- Room 102, 3 Endsleigh Place, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
- +44 1752 585149
- alicja.syska@plymouth.ac.uk

Profiles
Dr Alicja Syska
Learning Development Advisor
Student Learning Services - Student Services (Academic Registry)
Qualifications
Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies (Saint Louis University, USA, 2005)
M.A. in Sociology of Human Behaviour, First Class (Szczecin University, Poland, 2001)
B.A. in Sociology of Human Behaviour, First Class (Szczecin University, Poland, 1999)
Professional membership
Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA)
Roles on external bodies
Key publications
Teaching interests
As a Learning Developer, I focus on building students' academic confidence by helping them develop strong academic skills, such as writing, presentation making, conducting research, and working collaboratively. Appreciating students’ passion for their subject specialisms, I make my LD workshops bespoke to the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Business programmes, which highly enhances student engagement. Each academic year I deliver over 60 workshops and see over 120 students for one-to-one tutorials, which altogether allows me to have an impact on thousands of students annually.
In my role as a History lecturer, I teach on a range of modules including Visual History, US History, and Dissertation Preparation. I also supervise undergraduate and MA dissertations.
Advice and Feedback Hours (online): Mondays 11-12pm, https://plymouth.zoom.us/j/94442294614 (or one tap mobile +442080806591, followed by 94442294614#)
Research interests
I work across two areas: Learning Development and History, and, as such, my research interests span both fields.
Within Learning Development, my interests include, but are not limited to: student writing in Arts and Humanities, student voice and engagement, employability, interdisciplinarity, learning identities, and mentoring.
In the field of History, I'm interested in cultural and historical memory, historical constructions of race and gender, American cultural myths and issues of national identity, as well as film, cultural imagination, and women’s history.
Grants & contracts
Research and Innovation Grant, Atlanta Conference, 2013 (£1,000).
The Roosevelt Study Center Research Grant, Middelburg, the Netherlands, 2012 (£500).
HCA Spring Academy Dissertation Grant, Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Germany, 2007.
Dissertation Grant at St. Louis University, USA, 2006.
Graduate Research Assistantship with full tuition remission and stipend at Saint Louis University, 2003-2006 ($64,000).
Key publications
Key publications are highlighted
JournalsLoughlin, Eleanor, Alicja Syska, Gita Sedghi and Christina Howell-Richardson, 'On peer reviewing: how to nourish an author's mind and win a JLDHE editor's heart', Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education 15, Special Edition (2020), pp. 1-18. Available from https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/626/438
Hilsdon, John, Cathy Malone and Alicja Syska, 'Academic literacies twenty years on: a community-sourced literature review', Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education 15, Special Edition, Academic Literacies (2019), pp. 1-47. Available from http://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/567/pdf
Syska, Alicja, Review of African Americans and the Presidency: The Road to the White House, ed. by Bruce A. Glasrud and Cary D. Wintz, Journal of American Studies (2011)
Sowinska, Alicja, 'Ambiguous Women: Debates within American Evangelical Feminism', The European Journal of American Culture, 26:3 (2007), pp.167-180.
Sowinska, Alicja, 'Dialectics of the Banana Skirt: The Ambiguities of Josephine Baker’s Self-Representation', Michigan Feminist Studies Journal, Special issue no19, 'Bodies: Physical and Abstract' (Fall 2005-Spring 2006), pp.51-72.*
* This article was used as a teaching resource at the California Institute of the Arts, USA, between 2010 and 2014.
Syska, Alicja, 'In Search of Subjectivity: An Irigarayan Reading of the Body in Self-Representations of Josephine Baker and Frida Kahlo' in Women in the Arts: Eccentric Essays in Music, Visual Arts and Literature, ed. by Barbara Harbach and DianeTouliatos-Miles (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010).
Syska, Alicja, CDE presentation model, LearnHigher 2019, available at http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/working-with-others/oral-communication/the-cde-presentation-model/
Syska, Alicja, ‘Stand Out: A Creative Approach to Employability for Humanities Students’, presented at the Vice-Chancellor’s 16th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference. University of Plymouth, 2018.
