Dr Alicja Syska

Qualifications

Professional membership

Senior Fellowship of Advance HE (SFHEA)

Roles on external bodies

Teaching interests

As a Learning Developer, I focus on building students' academic confidence by helping them develop strong academic skills, including writing, presentation making, conducting research, and working collaboratively. 

Research interests

Within the scholarship of Teaching & Learning, my research interests include academic writing, barriers to writing for publication, learning development, and the concept of failure. I am currently working on an edited book that brings together professionals identifying as Learning Developers, with the intention of shedding light on the field and locating it within broader academic practice.

I'm also 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).

Reports & invited lectures

INVITED TALKS

Holden, P., Dobson, J., Cordell, K., Syska, A. and Von Berg, P. (2022) Expert panel on the 'Russian Invasion of Ukraine'. University of Plymouth, 17 March.

Syska, A., and Canton, U. (2021) Finding the Silver Lining in the Cloud – A Response to the Pandemic. Learning Development. Presentation and Discussion at the UCU Academic-Related and Professional Staff Annual Meeting, 18 March.

Topping, S., Bennett, H., Brockington, D and Syska, A. (2021) Expert panel on the 'Inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden'. University of Plymouth, 19 January.

Topping, S., Bennett, H., Brockington, D and Syska, A. (2020) Expert panel on the 'U.S. Presidential Elections: Trump vs. Biden'. University of Plymouth, 2 November.

Syska, A. (2006) 'Dialectic of the Banana Skirt' at The Sheldon Art Galleries, Saint Louis, USA.

OTHER TALKS AND RESEARCH SEMINARS

Syska, A. (2022) Engaged pedagogy of bell hooks, Plymouth Institute of Education.

Syska, A., and Pritchard, C. (2022) Students’ perceptions of blended and remote learning: a critical realist analysis, Plymouth Institute of Education.

Syska, A., et al. (2021) ‘Supporting the Scholarship of Learning Development’, LD@3, ALDinHE.

Syska, A. (2015) Eyes on America: Rethinking Popular Culture – English, History & History of Art 6th Form Conference.

Syska, A. (2015) Salem Witchcraft Trials, The Shanghai Summer School, University of Plymouth.

Syska, A. (2014) Hollywood and History, The Shanghai Summer School, University of Plymouth.

Syska, A. (2013) The Mystery of US Elections, The Shanghai Summer School, University of Plymouth.

CONFERENCES

Syska, A. (2022) Mini Keynote: ‘Peer Reviewing as Community Building’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Northampton.

Syska, A., and Pritchard, C. (2022) ‘Students’ perceptions of blended and remote learning: a critical realist analysis’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Northampton.

Syska, A., Sedghi, G., Grayson, N. (2022) ‘The JLDHE Journal as a Collaborative Means to Develop Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Northampton.

Syska, A., and Pritchard, C. (2021) ‘Students’ perceptions of blended learning’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Northampton (online).

Syska, A., and Buckley, C. (2021) ‘Turning knowledge into power’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Northampton (online), 2021.

Syska, A., et al. (2020) ‘The art of reviewing’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Northampton (online).

Syska, A. (2020) ‘Using visual sources to develop analytical thinking’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Northampton (online).

De Guevara, Victor Ladron, and Syska, A. (2019) ‘Marathon Running: The damages of wellbeing’, Association for Medical Humanities Conference, University of Plymouth.

Syska, A. (2017) ‘Stand Out: Profiles in Employability’, Vice-Chancellor’s 15th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, University of Plymouth.

Syska, A. (2016) ‘Writing as a creative exploration with image as a pedagogical tool', Vice-Chancellor’s 14th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, University of Plymouth.

Syska, A., and Erskine, S. (2016) ‘Writing With Charlotte: Image as a pedagogical tool to facilitate academic writing’, Writing Development in Higher Education Conference, University of Plymouth.

Syska, A. (2013) ‘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.

Syska, A. (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.

Syska, A. (2012) Legacies of the 1960s America, American Studies Center, Warsaw.

Syska, A. (2012) ‘Black Origins of the American Self: W.E.B. Du Bois’s Nationalistic Project’, British Association for American Studies 57th Annual Conference in Manchester.

Sowinska, A. (2007) ‘Rhetorics of Vision: Narratives of Eastern Europe in American Discourse’. HCA Spring Academy, Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Germany.

Sowinska, A. (2006) ‘Methodological Challenges’—panel chair, Postgraduate Conference ‘Thinking Gender’ at University of Leeds.

Sowinska, A. (2006) ‘Tolerance for Ambiguity: Dialectics of Evangelical Feminism’. Postgraduate Conference ‘Thinking Gender’ at University of Leeds.

Sowinska, A. (2006) ‘Visualizing Distinctions: Constructing Public Identities Through Images’—panel chair, Mid-America American Studies Association Conference in Saint Louis, USA.

Sowinska, A. (2006) ‘Remapping Eastern Europe in America: “Us” and “Them” in Photographs’, Mid-America American Studies Association Conference in Saint Louis, USA.

Sowinska, A. (2005) ‘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, USA.

Sowinska, A. (2005) ‘Dialectics of the Banana Skirt: Who Made Josephine Baker?’ National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations conference, San Diego, USA.

Sowinska, A. (2004) ‘Double Consciousness: W.E.B. Du Bois and Gender’, Mid-America American Studies Association Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Other academic activities

Additional information