New Heads of Department at Warwick
Meet the new Heads of Academic Departments who have taken up their roles between 2020/2021.
Professor Stuart Hampton-Reeves
School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures
Stuart took up the role of Head of School in April 2020.
Stuart joined the University in 2020 after over 20 years at the University of Central Lancashire, where he was Faculty Director of Research after a career which included roles such as Head of Drama, Head of the Graduate Research School and Director of the Centre for Research-informed Teaching. He is one of the founders of the annual British Conference of Undergraduate Research and set up the popular event Posters in Parliament.
Stuart's research focuses on Shakespeare in performance and he is particularly interested in the way that creative practitioners engage with Shakespeare. From 2010-2016, he was the Head of the British Shakespeare Association and helped to establish the journals Shakespeare and Teaching Shakespeare. He is also a jazz guitarist and one of the directors of the Preston Jazz Festival.
Learn more about the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures
Dr Letizia Gramaglia
Academic Development Centre
Letizia took up the role of Head of Department in September 2020.
Letizia Gramaglia is Head of Academic Development and Director of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA). She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has led educational projects on inclusive pedagogies and assessment. She is responsible for the strategic leadership of development for academic staff who teach, ensuring alignment with institutional priorities and sector trends.
She has established a close partnership with the Monash Education Academy and has contributed to the development of an AdvanceHE accredited scheme for professional recognition of teaching in HE at Monash University.
Her disciplinary background is in post-colonial studies, with a research focus on Indo-Caribbean literature and history of mental health institutions in the Caribbean. She was an Associate Fellow of the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies.
Professor Ruth Hewston
Centre for Lifelong Learning
Ruth took up the role of Head of Department in September 2020.
Ruth joined The University of Warwick as Head of Department for the Centre for Lifelong Learning in September 2020, having worked in both teaching and research led Higher Education institutions for over twenty years.
Prior to her appointment in CLL, Ruth was Head of Department for Education and Inclusion at the University of Worcester, having previously taught at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance and holding academic research positions at The University of Warwick and the University of Leicester.
Ruth’s teaching and research interests centre on inclusive education, equality and diversity, and the learning experience of non-traditional learners.
Professor Guy Longworth
Department of Philosophy
Guy took up the role of Head of Department in January 2021.
Guy joined Warwick’s Department of Philosophy in 2007, before which he worked at UCL and at Birkbeck College. He is editor of the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society and Mind & Language.
Guy’s research focuses on what it is to know something, the value of knowing, and on how knowing connects with other states of mind, including states of linguistic understanding. Is knowing just a special way of believing? Is knowing uniform or is knowing how to do something, for example, different from knowing that this is the way to do it? And what about knowing someone, or knowing them well? Is understanding what someone is saying just a matter of knowing that they said it? Is knowing valuable independently of its practical benefits? He has connected interests in the history of philosophy, including the views about knowledge of central figures like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant, as well as some trends in early 20th Century thinking about knowledge, especially in the work of Oxford Realists like John Cook Wilson and J. L. Austin.
Professor Richard Hastings
Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research
Richard took up the role of Head of Department in January 2021.
Joining Warwick in 2013 from Bangor University (where he had held roles as the Head of the School of Psychology, and as Acting Head of the College of Health and Behavioural Sciences), Richard is a Professor of Psychology and Education, is the Cerebra Chair of Family Research, and also a Monash Warwick Professor in the Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology at Monash University. He worked previously at the University of Southampton and University College London.
Richard’s research focuses on children and adults with intellectual disability, autistic children and adults, and their families and carers; including mental health, family support, early intervention, and educational interventions. He and his team also carry out research more generally in mental health, especially with a focus on children and young people.”
What does a Head of Department do?
The role of Head of Department at Warwick is critical to the University’s success, where individuals provide academic leadership for all departmental activities.
They set the strategic direction for the department, and have responsibility for planning and resourcing academic and support functions, for ensuring an excellent environment for students, and for ensuring a positive environment in which colleagues can perform strongly and promote both research and teaching excellence.
Reporting to the Provost, Christine Ennew, they work collaboratively with Faculty Chairs and members of the University Executive Board, as well as the wider University community.
They represent the department to public and private audiences - nationally and internationally, and develop networks to promote the work of the department.
These roles are typically appointed on a fixed term basis of three years, with the majority of appointments being made from existing faculty.
Resources for Heads of Academic Departments
A resource page for new Heads of Academic Departments has been developed to provide easy access to a range of web pages and information useful for those in this role.