Syska, Alicja, and Sara Erskine, 'Writing as a creative exploration with image as a pedagogical tool', presented at the Vice-Chancellor's 14th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, Plymouth University, 2016.
Reports & invited lectures
INVITED TALKS
'Dialectic of the Banana Skirt' at The Sheldon Art Galleries, Saint Louis, USA, 2006.
OTHER LECTURES
Eyes on America: Rethinking Popular Culture – English, History & History of Art 6th Form Conference (2015)
Annual lectures for the Shanghai Summer School as well as Open Days for Schools, at Plymouth University (2014-2017)
Annual workshops for Children's University (2012-18)
CONFERENCES
'Using visual sources to develop analytical thinking', Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Annual conference, University of Northampton (online), 2020.
'The Art of Reviewing' (with the JLDHE editorial board), Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Annual conference, University of Northampton (online), 2020.
'Marathon Running: The damages of wellbeing' (with Victor Ladron de Guevara), Association for Medical Humanities Conference, University of Plymouth, 2019.
'Lights, Camera, Learning: Teaching with the Moving Image', Learning of Screen and School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London, 2018.
Poster: ‘Stand Out: A Creative Approach to Employability for Humanities Students’, Vice-Chancellor’s 16th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference. University of Plymouth, 2018.
‘Stand Out: Profiles in Employability’, Vice-Chancellor’s 15th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference. University of Plymouth, 2017.
Poster: Writing as a creative exploration with image as a pedagogical tool. Vice-Chancellor's 14th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, Plymouth University, 2016.
'Writing With Charlotte: Image as a pedagogical tool to facilitate academic writing'. Writing Development in Higher Education Conference, Plymouth University, 2016.
'The Science of Memory: W.E.B. Du Bois and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., on the Genealogical Trail to Membership in the Sons of the American Revolution'. BAAS 58th Annual Conference in Exeter, 2013.
'W.E.B. Du Bois as a "Memory Entrepreneur": A Genealogical Project for Membership in American Society'. W.E.B. Du Bois and the Wings of Atlanta Conference, Clark Atlanta University, 2013.
'Black Origins of the American Self: W.E.B. Du Bois's Nationalistic Project.' BAAS 57th Annual Conference in Manchester, 2012.
'Rhetorics of Vision: Narratives of Eastern Europe in American Discourse.' HCA Spring Academy, Heidelberg Center for American Studies, 2007
'Methodological Challenges'—panel chair, Postgraduate Conference 'Thinking Gender' at the University of Leeds, 2006
'Tolerance for Ambiguity: Dialectics of Evangelical Feminism.' Postgraduate Conference 'Thinking Gender' at the University of Leeds, 2006
'Visualizing Distinctions: Constructing Public Identities Through Images'—panel chair, Mid-America American Studies Association Conference in Saint Louis, 2006
'Remapping Eastern Europe in America: "Us" and "Them" in Photographs', Mid-America American Studies Association Conference in Saint Louis, 2006
'In Search of Subjectivity: An Irigarayan Reading of the Body in Self-Representations of Josephine Baker and Frida Kahlo.' 'Women in the Arts' Conference at University of Missouri–St. Louis, 2005
'Dialectics of the Banana Skirt: Who Made Josephine Baker?' National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, San Diego, 2005
'Double Consciousness: W.E.B. Du Bois and Gender', Mid-America American Studies Association Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, 2004
'"It’s Hard to be a Woman, but a Black One!"—W.E.B. Du Bois’s Dialectic of Feminism,' The Ninth Annual Barnes Club History Conference at Temple University, Philadelphia, 2004
Other academic activities
Gallery work (The Sheldon Art Galleries in St. Louis, USA: working with Curator on the exhibition Josephine Baker: Image and Icon, 2006; Co-curating a gallery exhibition on Minimalism in the Pulitzer Institute for the Arts, St. Louis, USA, 2005)
Filmmaking (Plymouth College of Art, 2017, 2018)
Editing (Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education)