Alicja Syska

Academic profile

Dr Alicja Syska

Lecturer in Humanities
School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)

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The Global Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Alicja's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Goal 04: SDG 4 - Quality EducationGoal 05: SDG 5 - Gender Equality

About Alicja

I am an Associate Professor of Humanities and Pedagogy at the University of Plymouth, with two decades of experience at the institution. I currently lead the Humanities Foundation Programme, a role that draws on my background in both Learning Development and History.

As a Principal Fellow of Advance HE (PFHEA), I am committed to exploring and supporting effective educational practices and academic scholarship. Beyond teaching and research, I contribute to the academic community as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Lead Editor of the Plymouth Institute of Education Online Journal and co-host of The Learning Development Project podcast. My research and publications reflect these interlocking interests, focused on enhancing student learning experiences and connecting academic and pedagogic missions of the university.

I have published two co-edited books: How to Be a Learning Developer in Higher Education (2023), which maps out the field of Learning Development in UK HE while critically engaging with the practice, and Transformative Practice in Higher Education: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning (2025), which explores the transformations in teaching after the pandemic. I'm currently working on the third co-edited book, Advancing Learning Development in Higher Education, forthcoming from Routledge in 2027.

Supervised Research Degrees

Ed.D. in Education, Director of Studies: ‘Context Matters: Re-Imagining Creative Higher Education for the Anthropocene through Criticality, Complexity, and Oddkin Communities of Connection & Reflection’ 

Ed.D. in Education, Director of Studies: ‘Conceptualising pupil voice – listening and hearing pupil experience(s)’ 

Ph.D. in Education, Director of Studies: ‘How can informal education and intercultural competence development become more accessible to forcibly displaced people through social innovation and social entrepreneurship in Plymouth’ 

Ed.D. in Education, Director of Studies: ‘Re-imagining different ways: is a re-evaluation of higher education curricula a desirable goal from post-graduate students’ perspectives?'

Ed.D. in Education, Director of Studies: ‘The Discursive Production of Teacher Subjectivity: Reframing Attrition and Distress in English Further Education'

M.A. in Art History (ResM), second supervisor: ‘Philip Guston’s Absurd and the Sisyphean Affirmation in the Battle for Existentialism’ (2021)

M.A. in Art History (ResM), third supervisor: ‘Norman Lewis on the Peripheral: The Relationship of an African American Artist and the Abstract Expressionist Movement through the Decades, 1930-1950’ (2021)

Examiner:

Ph.D. in Education, External: An Appreciative Inquiry into Minoritised Learning Developers’ Skills, Identities, and Practitioner‑Authored Futures in Higher Education' University of Lancaster (2026)

Ph.D. in Education, Internal: 'Designing an Interactive Digital Storytelling Tool to Enhance Key Stage 3 English Literacy: A Design-Based Research Study' (2026)

Ed.D. in Learning Development, External: 'The framing and value of Learning Development work in British Higher Education: An illuminative evaluation of professional practice', University of Portsmouth (2023)

Teaching

I teach across undergraduate modules and International Ed.D., as well as supervising B.A., Ph.D., and Ed.D. students.

Current modules:

LHSS3001 Academic Foundations

LHSS3002 Independent Project

LHSS3008 Literature, History and Visual Culture

HIS4002 America from Settlement to Empire

HIS6017MX Secret Cold War

EDD801HK Evidence and Education Policy

EDD803HK Researching Education Practice as Social Research

Contact Alicja

Room 102, 3 Endsleigh Place, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
+44 1752 585149