SLD Intros: Stuart Purcell

Tell us a bit about you and your background!

Hello. I’m Stuart and I’m the Effective Learning Adviser for the College of Arts within Student Learning Development (The Artist Formerly Known As LEADS). I joined SLD back in the halcyon days of late 2018, when ‘pandemics’ were merely the subject of speculative fiction, after studying at and working in various roles across the University since 2012.

I completed both my undergraduate degrees (Business Law and Marketing, and English Literature) somewhat contentiously at University of Strathclyde before shifting to Glasgow for my postgraduate study, where I continued to focus on Literature. I finally completed my PhD in 2022 (I would highly recommend not trying to finish a PhD while working full-time or during a pandemic, both of which I attempted to do simultaneously) which examined contemporary literary practice in print and digital forms, focusing on a group of novelists who’d used Twitter as a means of extending aspects of their print-published novels. While this was a particularly challenging interdisciplinary topic, combing literary studies with media studies, it took me to conferences and on research trips to Toronto, New York, and Berlin, and even as far away as Edinburgh.

While I’m still interested in how writers are exploring and engaging with both print and digital media in the contemporary cultural context, my research interests have also shifted in line with my current role and I’m increasingly interested in notions of ‘criticality’ and what we mean by ‘theory’ in academic settings, and how these can be taught to students.

What is your job and what does it involve?

As the Effective Learning Adviser for the College of Arts I’m often found teaching in subjects across the entire College, at both undergraduate and postgraduate taught level. So if you’re a student in the College of Arts, it’s likely you’ll have been taught by me at some point. Along with my College of Social Science counterpart here in SLD, I also teach our open classes. These are our classes that focus on all elements of essay and dissertation writing and research that I’ve probably emailed you about at various points through the academic year, and which I’d obviously recommend checking out if you haven’t already.

Outside of my main teaching, I’m also usually found thinking and working on new classes we’re going to teach, currently including developing a credit-bearing course focusing on understanding and using critical theory in an academic context (‘Theory for the Terrified’!) and working with our Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) to create a series of short, optional courses that’ll run later in semester and during the summer.

I’m also on the organisation team for our (excellent) undergraduate research conference, Let’s Talk About [X], and I help deliver our pre-sessional Transition to Glasgow (T2G) course for incoming undergraduates.

And when I’m not doing all of those things, I’m typically working on various other projects and bits and pieces, both within SLD and across the College.

What are your favourite aspects of your job and your biggest passion project?

Honestly, probably teaching. I really enjoy getting to teach students from such a wide variety of subjects and backgrounds across the College and learning a (little) bit about what they do. The variety my job affords me in what I do is definitely one of my favourite things.

In terms of passion projects, I’ve recently been working on a resource that describes a ‘critical research process’ that is designed to (hopefully) help students understand how to carry out research and engage with secondary sources in a more critical way. It’s currently a relatively small-scale project for a specific subject but I hope this’ll be something we can eventually share across the College.

Outwith work, what are your favourite things to do?

There’s an outside of work?!

More seriously, though (but only slightly) I enjoy getting out on the bike, going for a run, or walking up the odd hill when time allows. But you’ll also often find me being less active and loitering in the GFT foyer, standing at the back at various gig venues (trying to be a magnanimous tall person), or just perusing Mubi’s extensive list of films and/or listening to records in the flat. And whether I’m in work or not, you’ll always find me making deep-cut Simpsons references.

Before you go, what’s your one tip for succeeding in study/university/research/the workplace?

Something else that I always try to do, whether while studying or working or even just in my personal life, is looking for opportunities to work with and learn from others. If it weren’t for asking someone to work with me on a specific project, I wouldn’t ever have been able to build my own website when I was a PhD student or even build my own bike (a bike that, many years later, I still regularly use to get around town!). You’ll find that most people are ready and willing to help you if you want to learn from them, but it’s very much on you to ask them. I learned this far later than I should, so please learn from my mistakes.

Written by Dr Stuart Purcell, ELA for the College of Arts