Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
On BA Illustration, a course within the School of Arts at Leeds Beckett University, we* tend to take a lot of photos. As a reactive course, this helps us to keep track of where we’re at: what we’ve done, what worked, what didn’t and what we might do next. One of these photographs is from the end of term, depicting a Christmas celebration held in the illustration studio. On first impressions, it might look an ordinary scene, but to us it’s an important example of ‘impact’. The picture shows a small group of students (and staff) from different years and courses dancing together – in the daytime. By conventional academic criteria, this evidence wouldn’t feature in the REF, nor would it be used to secure significant research funding, but – to us – it’s what teaching in an art school is all about: communities, connections, relationships, and wellbeing (among other things). This sense of ‘success’ is felt even more acutely when we consider the pressures that we are under as educators to perform and achieve, all of which is an expectation placed on top of teaching responsibilities. In this panel we will respond to the conference theme of rethinking academic impact, discussing the challenges – and hopes – for the contemporary art school.
Dr Benjamin Hall is a Senior Lecturer in Illustration at Leeds Beckett University. In his research, Hall utilises creative practice to instigate opportunities that explore alternative pedagogies and community. Through playful and participatory workshops, he draws upon collaborative storytelling methods such as animation, experimental writing and interactive fiction that enable the open exploration, expression and articulation of lived experience. With a background in broadcast animation and digital narratives, Hall has had his work screened and exhibited across platforms worldwide.
Dr Jo Hassall is a Senior Lecturer in Illustration at Leeds Beckett University. Her practice-based research explores ways in which visual props can activate sites of learning. Hassall has an established background in illustration and collage processes, and she extends these methods within an educational context to explore and illuminate processes of study.
Dr Ian Truelove is Research and Innovation Coordinator for University of the Arts London Online, which has been established to build large-scale fully online art and design courses. In this role, Truelove draws on his 25+ years of experience as a lecturer, researcher, course leader and external examiner. His academic research interrogates the intersections of technology, psychology, philosophy, creativity and learning. In his artistic practice, he explores what it means to be a human artist in an age that is increasingly dominated by the terrifying wonder and hype of artificial intelligence.
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Wednesday 19th November, 2025