Dr Laura Mazzoli Smith
| Biography | I joined the School of Education at Durham University in 2018. Prior to this I was Senior Research Fellow in the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth at the University of Warwick, where I completed my PhD and Research Excellence Academy Fellow in the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University. I have worked on a range of projects funded by the ESRC, EPSRC, EIT Health, NIHR, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and the Nuffield Foundation and carried out research consultancy for organisations including Nord Anglia Education Ltd, Erasumus University and the Bridge Group. Drawing on my multi-disciplinary background (anthropology, literary studies, sociology) my work primarily focuses on educational identities and progression across the life course, with an anti-reductionist stance. My research has moved from primarily being situated in the sociology of education and concerned with questions of social justice to educational questions more broadly construed and which intersect with issues around health and wellbeing. I am concerned to foster interdiscipinary dialogue and intergrated theorising across domains and approaches, important in linking social, philosophical and policy concerns. My work now tends to bridge education and health, in particular public health and I am a member of Fuse, one of the UK Public Health Research Centres of Excellence. I have a particular methodological interest in narrative and auto/biographical approaches and narrative pedagogy and I am co-lead of the Narrative Practices Lab, within the Discovery Researh Platform for Medical Humanities. I created the NCL+ Advanced Award in Digital Storytelling at Newcastle University and I contribute to Digital Storytelling Durham. I also draw on therapeutic theory and practice in my work, holding an Institute of Group Analysis Diploma in Groupwork Practice and I am interested in research on group dynamics. I am motivated to develop real-world appliations of research to foster inclusive learning opportunities across the lifecourse. To this end I was part of a European EIT Health funded consortium that developed narrative-based learning platform for healthcare practitioners: Caring Stories and an EPSRC-funded team that developed Quantum Odyssey: Quarks Interactive. I am currently Co-I on an SPHR NIHR funded project Developing a Best Practice Framework for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, led by Bristol Medical School. |
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| Research Interests | Diversity and inclusion in education and learning Intersections of education, mental health and well-being Life history and auto/biographical methods Narrative pedagogy and narrative inquiry |
| Teaching and Learning | I convene the following modules: EDUC47510 Narrative Inquiry - Methodology and Methods (PGT) EDUC2421 Learning Lives (UG) I teach on the following modules: EDUC3401 Education, Mental Health and Wellbeing (UG) ARTS40230 Reimagining Health Research: Methodologies in the Critical Medical Humanities (PGT) |