I am an accidental educator.

I wanted to be a copywriter but while studying for my first master’s degree in Applied Linguistics, a mandatory microteaching session made me realise that teaching was my true calling.

Once the Internet became a staple in every classroom, I eagerly traded in my OHP and VHS tapes for digital tools and pursued a second master’s degree in Educational Technology and ELT.

A few years later, as blogging became a vibrant space for educational reflection and student writing, my search for teaching inspiration unexpectedly led me to an online community of religious feminist women who were using blogs and Facebook pages as informal yet powerful spaces to explore the intersection of their faith and feminism.

Drawn to this vibrant community of bloggers, I pursued an interdisciplinary PhD to examine how feminists with religious affiliations use social media to create subaltern knowledge and advance informal learning while challenging power structures in digital spaces.

I have been an educator in higher education since 1997 and have been fortunate to work and learn from many people and cultures. Having joined the School of Education at the University of Glasgow in February 2022, I am now a Lecturer (associate professor) in Educational Studies and am associated with the School's Education for Equity, Inclusion & Community (EEIC) Research and Teaching Group (RTG).

I am also the course convenor for Education, Race, Racism and Social Justice in a Global Society (EDUC51072) and the School's International Regional Champion for the Middle East.  

I specialise in qualitative research, with expertise in the Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) methodology.

My primary research interest is in how gender and culture shape academic spaces and academic identities. I am also interested in exploring the role of AI and social media in higher education, examining both their opportunities and challenges, particularly in relation to gender equality.

If you are interested in research in any of the areas mentioned above, I welcome opportunities to supervise MPhil, PhD and EdD projects related to these themes.

Following are some participatory research projects that I am working on/have completed with student partners:

1. The first research project, partially funded by the John Robertson Bequest 2026 grant, investigates how international postgraduate students enrolled in the School of Education’s largest programme utilise AI translation tools in live EMI teaching sessions and examines the impact of these tools on students’ comprehension, engagement, and confidence. We are currently in the writing stage for this project.  
2. In the second research project (for which we were successful in securing a grant from the University's L&T Strategy Student Staff Partnership Scheme), we looked at ways to internationalise an introduction to research course for a multicultural student body. This project is now complete and you can read more about it here. We also created a Toolkit for this project (using an example-based approach) which is published here.    
3. The third student-partnership project is in progress and looks at how English-speaking students (home and international) experience group work in seminar settings with students who speak English as a foreign language. We want to understand how insights from these experiences can inform more inclusive and effective seminar practices in internationalised classrooms.

List by: Type | Date

•  University of Glasgow's L&T Strategy Student Staff Partnership Scheme (Decolonising the Curriculum) - 2025.
•  John Robertson Bequest - 2026

I welcome PhD proposals that align with my research interests (please see the Research Interests section for my research interests and expertise).

If you are interested in studying with me, please email me the following: 

1. Research proposal of approximately 1,500 words, excluding references (see here for guidance).

2. Recent CV.

3. Any books, articles, chapters, or reports you have published already.

4. A 300-word description of how your research experiences/interests align with my research and why you are interested in pursuing a PhD with me.

5. Please also indicate how you plan to fund your PhD. 

Current doctoral supervision project:

• Judith Gorham (Co-supervising with Prof Barbara Read) - English for Academic Purposes: analysing BALEAP institutional accreditation.
• Tuana B. Akdemir (Co-supervising with Prof Anna Wilson) - Training Beyond Graduation: The Strategic Role of Corporate Academies in Reconfiguration of New Graduates and the Construction of Professional Identity.
• Ameera Al Saidi (Co-supervising with Dr Katarzyna Borkowska) - Gender and Cultural Identity in Teacher Education: Experiences of Omani Female English Teachers Abroad.
• Hissa AL-Rumaih ((Co-supervising with Dr Helen Burns) - Before the Classroom: Recovering a History of Women’s Education in Kuwait, c. 1900–1970.

• Gorham, Judith
  Discourses of power within English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in higher education: BALEAP accreditation

1. AI in Education programme (current)

• AI, Creativity and Cultural Education

2. Educational Studies programme (current)

• Education, Race, Racism and Social Justice in a Global Society (EDUC51072) - Course convenor

• Introduction to Educational and Social Research (EDUC5410)

• Modern Educational Thought (EDUC5156)

• Dissertation for MSc/MEd in Education Studies (EDUC5142P)

• Seminars in Contemporary Issues (EDUC5285)

3. TESOL programme (2022-2024)

• Dissertation for MSc/MEd in TESOL (EDUC5900P)

• Descriptions of Language and Applications to the Classroom (EDUC5847)

Selected international presentations

• 2026: IUT 2026 (Glasgow, Scotland)
• 2026: ECER 2026 (Tampere, Finland)
• 2025: The European Conference on Education (London, England)
• 2025: European Conference on Educational Research (Belgrade, Serbia)
• 2025: Scottish Educational Research Association (Aberdeen, Scotland)
• 2020: Gender & Women's Studies (Singapore, Singapore)
• 2015: TESOL Arabia (Dubai, UAE)
• 2005: TESOL Arabia ESP SIG Conference (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
• 2003: EgypTesol Fourth annual convention (Cairo, Egypt)
• 2003: 1st Asia TEFL conference (Busan, South Korea)
• 2000: LSP 2000 Seminar (Johor, Malaysia)

SCHOLARSHIP AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

- International Regional Champion (Middle East) for the School of Education, University of Glasgow (2025-date)

- Associate Ethics Reviewer & member of the CoSS Ethics Committee, College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow (2025-date)

- Associate Editor & member of the editorial board - Cogent Education (Adult and Continuing Education)

- Member of International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) (2024-date)

- Member of Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) (2025-date) 

- Reviewer, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (JLDHE) (2024-date)

- Reviewer, Scottish Education Review (2025)

- Senior Reviewer, The European Conference on Education 2025 (2025) 

- Reviewer, ALDinHE Research Funding Application (2025)

-  Academic support on the LINEs for Palestine-University of Glasgow project, a British council funded programme that offers academic support for professional development to English language teachers living in Gaza (2024-2025)

RESEARCH NETWORKS

• British Academy Early Career Researcher Network 
• Decolonising the Curriculum Community of Practice (University of Glasgow)
• Gender & Sexualities Interdisciplinary Network (University of Glasgow)

TEACHING CERTIFICATES

- Recognising Excellence in Teaching (2026), University of Glasgow, UK.

- Higher Education Teaching Certificate (2020), Derek Bok Center, Harvard University, US.

- New to Digital Teaching Certificate (2020), Advanced Higher Education, UK.

- Certificate of Overseas Teachers of English (1998-1999), Royal Society of Arts (RSA), University of Cambridge, UK.

TEACHING AWARD

- Recipient of the Zayed Award for Excellence in Teaching from Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, UAE (2006).