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Dr Heather Meyer - Associate Professor & Director of Studies


Heather is Director of Studies at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL). She supports the department by looking after the academic provision of IATL’s UG and PG interdisciplinary modules, with a special interest in implementing innovative assessment practices and pedagogic innovation. She works together with colleagues across the University to facilitate interdisciplinary learning opportunities; and advocates holistic and student-led approaches towards achieving tailored, individualised experiences of higher education.

Heather has a background in Transnational Studies, with an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Southampton covering the areas of (international) education, social anthropology and migration studies. Her pedagogical approaches and teaching practices are informed by her research background. She is interested in the (re)production of social imaginaries within educational contexts and how these shape mobility. These interests stem from her PhD research which investigated the construction of a ‘global imaginary’ within the international school sector. For this project, she conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork at an international school community in Germany which comprised both internationally-mobile families and host country nationals. Her research, published in 2021 as a monograph The Global Imaginary of International School Communities provides insight into the global-local nexus that appears within communities of practice that are conceptualised as ‘global’, and the impact this has on personal, group, and organisational mobility. Over the years, she has worked with colleagues in international schools on themes of international mobility, identity, belonging, and community building. In her current position, she is particularly interested in the role of transdisciplinarity in curricular and pedagogic activity within diverse educational environments.

Prior to her current appointment at the University of Warwick, Heather has worked in a variety of educational contexts across a number of geographies (North America, Europe, and Middle East) – including the past 12 years in Higher Education in the U.K. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE), and more recently, a Fellow of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA). Heather has been a recipient of the Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence (WATE) in 2021 and 2023.

Prior to her appointment at the University of Warwick, Heather has held posts at the University of Southampton, CU Coventry and Oxford Brookes University, and has been regularly engaged in initiatives geared towards widening participation and promoting inclusive education across a variety of teaching and learning contexts.