Alix Brodie-Wray

I want to ensure the value and relevance of our work in the arts and humanities is clearly and prominently expressed through the lens of impact. Impact can be seen as an attempt to impose a values-system that isn’t cognisant of the nuances in art and humanities – but we are in fact uniquely placed to engage people, often through profound and resonant shifts in understanding which lead to impact (change) on a deep and multifaceted scale. Through talking to academic colleagues, I have found that impact, framed as change, often lies at the heart of the motivation to work in our disciplines.

I see my role as Faculty Impact Development Manager as a catalyst for seizing the opportunities that impact gives us both pragmatically (REF, grant applications) but to be driven primarily by the value we can bring to our local and global communities and collaborators.

• Impact Literacy: I am exploring new ways to engage colleagues with impact so that they have the tools to meet their goals – especially considering our different learning approaches.
• Impact Visibility: I am working with teams in schools and across the faculty to make our impact more visible to the wider world – and to work with colleagues to surface the impact potential they can’t see easily.
• REF2029: I am building clear and informed guidance for staff working on REF case studies – and will advocate for the prioritisation of a health working culture around the exercise itself.

I am involved in the current Athena Swan working group and am committed to supporting a healthy research culture. I led the Faculty Organisation and Culture part of the faculty’s successful Athena Swan submission (2022) and have spoken about emotional labour and professional services staff at a Women at Leeds event (2023). I want to ensure that students, academics, professional and technical staff are all part of the impact culture that is very much alive in our Faculty.

Responsibilities

• Providing informed input into the development and implementation of the Faculty and University’s impact strategies.
• Developing forums and materials to develop and improve impact literacy.
• Supporting faculty impact governance, and the flow of information across the university through the Faculty Impact Committee.
• Being a key point of impact expertise and advice across the Faculty: in preparation of REF impact case studies, grant application narratives and research development conversations.

Professional Associations & Societies

• Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA)
• Dress and Textile Specialists (DATS)
• PRS for Music (Performing Rights Society)

Qualifications and Experience

I have a total of 20 years’ experience in higher education support roles having previously worked at the University of Brighton in programme support, UG admissions, quality assurance and more latterly in research support at the sharp end of grant review and submission (for the School of Applied Social Science and the School of Education), on the implementation of the Researcher Development Concordat (as it is now known) and early stages of REF2014.

I started as Faculty Impact Development Manager (Arts, Humanities and Cultures) in January 2024 and sit within the Faculty and the LAHRI team. I have been no stranger to the faculty having worked in the School of Design (2015-21) in research and impact support, with particular focus on submission to REF2021, open access and research culture. My work focussed solely on impact when I took up the role as Research Impact Development Officer for both the School of Music and the School of Performance and Cultural Industries (2021-end of 2023).

My undergraduate degree is in English (Goldsmiths College, University of London) and I have a MA in Modernism (University of Sussex); focussed on literary, artistic and cinematic modernism and postmodernism. I worked for some time on a part-time basis towards a PhD in Cultural Studies (again at Goldsmiths – on fashion, nostalgia, and nationalised pasts with a heavy dose of Walter Benjamin) but did not complete.

I have been a DIY / Lo-Fi musician since 2005 releasing the majority of my music online through my former band, collaboratively and solo. As a casual Research Assistant on a project in the School of Music (Garden of Forking Paths) I produced digital art works to be used in a potential companion book.

I have an ongoing interest in archives, fashion history and textile conservation and have worked on a voluntary basis in Special Collections at the Brotherton Library, The Yorkshire Fashion Archive and Sunny Bank Mills Archive. I also run the Faculty Craft Club where I knit, crochet, embroider and chat.