and part 2.
Suzanne Newcombe is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University and the Honorary Director of Inform, an educational charity based at King's College London which researchers and provides information on new and minority religions. Her most recent publications include the Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies (2021) and Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis (Equinox, 2019).
Suzy studied at the OU for the first time in 2002, then had to put her studies on the back burner to raise her 2 daughters. Suzy returned to her studies once her daughters were older and began to forge their own paths in life.
She has worked with animals for many years - showing dogs, through to animal welfare. She has always had animals from snakes (as now) and used to foster horses, chickens etc. Suzy also enjoys art and crafts and loves music.
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