Meet the Team

Every year, WPTC employs a small group of PGRs from across the institution to manage the work of this community of practice, running events and activities, making decisions about priorities and, crucially, editing the Journal of PGR Pedagogic Practice. PGRs new to the team are Teacher Champions, and they are supported by a Teacher Mentor, a PGR from the previous year, who can guide and support them. The whole team is supported by Sara Hattersley, Academic Development Centre.

Meet the PGRs who are running WPTC this year!

Yvette Wang (Applied Lingustics) - Teacher Champion

I'm Yvette, a third-year PhD student at the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick. My PhD works on pre-service language teacher education for intercultural education and embraces a dialogic approach to teaching and learning and values learner agency. As a teacher educator and teacher education researcher myself, I hope to utilize my research insights to contribute to the wider PGR teacher community. Check my recent news here:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/people/y-wang/Link opens in a new window

Adam Read (School of Life Sciences) - Teacher Champion

Hi, I'm Adam, a second Year PhD student in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick.

My research area focuses on how the cell recycles proteins and how this becomes perturbed during ageing. My teaching philosophy focuses on empowering students to think critically, independently and develop as self-evaluators. My reason for joining WPTC is to further the conversation about postgraduate teachers and set up helpful guidelines to PG teachers to follow.

Meifang Zhuo (Applied Linguistics) - Teacher Champion

Hi, I'm Meifang Zhuo Link opens in a new windowa third-year PhD student in Applied linguistics. My research centred on supporting language teachers’ professional development by conducting classroom research. I have been contributing to various courses (MA TESOL; short courses; PhD Research methods) at the University of Warwick. Additionally, I have been acting as dissertation supervisor for MA TESOL courses at the University of Warwick and the University of Leeds. I am passionate about innovative learning and teaching methods and believe in the significance of supporting inclusive and empowering education in every possible way. I identify myself as part of WPTC and consider it an important platform to network, co-create, contribute, inspire, and support other GTAs at Warwick.

Youn Affejee (WMG) - Teacher Mentor

I'm Youn, this year's PGR Teacher Mentor (I was a Champion in 2023) and so I am supporting this year's PGR Teacher Champions, particularly with the latest issue of the JPPP. My doctoral research explores the evaluation of STEM outreach programmes and my research interests include widening participation and sports coaching. I have taught on a number of modules in Warwick Manufacturing Group and mentored undergraduate researchers in the Social Mobility Research Hub. I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and now a student Fellow in WIHEA.

Yanyan Li (Applied Linguistics) - Teacher Champion

I’m Yanyan Li Link opens in a new windowa fourth-year PhD student in Applied Linguistics. My research interests cover multimodal communication, conversion analysis, social interaction, group work and classroom discourse. In my PhD research, I delve into the multimodal interactional processes where peers undertake relationship work during group interaction. I work for several programmes and training at Warwick. I am currently in charge of the seminar teaching for Spoken Interaction course and contribute to the course’s learning materials design on Moodle, dissertation supervision for MA TESOL programme, and Research Methods workshops for MA and MSc students in the Department of Applied Linguistics. I also work as Facilitator for Intercultural Training programme at Warwick Student Opportunity. I delivered academic writing tutorials for undergraduates at Department of Computer Science and facilitated case-based learning at Warwick Medical School. I also mentored interdisciplinary student-led projects at Department of Chemistry. I completed the rewarding APP PGR course in 2023 and have been awarded Associate Fellowship of HEA. My teaching features action-based and team-based pedagogies. I am eager to connect with GTAs from different departments to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration on postgraduate pedagogic practices.

Irsa Ajmal (WBS) - Teacher Champion

I’m Irsa, a third-year PhD candidate at the Warwick Business School. My research spans over the fields of Finance, Behavioural Science and Entrepreneurship. I am a keen learner with a strong passion to teach. I have been working as a Senior GTA at Warwick Business for last two years and I am serving WPTC this year to facilitate the building of a strong teaching network for postgraduate students at Warwick.