Dr Morwenna Bennallick
I first joined the University of Westminster in 2015 as a Visiting Lecturer, where I taught on a range of modules across levels 4 - 6. As of 2017 I hold a Criminology Lectureship in the School of Social Sciences.
I have recently completed a PhD study entitled 'Exploring Learning Cultures in Prison' at Royal Holloway, University of London (2019). This research was joint funded by the School of Law at Royal Holloway and Prisoners' Education Trust. I hold an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford (2013) and an LLB in Law and Criminology from the University of Cardiff (2010).
I work closely with the third sector and between 2016 and 2018 I was the Senior Research and Policy Officer at Prisoners' Education Trust. Through this role I set up two networks working to bring together universities and prisons. PUPiL (Prison University Partnerships in Learning) champions partnership work which bring students and prisoners together. PLAN (Prisoner Learning Academic Network) works to promote and support high quality research in prisoner education by developing cross-discipline communication nationally and internationally. I am currently the Chair of PLAN.
I previously held a Visiting Lecturer role at Royal Holloway, University of London (2017), where I co-convened and delivered a prison-university partnership module 'Thinking Criminologically' in partnership with HMPYOI Feltham. We won a Royal Holloway Teaching Prize for Collaboration for this work.
My research interests centre around the experience of imprisonment with a particular interest in the role and experience of education in prison settings. My PhD research takes a cultural perspective to situate the practices and meaning of learning across an institution. This work draws heavily on literature emanating from prison sociology alongside education studies.
I chair the Prisoners' Education Trust Prisoner Learning Academic Network (PLAN) which brings together cross-discipline academics working in prisoner education and to increase the impact of high quality research on policy and practice.
I have previously worked on a NOMS funded study seeking to define and measure learning culture in prisons and examine the impact of a Learner Voice initiative (working to empower the student voice) on this.
I welcome PhD students with interests in these areas.