Vice Chancellor’s farewell celebrations

Research people
Introducing Hesba’s champion
Opinion
Dr Nick Rowe, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and in Health Studies, reflects on
educational opportunities for people who use mental health services.
Is this a proper role for a university?
An unfamiliar name today, Hesba Stretton
(1832-1911) was a children’s author who
wrote moral tales and semi-religious stories
which gained an international audience.
Jessica’s First Prayer sold over a million
copies. She was a co-founder of the
National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children in 1884, and worked to
combat child abuse and poverty. She is also
the subject of Steve Nash’s PhD.
Steve was introduced to Hesba Stetton’s
work by Roger Clark, Senior Lecturer in
English Literature, through the University’s
Rees Williams Archive Collection of
Victorian and Edwardian Children’s Books.
“I want to remove her from obscurity,” says
Steve. “I’m looking at her work in
conjunction with that of other 19th
century authors, including Charles Dickens
and Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Culture in the Digital Age conference held
“She was incredibly popular during the late
Victorian period – Tsar Alexander II had a
copy of Jessica’s First Prayer placed in every
Russian school. I also want to re-address her
work using modern literary theories.”
Steve has also been appointed as one of
two Graduate Teaching Assistants at York
St John, and is teaching poetry modules to
second- and third-year students. “Poetry is a
passion for me, but it’s only in the last four
or five years that I’ve been serious about
writing poetry and I’ve now had some 60
poems published.” Steve’s poem Perhaps
Praying was shortlisted (from 700 entries)
in the 2010 Huddersfield Literature
Festival’s Short Poetry Competition, and
will appear in the festival’s Grist Anthology
at the end of the year. He has recently
become poetry editor for the Arts
Council-funded Open Wide magazine
(www.openwidemagazine.co.uk).
Steve Nash
Identity & online communication
How do students present themselves
online to their peers and to their tutors
in a virtual learning situation? This is the
question asked by Helen Gilroy in her
PhD research.
A linguist, she is interested in how people
communicate online and is focusing on
the participants of the Language, Culture
& Communication module offered by the
Business School. This is accessed by staff
and students from Sweden, the US and
the Netherlands.
“There is very little research done so far
on how students use online forums for
educational purposes,” Helen explains. “I
presented a paper at the Transforming
in Tartu, Estonia, in April and got a very
Helen Gilroy
positive response. Students don’t like
feeling under surveillance. They also need
to perform to get a good grade – which
is quite a skill. I’m looking at this from a
linguistic perspective and I’m interested
in how they use words and tackle aspects
of anonymity.”
Helen recently had the opportunity to
learn about how ideas and concepts
developed by academics can become
marketable as one of the participants in
the Enterprising Researcher workshop
organised by the White Rose Consortium.
This was the first time that postgraduates
from York St John secured places at this
event – Helen was joined by Brendan
Paddison from the Business School. She
says, “It was really intensive but very
informative. We were split into teams and
had to come up with a business plan for
a product. We then had to pitch our
products to a panel of ‘investors’ – like
Dragons’ Den! I introduced my team to
Prezi, the alternative to Powerpoint, and
we won the presentation.”
Out of Character cast members Christian Foster (left) and Mark Gowland (centre) with
Education Support Worker Gemma Alldred.
Each Thursday evening in the drama studios
at York St John University, Out of Character
– a theatre company comprising people
who use mental health services, meet
to rehearse. The company have recently
performed at a conference at Lancaster
University and are now preparing Tales from
Kafka, their show in York Theatre Royal
(1-3 July 2010).
The company is supported by our theatre
students and staff and has developed out
of courses in theatre offered to mental
health service users. With the support of
an NHS-funded Education Support Worker,
Gemma Alldred, these courses are part of a
series of educational opportunities offered
to people who have experienced mental
health problems.
Universities are places of hope and
optimism. Students arrive with the future in
mind. They bring energy, enthusiasm and
often a real concern for others. The aim
of this project is to harness this in order to
build a bridge between the nearby mental
health service and the University.
Over the last two years our students have
offered courses in different aspects of
theatre, contemporary dance and in African
drumming, and have made really positive
and valuable contributions to the
development of the work as well as
learning a great deal through the process.
People with mental health problems
can find it difficult to access good quality
educational opportunities. This project aims
to make the University more accessible, less
daunting and to foster a ‘meeting’ between
the users of mental health services and
University students and staff that can be
beneficial to all.
From the outset it was very important that
this work took place in a university. They
are still places of privilege and status, and
they confer a role on those who enter them
as students very different from that of a
psychiatric service. We were very clear
that we wanted to advertise and deliver
the course within an ‘educational frame’.
We were very wary of using any language
that might suggest some sort of therapy or
group work experience.
The educational model also conforms to
the ambition of mental health professionals
to provide educational and day services in
valued and ‘normal’ community settings.
At first we began this work in the early
evenings. In some senses it was a ‘twilight
course’, invisible to all except those who
took part. With performances at the
University arts festival, Create10, and with
Out of Character’s performance at the
Theatre Royal, this work at the University is
now moving into the daylight.
Out of Character:
We make challenging work for inquisitive
audiences with the aim of transcending
the boundaries of modern theatre
and your perceptions of mental health,
claiming the territory between
inspiration and medication.
Tales from Kafka is directed by Juliet
Forster, the theatre’s director, and draws
on some of Kafka’s less well-known
stories. It is “shot through with Kafka’s
hallmark foreboding and alienation,
absurdist humour and struggling
humanity”. Tickets are now available at
the Theatre Royal box office,
T: 01904 623568.
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