Jess has been working and studying in higher education for nearly twenty years. In 2022 she joined Loughborough University as a full-time Doctoral Researcher, exploring ‘knowledge, care, and emotions, in UK Higher Education EDI work’.
She completed a qualifying Law degree from the University of Oxford in 2006, and later an interdisciplinary Masters in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture through part-time evening study at Birkbeck, University of London, in 2016. Her dissertation focussed on the relationship between British women writers’ access to classical education, and the formation of lesbian identities in the fin de siécle.
Jess is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy with a strong interest in bridging research, policy, and practice to build a more equitable higher education system. Her career began in professional services roles at a number of universities, before moving to policy, research, advice, and education at sector level as a Senior Adviser for a national HE membership body. In the latter role she worked with a range of national and international organisations (including HE regulators, funding agencies, learned societies, professional membership bodies, and charities) to tackle structural inequalities in both staff and student experiences.
Jess is an experienced educator of HE staff, and maintains an interest in issues of equity in learning and teaching, particularly in ‘inclusive’ pedagogies, assessment, curriculum, and student partnership and co-production.
Knowledge, care and emotions in UK Higher Education EDI work
PGR Supervisors: Prof Line Nyhagen, Dr Sarah Barnard and Dr Daniel Sage
Jess is researching ‘knowledge, care, and emotions in UK Higher Education EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) work’ through a sociological lens, using qualitative methods (including ethnography).
She aims to investigate the experiences, emotions, and knowledges of ‘diversity workers’ (Ahmed, 2012) within university structures, particularly with reference to an ‘ethics of care’ (Tronto, 2013). While doing so, she remains mindful of the problematization of the term and identity of “EDI” in current HE practice and scholarship.
Her doctoral studies are supervised by Prof Line Nyhagen, Dr Sarah Barnard, and Dr Daniel Sage, and conducted within a community of Doctoral Researchers in Loughborough’s "CITHEI" Centre for Doctoral Training which centre around "Academic Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers to Participation and Inclusion of Cultural Diversity and Intersecting Identities in Higher Education".
Previously Jess has contributed to varied institutional and sector research into topics such as: EDI interventions in the international research and innovation landscape; inclusive assessment practices; and evaluation of academic development programmes.
(Sample):
Baughan, P., Carless, D., & Moody, J. (2020). Re-considering assessment and feedback practices in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. In P. Baughan (Ed.), On Your Marks: Learner-focused Feedback Practices and Feedback Literacy (pp. 179–191). Advance HE. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/your-marks-learner-focused-feedback-practices-and-feedback-literacy
Moody, J., Baughan, P., & Borkin, H. (2021). Equality, diversity and inclusion in the assessment of Law: Reflections from a collaborative project. In P. Baughan (Ed.), Assessment and Feedback in a Post-Pandemic Era: A Time for Learning and Inclusion. Advance HE. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/assessment-and-feedback-post-pandemic-era-time-learning-and-inclusion
Turner, I., Norton, S., & Moody, J. (2020). #52etc – a toolkit for student engagement. Advance HE. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/52etc