- MAP Role: Post Doctorate Research Associate
- Institution: University of Lincoln
- Position: Post Doctoral Research Associate
- Location: U.K. University of Lincoln
- Web profile: https://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/8b65fe25-6354-476d-84da-771204ccce72
Sarah has over 20 years experience as a social development specialist in International Development focused on youth and children. This has involved working in a spectrum of thematic areas, including: participatory approaches, non formal education, governance and accountability, safeguarding, gender/inclusion, youth livelihoods, post conflict transitions, arts and play. She has been privileged to work in a range of places, with a variety of people – from trafficked children in Kathmandu care homes to policy maker panels at the OECD in Paris.
She is driven by creating and facilitating opportunities for young people to have a meaningful role in shaping their own futures, and understands that as an adult researcher and co-learner, there can be many challenges and contradictions in this.
Her work around the world has always encountered highly contested narratives and approaches relating to ‘creativity’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘participation’. After completing her PhD, an embodied ethnographic study examining how ‘fun’ contributes to learning processes directed towards self and community social change. she joined the Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) project at the University of Lincoln in January 2023. Part of her role has been to develop the policy influencing strategy and approaches, including developing a strand of work on Culture and Arts Education in partnership with UNESCO.
Research interests
Her research interests are interdisciplinary and draw predominantly upon education, the arts, social anthropology and human geography. She is particularly interested to explore how alternative approaches to education, including indigenous participatory arts approaches can chnage education policy and practice, both in schools and beyond.
Her methodology draws from interpretivist ethnographic foundations, focusing on creative and engaged practices. She is particularly interested in understanding how the wider senses can be used as a research tool.
Impact and engagement
A selection of blogs and presentations:
Huxley, S (2022). Listen Up! Reflections on being a research participant as part of an online ethnography. Podcast posted on the OU Graduate School’s website 11 March 2022. Accessible from: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/listen-up-reflections-on-being-aresearch/id1541300446?i=1000553692354
Huxley, S (2021). More than ‘out there’: re-figuring presence during online video conferencing learning experiences. Blog posted on the OU Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG) website 22 November 2021. Accessed from: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/CALRG/?p=1268
Dowdeswell, E. & Huxley, S. (2021). Moments of reconnection with/in digital presentation: an exploration of found poetry. Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Conference (EQRC), June 14-15th 2021, University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Original blog posted on the OU Rumpus site, 6 April 2021 accessible here: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/rumpus/index.php/2021/04/06/chop-chop-cut-cut-moments-of-reconnection-with-in-digital-presentation/
Huxley, S. (2020). One (dis)placed ethnographer’s movements during the pandemic: Is the on-line world a lesser ethnographic world? Blog posted on Ethnography.com 14 December 2020. Accessed from: http://www.ethnography.com/2020/12/one-dis-placed-ethnographers-movements-during-the-pandemic-is-the-on-line-world-a-lesser-ethnographic-world/
Huxley, S. (2020) Shifting to Online ethnography: using a river flow diagram to explain the experience. Presentation and contributions at the online workshop 19 November 2020 on Online ethnography. This was part of the National Centre for Research Methods Changing Research Practices: Undertaking social research in the context of Covid-19 project. See: http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/4397/1/NCRM%20Changing%20Research%20Practices_MAIN%20REPORT.pdf
Huxley, S. (2020). In celebration of sensory methods and movement. Blog posted on the OU Rumpus website 11 August 2020. Accessed from: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/rumpus/index.php/2020/08/11/in-celebration-of-sensory-methods-and-movement/
Huxley, S. (2020). Fun: Is it fundamental to ‘education outside the classroom’? Blog posted on Coaches Across Continents website 7 February 2020. Accessed from: https://coachesacrosscontinents.org/tag/sarah-huxley/
External collaborations
Associate at the Centre for the Study of Global Development.
Member of the OU Future Societal Challenges Group.
Member of RUMPUS.
