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Teaching

Teaching the Gender and Social Research unit

Approach

I am a lecturer in sociology and criminology at the University of Gloucestershire. My approach is holistic, offering pastoral support and signposting to ensure that students are best able to engage with their learning. 

In line with my PhD research on online news, I have an interest in technology. I previously created websites with additional resources for both the units on which I taught regularly (Political Concepts and Approaches).  These contain blogs, Youtube lectures, news articles, and more to provide students with different means of learning. In recognition of the fact that teaching is more than just content, these websites also have a dedicated page each for study skills (argument construction, writing) and numerous links to support mental health wellness, because healthy, happy students find it easier to learn. Whilst I am now at a different institution, these websites remain active in case they can be of use to anyone.

The best way to navigate the impact of COVID19 upon our teaching is to pool our resources and share our knowledge. To this end, my working paper has been included on the Political Studies Association website: Jester, N. (2020) 'Using the Internet to Teach Politics', published on the PSA website. I also ran a PSA webinar on 10 June titled 'Replacement or Supplement: Asynchronous Teaching, Accessibility and Methods'. You can watch this on the PSA website. 

Experience

I was nominated for the 2014/15, 2017/18 and 2019/20 University of Bristol Teaching Awards, and was the hourly-paid teacher representative in my department in 2015/16. In 2021, I was invited to give a keynote for the University of Highlands and Islands for International Women's day. In this talk, I drew upon my research to discuss the need for balanced and feminist curricula; you can watch this here.

I accept PhD enquiries and am currently supervising Mwai Daka (examining the relationship between democracy and internet shutdowns in Africa) and Berna Kilic (focusing on gender based violence and militarisation in Kurdish women's lives). 

At present, I am module leader for:

I also teach or have taught some classes on the following modules, speaking to various elements of my research interests: Historical Dynamics in Global Politics (NS4341); Introduction to International Relations (NS4340); Global Challenges (NS4404); Visual Culture and the Information Society (NS6402); Politics, Risk and Change in a Global Age (NS6407); Examining Foreign Policy (NS5341); Social Identities (NS4402).

As part of the NS6001 module, I occasionally accept interns. My student Lauren Davies wrote this blog post based on the work she did in this placement: The Stigma Behind Mental Health in the British Army.

I have previously taught (University of Bristol, unless otherwise specified):

  • Sustainable Development (UNIV10001), first-year, 2019-2020 
  • Political Concepts (POLI11101), first-year, 2014/15 - 2020
  • I was the first assessment marker for Dr Emma Brännlund's third-year Theories and Practices of Securitisation unit (UZQNJN-30-3) at the University of the West of England in 2017-2018
  • Approaches to the Study of Political Science (POLI11104), first-year, 2013/14 - 2015/16
  • Feminisms and International Relations, (POLIM11104), MSc, 2015/16

I was (2015 - 2017) also the unit owner for Gender and Social Research for the international HQRS programme as part of the award-winning Somali First initiative.

Teaching-related publications

My research always informs my teaching, but sometimes my teaching informs my research:

Jester N. (2022) 'Twitter As Higher Education Community Of Practice: A Political Science Perspective', PS: Political Science & Politics.

Michalopoulou, E., Tierney, A., Atkins, E., Stanmore, T., Ma, L., Jester, N. and Preist, C. (2021) 'Development and Delivery of a Sustainable Development Unit in UK Universities: A Higher Education’s Guide for Future Sustainability Leaders;. In: Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. World Sustainability Series, Springer Nature, Switzerland. ISBN 9783030633981 [forthcoming]

Jester, N. (2020) 'Popular culture as pedagogy in the political theory classroom: reflections from higher education', European Political Science, online first access: DOI: 10.1057/s41304-020-00287-6.

Jester, N. (2020) 'Using the Internet to Teach Politics', published on the Political Studies Association website. Note: for this to be of use during the emergency COVID19 move to online teaching, I opted to publish this here instead of submitting it to a peer-reviewed journal.

Jester, N. (2018) 'Representation within higher education curricula: contextualising and advocating for feminist digital activism', Teaching in Higher Education, 23 (5): 606-618.

Widening participation work

I am not just interested in the students I have now, but the ones that might come to university in future, and have a strong commitment to supporting widening participation activities. I authored a commissioned report for the NUS about taught masters students' experiences of finance (2012) and aided in the final stage of the Paired Peers project as a research assistant coding interviews using NVivo software (2013). In July 2014 and July 2015 I delivered a lecture on Marxism and the Hunger Games for the widening participation schools conference, and in October 2015 I participated in Access to Bristol on analysing gender in the media. More recently, our De-coding Gender in the Media workshop was funded by the faculty Widening Participation fund.

Professional development

18/4/2024 Advance HE External Examiner Professional Development Course

I gained Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2017 and was awarded a Distinction in my Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in July 2022.

14/06/2020 Attendee, Joint event: BISA and PSA - Beyond alternative: assessment as the forgotten piece in online learning

18-19/06/2020 Attendee, 4th annual Teaching and Learning Conference, European Consortium for Political Research. Sessions attended: Curriculum Design, Designing Learning Experiences, Teaching With Games, Innovative Assessment, Lunchtime Debate: From Teaching Online to Online Learning, Teaching Critical Thinking.

06/05/2020 Attendee, Digitising Critical Pedagogies Amidst COVID-19: a Roundtable Discussion. Webinar organised by Amber Murrey and Steven Puttick

10/07/2019 Attendee, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Decolonising the Curriculum. Day-long seminar in the School of Education   

18/06/2019 Attendee, Trans-inclusive Pedagogy. Workshop run by UoB Critically Queer Working Group 

20/11/2018 Attendee, Trans Awareness: the Basics. Seminar by Gendered Intelligence 

26/06/2018 Attendee, Decolonising our Curricula, Decolonising the University: Personal reflections. Faculty Education and Pedagogy Conference session by Dr Foluke I Adebisi 

30/11/2016 Participant, Masculinity in the Curriculum Institute of Advanced Studies Workshop, South West and Wales Masculinity Network

5/7/2016 Attendee, War Simulation and (in)Security workshop panel on wargaming in teaching