Current work

Naomi is Associate Professor and Director of Engagement at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL), where she is the academic lead for Project SupportLink opens in a new window and Sharing Practice, co-chairs IATL's Project Support committees, and convenes a number of interdisciplinary modules.

Her scholarship and teaching explores the imagination, social justice, change and education. She draws on critical and contemplative pedagogies in her approach to teaching and is grounded in an ethos of collaboration, co-creation, care, and the cultivation of generosity in learning spaces. She founded the Co-creation Officer Project in 2019, and manages IATL's team of Co-creation Officers, recruited from the student body. She co-chairs the Learning from Crisis WIHEA Learning Circle and the Future of Engagement in HE WIE Learning Circle.

She is currently working towards an interdisciplinary PhD in Literary Practice with the Warwick Writing Programme, exploring the relationship between imagination, crisis, and change.

Current Project: Learning from Crisis

Naomi chairs the WIHEA Learning Circle Learning from CrisisLink opens in a new window and leads the WIHEA funded projectLink opens in a new window of the same name, both of which are reflecting on what we wish to take forward and lead behind from the pandemic regarding teaching and learning, in partnership with the RSA and through their Future Change FrameworkLink opens in a new window.

The Learning Circle and the project consider what we want to take forward and leave behind from the time of Covid, as well as what we want to restart, or deliberately not restart that stopped in response to the crisis. Focusing on learning and teaching, the project will draw on the Bridges to the Future work developed by the RSA in response to pandemic to frame a process of gathering insights from the Warwick teaching and learning community, both staff and students. It will feed into the agenda outlined within Warwick’s recently released Education Strategy Priorities in 2020/21, and contribute to Warwick embedding learning for the long-term, as outlined there.

Future of Engagement in Higher Education: WIE Learning Circle

With Margaret Low of WMG, Naomi co-chairs this learning circle which looks at the long-term future development of Engagement in HE. The Learning Circle will work with the WIE team to present their findings and subsequent recommendations both to Warwick and to the HE sector, perhaps in time via research publications. It will also contribute where appropriate to WIE input into Public Engagement aspects of large University Development and Fundraising bids.

Fellowships and Memberships

Naomi is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, a Fellow of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA), and a Foundation Fellow of Warwick Institute for Engagement.

Teaching Awards and Nominations

In 2015 Naomi received the Butterworth Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence and she has been nominated by students for teaching awards every year between 2014 - 2021. In 2021 won WATE award, and nominated for a 2021 Student Union Transforming Education Award in the Inspiration Category

Funding Received

In 2021 Naomi was awarded WIHEA funding to consider what Warwick's learning community wishes to take forward and leave behind from the time of Covid, as well as what we want to restart, or deliberately not restart that stopped in response to the crisis. 

In 2014, Naomi was awarded £17,000 Strategic Project grant to explore the student experience in interdisciplinary learning spaces. Working with colleagues, she developed a pedagogic exploration 'The Dark Would' which was featured in Times Higher Education in October 2015 and formed the basis for a major event in May 2015 exploring innovative pedagogy.

Previous Academic Roles

From 2014-2017 Naomi was the first Director of Undergraduate Studies for IATL, where she supported the introduction of a number of new interdisciplinary modules.

Previous Teaching

• Naomi has been a regular contributor to Digital Pedagogy Lab and in 2019-20 she worked with its director, Sean Micheal Morris, to develop and teach an interdisciplinary module Change: Critical Understandings, Practices and Action.
• In 2014-15 Naomi co-developed and convened Global Connections: Understanding Cultural Literacy with Dr. Sarah McDonald of Monash University.
• In 2018 she redeveloped and convened the interdisciplinary module Ethical Beings in IATL.
• Before moving to IATL, Naomi taught with the Warwick Writing Programme, where she designed and delivered the Warwick Writing Programme for Schools, a practice and pedagogy based postgraduate module training writers to work in community and education settings.
• Naomi co-taught the English and Law postgradate module Writing about Human Rights and Injustice from 2012-2014 with Prof. Maureen Freely and Prof. Andrew Williams,
• Naomi taught the module Communicating Science for Physics and Chemistry finalists from 2012-2014.
• Naomi has taught students and staff across the university and has worked with Lacuna, an online magazine writing on human rights issues.
• Naomi works as a writer in schools, festivals and the community across the country and internationally.