Role
As a Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice, Dr. Bianca Fox leads the course team and the curriculum design and development of the L7 Academic Professional Apprenticeship/ Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Bianca manages a team of academics and professional services colleagues and works with new members of staff, supporting them to develop their teaching practice and achieve Fellowship of Advance HE.
Career overview
Dr. Bianca Fox joined Nottingham Trent University in 2021 as a Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice, assuming leadership of the Academic Professional Apprenticeship (APA) and Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in HE (PGLTHE). Bianca holds a PhD in Communication Studies and has more than 15 years of teaching experience which includes teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the UK and other European countries.
Prior to starting at NTU, Bianca was a Course Leader, Deputy Director of the FMDC and ALTR Research Centres and Acting Head of Department (2017-2018) at the University of Wolverhampton and a Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield. Throughout her academic career, she has been credited yearly with student nominations for innovative and engaging teaching, and has acquired significant experience of academic administration, curriculum design and development, management, and leadership in HE. In addition, Bianca is a Principal Fellow of Advance HE and has nurtured academics into becoming learning and teaching innovators, supporting them to gain recognition of Advance HE.
Bianca was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Westminster in 2011 and the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle in 2015 and has been part of the research team of various European and worldwide projects. She is an avid promoter of using digital technologies in all areas of the curriculum and her research interests lie primarily in youth studies, with a focus on technology use and mental health, digital literacy, and digital inclusion. Bianca is a member of the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE), ISSOTL, BERA, BELMAS, UKLA, the European Literacy Network (ELN), the Active Learning Network (ALN), ECREA, MeCCSA, MEA, and the Loneliness and Social Isolation in Mental Health Research Network and was the academic lead of the ERASMUS+ MeLDE project (http://meldeproject.eu), contributing to the design of a CPD programme in digital literacy for European educators.
Education
PhD in Communication Studies.
PGCert in Management and Leadership in Higher Education, University of Wolverhampton, UK.
PGCert Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of Huddersfield, UK.
MA Media and Communication Studies.
Bachelor of Law.
BA (Hons) English Language and Literature.
Research areas
- Curriculum design
- Management and leadership in Higher Education
- Technology-enhanced teaching
- Youth studies
- Technology use and mental health
- Media consumption and loneliness
- Digital literacy
- Digital inequalities
GRANTS AND RESEARCH PRIZES:
- 2022- Short Course in Innovative Teaching in Higher Education - HEIF Short Course and CPD Accelerator Fund (£6000).
- 2018 – 2020- ERASMUS + Media and Digital Literacy (MeLDE) (£349,967). More information at http://meldeproject.eu
- 2018 – Grants Academy Scheme (£2,000).
- 2017-2018 – Early Researcher Award Scheme Grant for the project Loneliness in the age of Mobile and Social Media, University of Wolverhampton (£5,000).
- 2014 - 2015 – Postdoctoral Scholarship for the project Technology-enhanced Teaching financed from the European Social Fund under the contract SOPHRD/159/1.5/S/136077 (£25,000).
- 2013 - 2014 – Member of the research team for the project Searching the Sameness and Otherness in Balkans and Central Europe. Grant No. AKS-2013-R 71 offered by Academy of Korean Studies. ($10,000).
- June 2013- Grant for participation to the International Conference Polarization in divided societies, 2- 4 September 2013, offered by the Central European University, Budapest (£ 1,200).
- May 2013- Grant for participation to the International Summer School for Early Career Academics, 16- 19 September 2013, offered by Leipzig University, Germany (£800).
OTHER RESEARCH PROJECTS:
− 2014- Present - Member of the research team for the project European Election Campaign, led by Edoardo Novelli, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy. Now funded by the European parliament. More information at https://www.electionsmonitoringcenter.eu/info/project
External activity
2020- 2024 External Examiner, University of Brighton. Awards: BA (Hons) Media Studies, BA (Hons) Media and Environmental Communication.
2020- 2024 External Examiner, University of Stirling. Awards: BA (Hons) Digital Media.
2019-2021 External Examiner, Middlesex University. Awards: BA (Hons) Advertising, PR and Branding.
2015- 2019 External Examiner, University of Lincoln. Awards: BA (Hons) Journalism, BA (Hons) Investigative Journalism, BA (Hons) English Journalism.
2015 - Visiting Scholar at the University Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France.
2011- 2012 - Visiting Scholar, University of Westminster, UK.
Publications
Most recent BOOKS:
(2023) Developing Digital Literacies for the 21st Century: Teaching and Learning in a Post-Digital World. Palgrave (forthcoming monograph).
(2019) Edited volume - Emotions and Loneliness in a Networked Society. Palgrave https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030248819
Most recent BOOK CHAPTERS:
(2022) Engaging and Empowering Early-Career Academics: Embedding Active Learning into the Curriculum. In Betts, T. & Oprandi, P. (eds.). 100+ Active Learning Ideas, Open Press. (with Sandy Cope, Adam Tate and Victoria Breckin).
(2022) Serios Play: Active Learning with Lego bricks. In Betts, T. & Oprandi, P. (eds.). 100+ Active Learning Ideas, Open Press.
(2022) Multicultural Representations in the 2014 and 2019 European Parliament Election Campaigns. In Novelli, E., Johansson, B. & Wring, D. (Eds.) Political Advertising in the 2019 European Parliament Elections, Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming).
(2022) The role of technology in moulding interpersonal relationships: An intergenerational approach. In Kopecka-Piech, K. & Sobiech, M. (Eds.) Mediatization of Emotional Life. Feelings, Sensations and Interpersonal Relations, Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Mediatisation-of-Emotional-Life/Kopecka-Piech-Sobiech/p/book/9781032181066
(2022) People’s perceptions and attitudes towards AI-generated news: A thematic content analysis of AI and its impact on the craft of journalism as a provider of daily news. In Ville Mannien, Mari K. Niemi, Anthony Ridge-Newman (Eds.) Futures of Journalism: Technology-stimulated Evolution in the Audience-News Media Relationship. Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/futures-of-journalism-ville-j-e-manninen/1140805678?ean=9783030950729
(2021) Social Media and Electoral Processes: An Exploration of Facebook adoption during the 2019 European Parliament Election Campaign. In Aririguzoh, S. (Ed.) Global Perspectives on the Impact of Mass Media on Electoral Processes. IGI Global.
(2020) Associations between Social Media Use and Loneliness, Body Image and Disordered Eating: A Qualitative Study of British Young Adults in Marinescu, V. (Ed.) (2020) Food, Nutrition and the Media https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030464998
(2019) Loneliness and Social Media: A qualitative investigation of young people’s motivations for use, and perceptions of social networking sites. In Fox, B. (ed.). Emotions and Loneliness in a Networked Society. Palgrave Macmillan, DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-24882-6.
(2018) Making the headlines: EU Immigration to the UK and the wave of New Racism after Brexit. In Balica, E. & Marinescu, V. (eds.). Migration and Crime: Realities and Media Representations, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-3-319-95813-2.
ARTICLES
(2023) The Digital Divide: An Exploration of Digital Exclusion in Young People (Forthcoming)
(2021) Talking about Sustainability: How Media Construct the Public’s Understanding of Sustainable Food, Sustainability MDPI.
Press expertise
Higher Education
Digital literacy
Digital inequalities
Social media use / Technology use and loneliness
Curriculum design