Dr Stefan Rossbach

Stefan Rossbach's early work in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent focused on the creation of a 'spine' of skills and training modules which provide continuity from first year of study to postdoctoral level covering a wide range of learning and study skills, methods and techniques along the way. These structures included a 'Teaching Institute' where PhD students working as Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) were trained and given support. Impact of work At a time when universities started to rely heavily on GTAs for seminar teaching in order to free up staff time to meet research assessment requirements, Stefan's Teaching Institute was pioneering. It transformed such teaching assignments into formal learning opportunities and provided a home for GTAs in the School, thus recognising and appreciating their contribution. Stefan's work later informed the creation of the University of Kent's Graduate School. More recently Stefan launched an initiative called POLITICS+ which allows students to gain recognition for attending extra-curricular activities, highlighting the importance of holistic learning. In his specialist field, Political Theory, Stefan introduced modules on leadership and resistance, focusing on the political biographies of iconic political leaders and thereby re-introducing the personal and existential dimension of politics to a curriculum that often tends to emphasise structural factors and statistical data. An innovative postgraduate module on resistance introduced the 'documented practice of resistance' as an assessment method. The practice invited students to consider the question 'Who am I, to resist what?' and empowered students to work on very personal questions, demonstrating experiential, authentic and transformative learning. In order to further study artistic practices of resistance, Stefan and his colleagues established a link with TATE Modern, which gives Kent students the opportunity to contribute to an exhibition at TATE and engage with a live audience, where they can learn to use their authentic voices. Stefan has won four University of Kent teaching prizes, one University of Kent supervision prize, and (jointly) the Innovation in Teaching Politics prize awarded by the Political Studies Association (PSA). He has supervised more than twenty research students through to completion. Plans for the future Future plans for his teaching practice include experiments with lecture-free, 'de-centred' teaching, classrooms as 'exilic spaces', MOOCs, the interaction between online and on-campus classrooms, the creation of collective artworks such as e.g. photo mosaics as assessed coursework, and methods of dialogic assessment.