Research alumni profiles

Dr Panagiotis Pentaris 

I started my PhD in 2012 and completed in 2016. During these years, I have been given numerous opportunities to advance my growth in the academe. One of the major highlights on my experience while undertaking a PhD at Goldsmiths has been the sense of belonging and research community across the department, as well as the institution. The interdisciplinary and cross-departmental mentality at Goldsmiths has surely enhanced my experience and has given me the opportunity to explore aspects of my work from various and different perspectives. 

Another highlight of my PhD experience was the amount of support and guidance I received from my supervisor and the rest of the staff. My initial expectations for a PhD were coloured by the idea that it will be a primarily isolating and distant experience. However, Goldsmiths and my supervisor, as well as fellow PhD students in the institution, proved me wrong. Goldsmiths has provided me with a unique experience which involved a small community of research relevant to my interest, which further enhanced my experience. 

At Goldsmiths, I have experienced my PhD as an apprenticeship, and have developed a variety of skills, and grown as an academic, while gained expertise knowledge in my area of research. All this is the result of a well structured notion of PhD supervision and responsibility. 

Dr Hugh Jenkins

PhD Psychoanalytic Studies (2014)

At the age of sixty I set out to realise a long time dream; to complete my PhD. My theme was to explore our understandings of time in psychotherapy, with particular reference to the work of Sigmund Freud and Mara Selvini Palazzoli, by examining temporal concepts from philosophical and anthropological perspectives.

I took as my title: Time: the silent guest at the therapeutic table. It was therefore an exploration of where three roads (or in this instance, three disciplines) meet, like that in-between space where Oedipus killed his father, the meeting place of the roads from Thebes, Daulis, and Phokis. Depending on one’s perspective, they diverge or converge. 

 For me the make-or-break of a research degree, carried out in my case as a part-time student, is the supervision. I count myself extraordinarily fortunate to have had Dr Angela Hobart, anthropologist and psychotherapist, and Christopher Hauke, Senior Lecturer, Jungian Analyst, and film-maker. Their total commitment to my project made this a journey I would not have missed for the world. 

When I began in January 2007 the resources for PhD students were somewhat in their infancy in Goldsmiths. I therefore feel rather sad that while clearly over the years enormous improvements have been made for student support and student exchanges, I was unable to benefit as much as current students now do. 

Dr Gabi Recknagel

PhD Sociology (in conjunction with Community & Youth Work) 2014

I've come to Goldsmiths and the Phd via Prof Marj Mayo in connection with my previous role as project coordinator in the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS). Our work came together over 'active citizenship learning', and it is also in connection with this that Marj, along with colleagues from MMU and Lincoln, pulled off a 5-year Third-sector Research Cluster, funded by ESRC and others. This gave me, a third sector practitioner, the opportunity to undertake a PhD at Goldsmiths, which I started in 2009. You can find a description of my 'insider researcher' experience in a paper on my academia.edu page (my name). It was interesting and challenging!

For me the PhD has been a huge and rewarding learning experience, but it was also a real challenge. My main bugbear was a literature review: despite having studied up to PhD level (i.e. giving me access to doctoral study) in France, there was no such thing as a literature review. I think the college could justified arranging an entire course around how to write a lit review just to cover my needs!

Anyway, with the impact of austerity on the VCS I was made redundant at the end of the doctorate, but what I found most galling was that the new leaders in the organisation with whom I undertook this collaborative research showed no interest at all in my research findings. Colleagues had welcomed me drip-feeding service user feedback from my interviews and such-like, but this is as far as their interest went. As a 'practitioner-researcher' I also feel marginalised in the academic sector and the demands for theoretical underpinnings. So, this status has not been easy to struggle is testimony to lots of Bourdieuan power phenomena (not to mention Foucault...).

Now I am part unemployed-part self-employed and have started to apply my academic learning to copy-editing: mainly, to edit/improve the papers of academics for whom English is not their first language but seeking to public in English. Would like to do more empirical research but not sure what the chances of this are. Time will tell.

Dr Jacky Mahony

PhD Art Psychotherapy (2010)

I am very pleased to have had an association with the art psychotherapy unit at Goldsmiths through studying and teaching in various capacities since 1981. Most recently this was from 2003 until 2010 teaching on the on MA, MRes and MA in Advanced Clinical Practice programmes in Art Psychotherapy. I moved to Gloucestershire at this time and completed my PhD. This was practitioner research examining an art-based approach I developed in my NHS outpatient art psychotherapy groups for facilitating positive change in the lives of adults with severe and complex mental health problems.

The atmosphere and culture of Goldsmiths’ was perfect for developing my interests in collaboration and diversification, and an aim that the visual arts practice methodology of my research would contribute to broadening the knowledge base of UK art psychotherapy.

I am now an independent Art Psychotherapist and my work includes lecturing, research, supervision, private practice, and consultancy, including periodic work for the Health Professions Council as a Continuing Professional Development Assessor for the Arts Therapies. In Art Psychotherapy we are jointly trained in art and therapy and I have recently set up a workshop where I make, sell and exhibit contemporary studio ceramics.

Dr Rachel Pepper

PhD Community Development (2010)

My professional and research interests in social exclusion, the impact of globalisation, political activism, community development and citizen involvement led me to Goldsmiths University and the Centre for Urban and Community Research. I studied the part-time MA in Culture, Globalisation and the City between 2002 and 2004. My Masters Dissertation is entitled ‘Voices of the people: an exploration of community activism in Acton.’ The programme of study informed my professional practice with Acton Community Forum, and enabled the development of a critical and reflexive approach. Goldsmiths provided the opportunity to explore ideas and concepts creatively.

Having explored the characteristics and manifestations of activism, questions concerning the nature of power and empowerment remained. I decided that undertaking a Doctorate at Goldsmiths under the supervision of Professor Marjorie Mayo would provide me with the opportunity to pursue in-depth research into these areas. Between 2004 and 2010 I studied part-time at PACE.

The doctorate is entitled ‘Community power: problems, possibilities and potentials: as perceived by stakeholders in Acton, West London.’ My research examines the inherent tensions between policy aims and practical experiences. An analysis of participants' testimonies reveals the contemporary peopled cityscape, and the routes to gaining greater control over the personal, community and political worlds. My thesis points to a shifting terrain within which community professionals and activists navigate, and reveals evidence of considerably more common ground between public policy professionals and community activists than has previously been suggested in the existing literature and current policy frameworks.

The ability to adapt to changes in context is exposed as critical, whilst balancing core principles with new priorities. The strategic role of bridging individuals and organisations is identified as an important function providing a crucial and challenging link.

My professional focus is now on delivering participatory and emancipatory community projects, cross sectoral partnership work and contributing to social transformation through research, publishing and participation.