I joined the English Department in 1990. Since then, I have contributed to an exciting range of modules, work which has taken me from the fulsome Victorian novels of Hardy, Eliot and the Brontes to the lean postmodern thrillers of Auster and Ackroyd. I've explored the Gothic creations of Edgar Allan Poe and the 'new' Gothic' of writers like Patrick McGrath, Ian McEwan and A.M. Homes. I enjoy the Modernist experiments of Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence, as well as the flamboyance and craft of writers like Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson. I am also keenly interested in 21st-century fiction and its developments.

I now teach and supervise primarily on the creative writing programme (BA to PhD) within English.  It's a programme of which I am proud to be a part. At Chichester, we have been running creative writing modules at the BA level for almost thirty years, and have, in the process, established a strong reputation in the area, as well as a genuine community of writers.

I am also one of the team of writers who deliver Chichester 's MA in Creative Writing, co-teaching the module, 'Metaphor & the Imagination'. Over the years, the commendations of our students and examiners have been important to our team. It is also gratifying to see many of our students going on to publish work that has been conceived and honed in our MA seminars and workshops.

RESEARCH SUPERVISION: I welcome queries from potential Ph.D. students. My research specialisms include the short story, contemporary fiction, 'history into fiction', post-modern and millennial fiction, 'science and fiction', the fantastic, the carnivalesque (via Bakhtin), modern Gothic, 'the uncanny', and theories of the creative process.

For more information go to: Alison MacLeod

Also See: http://blogs.chi.ac.uk/shortstoryforum

Dr Marcus Smith admits he’s ‘living the dream’ held since he was a 15-year-old boy. How else could you describe working with one of the music world’s most celebrated artists from one of the biggest bands ever?

Clem Burke is the drummer with Blondie, fronted by iconic singer Debbie Harry. His work with Dr Smith is helping promote the physical and emotional benefits drumming can bring.

“There are many proven benefits to people’s health and well-being through drumming,” said Dr Smith. “Children might not think it cool to go for a swim, but picking up a pair of drum sticks? There can be few things cooler.”

His partnership with Clem Burke began when, as a fan with a PhD behind him, he wrote to the Blondie man asking him about the physical demands of performing so intensely for such a long time.

“We met in the late 90s at Wembley, as the band’s popularity was on the rise again,” explained Dr Smith. “We built up a rapport, developed some studies of Clem’s drumming and it’s gone from there. Now I can stand four feet behind him at a concert as he plays to 10,000 people. It’s real Jim’ll Fix It stuff!”

International music therapists have been in touch, wanting to collaborate, as have outreach projects nearer home wanting his help and music departments from other universities.

For more information go to: Dr Marcus Smith

Also See: www.clemburkedrummingproject.com

Alison Clark-Wilson is the Head of Research, Development and Consultancy at The Mathematics Centre, where the number of practising teachers and mathematics education professionals currently engaged with the Centre has grown significantly since her tenure began. Her principal aim is to challenge all those who work with her to reflect deeply on bridging the gap between teaching and learning in mathematics and develop more research informed approaches. Alison is focused on continuing to widen the Centre’s capacity to provide bespoke opportunities within local authorities and schools to engage in sustained professional development in response to identified needs.

Her recognition of the importance of high standards in professional development has led her to take up the position of Chair of the Mathematical Association’s Professional Development Committee and she is actively involved in the work of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics as a member of its Research Advisory Group.

Alison has received international recognition for her evaluative research on hand-held technology and her text for primary and secondary teachers, consultants and advisers, Exciting ICT in Maths (Network Continuum 2005), has sold in the UK and internationally with a second edition due for publication in late 2009. She played a major role in the development of the educational software The Mathematical Toolkit (Intel IT Innovations 2004), which is currently available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Thai and Swedish and is soon to be developed in additional languages including Portuguese and Chinese. It is pre-installed on laptop computers distributed through the Intel World Ahead programme and is also freely available to both teachers and learners through national grids for e-learning in England, Ireland, Spain, Zambia and Nigeria.

Julia Potter has been researching at the University for a number of years having completed her PhD here in 1998, before returning to her current post in Physical Education in 2000. Julia’s research interests are in the relationships between lifestyle, activity and health, and much of her research work has focused on factors related to childhood obesity in both clinical and education settings. This began in 2001 when St Richard’s hospital teamed up with Physical Education at Chichester to generate and run a Childhood obesity intervention programme; this was ahead of its time for secondary care and exercise science. Since then there has been a plethora of studies and interventions but those early insights enabled Julia to make applications for industry research grants. Julia was the first Brit to be awarded the international Tanita, ‘Healthy Weight Community Trust Grant’ and so far the only person to have been awarded it twice. These grants financed child health work in local secondary schools which informed practice at a local and county council level and was used by the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt in the Houses of Parliament as an example of good practice, of community projects aimed at improving child health. This and other childhood obesity research carried out by Julia and colleagues was nominated for, and won an international scientific award at the European Congress on Obesity in 2008.

This work in childhood obesity has led to consultancy work for Kellogg’s Health and Well-Being Trust and invitations to speak at National and International conferences for a range of professions.

Julia is currently hoping to get projects off the ground with colleagues working at Great Ormond Street and Surrey and Sussex medical school and schools aiming to pull together a range of the factors that impact on child health.

For more information go to: Dr Julia Potter

Yael is artistic director of mapdance, the University's postgraduate touring dance company. As choreographer in residence at The Place Theatre and artistic director of Bedlam Dance Company, Israeli born Yael Flexer, has to date created 8 full-length dance productions for her company, touring extensively throughout the UK and internationally. In 1997 she received The Jerwood Award for Choreographers.

Yael has recently joined forces with Digital Artist Nic Sandiland re-forming Bedlam as Yael Flexer, Nic Sandiland Dance & Digital Works reflecting the company’s growing body of digital works. Yael is currently Associate Artist with Woking Dance Festival and the company is resident at University of Chichester. Commissions include: South Bank Centre, Sadler’s Wells, Scottish Dance Theatre, Ludus, E-Werk Tanz Festival and 4D (edge).

Yael’s research is concerned with generating a sense of intimacy in live performance and interactive installation through the reconfiguration of theatrical space. It brings to the fore a fluid definition of audience as viewer, witness or participant and aims to both reaffirm and critically examine embodied perceptual experience as a route to intimacy.

For more information go to: Yael Flexer