Mollie Baker mlb60@cam.ac.uk
United Kingdom
Faculty of Education, Newnham College
PhD thesis: Testing the limits of imagination: What is and what could be for the structure of UK HE
Research interests
1. UK Higher Education
2. Social inequality
3. Creative methods
4. Poststructural feminism
My PhD is a multipronged project that seeks to challenge the status quo in Higher Education (HE) and HE research. By employing a combination of visual and written creative methods, the project explores how students from differently positioned universities regard the legitimacy of formal and informal university hierarchies, as well as the inequalities which arise from these structures, and how, if at all, the competitive structures of HE could, or should, change to become more socially just. My PhD thus provides insight on the limits of employing widening participation and access efforts in a highly stratified and competitive university system and, more broadly, how privilege and governmentality can curtail imagination and social change.
Who or what inspired you to pursue your research interests?