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Dr Laura Hodsdon

Research Fellow

Dr Laura Hodsdon is a Research Fellow focusing on issues of social justice. Her research draws on a range of disciplines and contexts, using lenses including socio-spatiality, organisational policy and skills, and literature and narrative to explore (in)equality in organisations, socio-cultural landscapes, and heritage.  

This research draws on a background in equality and diversity and professional and organisational policy research in higher education. After a BA in English Literature at the University of York and PhD in Classics at the University of Leeds, she worked in various policy research roles at the Higher Education Academy (now AdvanceHE) before becoming a researcher and policy advisor at the University of Oxford. At Oxford, work addressed race and gender equality, implicit bias, and professional development. She co-authored the University of Oxford's Race Equality Charter Mark Bronze Award; led the Diversifying Portraiture project; designed, ran and analysed Oxford's first staff experience survey; and designed and ran online and face-to-face Race Awareness and Implicit Bias workshops. She is also a licensed Springboard trainer and ILM Level 5 certified coach, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Associate for AdvanceHE, and Research Consultant for Trinity College London where she undertakes qualitative and quantitative project and product evaluation. She joined Falmouth University in Spring 2018. 
EmailLaura.Hodsdon@falmouth.ac.uk
  • Qualifications
  • Research Interests
  • Research Outputs
  • Business Engagement

    Qualifications

    Qualifications

    YearQualificationAwarding body
    2008
    PhD in Classics
    University of Leeds
    2007
    MA in Classical Civilisation
    University of Leeds
    2004
    BA in English Literature
    University of York

    Membership of external committees

    • Cornwall FA Inclusion Advisory Group

    Research Interests

    Research interests and expertise

    My research uses equality, diversity, and power as a lens to explore narratives and (in)equality in various contexts: 

    Belonging and social spaces: socio-spatial inequality through qualitative and creative research practice
    Issues of belonging, assumptions about who "should" be where, and inter-group relations in socio-spatial contexts. This has included considering ageism in the context of Western society's structural age segregation; and I am currently leading a Landscape Research Group-funded project in partnership with the National Trust: Landscape Stories: an investigation of organisations’ and diverse audiences’ narratives of the countryside to advance landscape justice.

    Skills and employment: systemic inequalities in recruitment and progression
    Building on over ten years' experience working in professional development and equality and diversity policy in higher education, projects include women’s career development in film and TV technical roles; Unequal stories: researching gender equality in design disciplines; and career motivations and experiences of male care workers at the intersections of age and gender.

    Museums and heritage: narratives and underlying assumptions of power and privilege 
    Focus is on hegemonic and marginalised narratives in heritage, and has included discourse analysis of visitors' responses to heritage sites and, currently, research into marginalised heritage and communities within Cornwall. 

    My research is underpinned by expertise in qualitative and quantitative data analysis and evaluation: 

    • Focus groups and interviews
    • Critical discourse analysis
    • Survey design and analysis
    • Statistical analysis 
    • Equality data and policy analysis
    • Evaluation and impact monitoring

    I would be interested in offering PhD supervision in the following areas:

    • Implicit (unconscious) bias, privilege and power
    • Socio-spatial inequalities
    • BME and female representation and experience in the workplace
    • Bias, assumptions, and hegemonic narratives in heritage
    • Inter-generational relationships and ageism.

     

    Research topics

    • bias
    • Gender
    • Narrative
    • race
    • social justice
    • socio-spatial inequality

    Research Outputs

    Publications and research outputs

    Article

     

    Hodsdon, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0817-4852 (2019) ‘I expected … something’: imagination, legend, and history in TripAdvisor reviews of Tintagel Castle. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 14. pp. 1-14. ISSN 1747-6631 Item availability may be restricted.
    [img]

     

     

    Rofe, Michael, Geelhoed, Erik ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7152-1186 and Hodsdon, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0817-4852 (2017) Experiencing Online Orchestra - Communities, Connections and Music-Making through Telematic Performance. Journal of Music, Technology and Education, 10 (2-3). pp. 257-276. ISSN 17527066
    [img]

     

    Externally funded research grants information

    Year startingYear endingProject titleFunderCurrencyValueCollaboratorsHESA Category
    2020
    2021
    Landscape Stories: an investigation of organisations’ and diverse audiences’ narratives of the countryside to advance landscape justice
    Landscape Research Group
    No dataNo data

    National Trust

    No data

    Business Engagement

    Consultancy and facility services

    I am an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Associate for AdvanceHE.

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