Dr Simon Lightfoot

National Teaching Fellow 2013 Before working at the University of Leeds, Dr Simon Lightfoot worked at Liverpool John Moores University. He has been awarded University Teaching Fellowships at both universities and in 2008 was awarded the Sir Bernard Crick Award for Outstanding Teaching by the Political Studies Association (PSA). Simon is an inspirational teacher who offers leadership to others, both within his home University and beyond. He is passionate about ensuring the subject matter of Politics and International Relations (IR), which is often seen as dry and boring, is as engaging to students as possible. He also works hard to make higher education open to all via his widening participation work and through ensuring students are supported from day one at university and that the rules of the game are as explicit as possible. This long standing commitment to student education has resulted in national and international recognition in the pedagogical community within Politics and IR based upon dissemination of good teaching and learning practice, especially in relation to technology and teaching, research/teaching nexus and student support and study skills. Simon is co-author of Teaching Politics and International Relations (Palgrave, 2012-with Cathy Gormley-Heenan) and numerous articles in both pedagogic and discipline specific journals. He has presented papers at national and international conferences and engaged in enhancement projects in Ireland, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia.