Dr Jennifer Barnes is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Academic Practice based in the Centre for Higher Education Practice at the University of Southampton. Jennifer is responsible for designing and leading the University-wide ‘SoTeach’ programme for postgraduate researchers.
Jennifer holds a Senior Fellowship of AdvanceHE (SFHEA).
Jennifer’s current research centres on pedagogies of failure, the performance of failure, and the reworking of failure as a drive toward increased resilience and adaptability within the contemporary HE landscape. This interest intersects with her ongoing research in the area of Shakespearean stardom, where she considers how discourses of failure are promoted through the images of actors connected to the different constituent nations of the UK. Building on concepts developed in her book, Shakespearean Star: Laurence Olivier and National Cinema (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Jennifer explores contemporary British identities and their performance, and she enjoys pursuing the resonances between this phenomenon and broader concerns with the performance of identity, selfhood and failure in teaching.
Jennifer has taught across the disciplines of Film, English, and Drama at undergraduate and postgraduate level, developing research-led modules on stardom, British and Hollywood cinema and Renaissance and Restoration theatre. She has extensive experience working with archives and special collections and promotes practice-led methodologies in the classroom. Using these methods to encourage students to identify their own passions and enthusiasm, Jennifer privileges reflective conversation alongside innovative assessment strategies in her teaching practice. These strategies are aimed at helping students to develop an authentic voice alongside a resilient and flexible approach to the navigation of HE. Other teaching specialisms include film style, global cinemas, performance studies and the adaptation of Shakespeare.
Jennifer joined the University in 2023. Prior to this, she spent a decade as Lecturer (Teaching and Research) in English and Film Studies at the University of Dundee, where she delivered research-led teaching to varied cohorts across both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study. During this time Jennifer also held leadership roles in the areas of student support, widening participation and advising. Her time at Dundee followed three years as Lecturer in English (Teaching and Scholarship) at the University of Exeter, where she completed her PhD.