Assistant Professor and Senior Tutor

A.K.Awesti@warwick.ac.uk 

+44 (0) 24 7652 8459

Room WCE 0.13, Centre for Lifelong Learning, Westwood Campus

Dr. Anil Awesti is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Senior Tutor in the Centre for Lifelong Learning. His research interests are in Widening Participation to Higher Education, in particular issues of access, participation, retention, and progression of students from ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds in universities. He teaches a CLL undergraduate module on ‘Widening Participation in Higher Education’. Anil co-chairs the University Widening Participation Student Success and Progression Working Group and the Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA) Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Process in Higher Education Learning Circle. Anil is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and Fellow of WIHEA.

Immediately prior to joining the CLL, he was the Widening Participation Officer/Researcher for Warwick’s School of Law where he established a recruitment and retention programme and Chair of the UK Political Studies Association’s Diversity & Equality Committee.

In his role as Senior Tutor in the CLL, Anil leads a team supporting the pastoral and academic-related needs of its diverse student body. His work focuses on providing strategic leadership for the CLL’s student support provision and, in doing so, developing a strategy, framework and environment to support the development of students.

Anil completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Warwick’s Department for Politics and International Studies (PAIS). His doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on local/regional development in the European Union (EU), the EU’s role in tackling socio-economic inequalities and in turn the changing nature and role of the state in the contemporary EU. During that time, he was a Teaching Fellow in European/EU politics in PAIS. Anil currently teaches an open access monthly seminar series ‘Analysing UK-EU Brexit Negotiations’ (https://warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/currentstudents/learningspace/openseminars). He is particularly interested in the implications of Brexit for disadvantaged communities and for local development funding.

PhD Supervision
Potential PhD candidates are welcome to contact regarding research proposals related to one or more of the following topics:

• European Union politics and policy-making
• Brexit studies
• The relationship between higher education and social justice
• Widening participation policies and practices in higher education (access, support and progression)
• Adult education and lifelong learning
• Ethnic minority attainment/awarding gaps and experiences in higher education

Recent Publications, Papers and Guest Talks

2019 ‘Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Practice Learning Circle.’ Paper presented at the Race Equity through Pedagogy Conference, Sheffield, 1 July (with M. Ono-George).

2019 ‘A lifecycle approach to widening participation: student success and progression.’ Paper presented at the Warwick Education Conference, Coventry, 14 May (with C. Jones).

2019 ‘Post-truth politics and public trust: how can universities regain legitimacy in the public sphere?’ Paper presented at the Association for Academic Outreach Annual Conference, Coventry, 27 April (with J. Judges).

2018 ‘Teaching Brexit in ‘Brexitland.’’ Paper presented at the European Conference on Teaching and Learning Politics, International relations and European Studies, Prague, 31 May-1 June.

2018 ‘Public Engagement for Social Healing.’ Paper presented at the University Association of Lifelong Learning Annual Conference, Cambridge, 21-23 March.

2017 ‘Why Brexit & Trump, and what’s next?’. Presented at United Nations Association, Coventry, 1 March.

2016 ‘Pursuing the Diversity and Inclusion agenda: The PSA in the UK’. European Political Science, Vol. 15, No. 4 (with M. Flinders and H. Savigny).

2016 ‘Reaching Out: Widening Participation and Successful Transition.’ Paper presented at the Transition into Warwick Conference, Coventry, 5 July.

2016 ‘What does the EU do and what relationship can post-Brexit Britain have with it?’. Lacuna Magazine, July.

2016 ‘To Brexit or not to Brexit…?’ Presented at Coventry Skeptics in the Pub, Fargo Village, Coventry, 15 June.

2016 ‘Diversity and Equality: a 10 year strategic plan for the PSA.’ Paper presented at the Political Studies Association 66th Annual International Conference, Brighton, 21-23 March.

2015 ‘A Paper Making Proposals for a University of Warwick Policy on Use of Contextual Data in the Admissions Process’. Written for the University of Warwick Working Group on Admissions and Contextual Data.

2015 ‘Contextual Data: an institutional approach’. Paper presented at the Recruiting Warwick Students: 2015 and Beyond Conference, Coventry, 16 September (with J. Harrison).

2015 ‘The (dis)United Kingdom?’ Presented at the Coventry Festival of Social Sciences, Fargo Village, Coventry, 9 May.

2015 'Mind the Gap! Ethnic minority university access and attainment'. Paper presented at Warwick Leaders 2015 Conference, Coventry, 24 January.