Role
Dr Rebecca Gamble is the Standards and Quality Manager for Nottingham School of Art & Design. As a member of the School Leadership Team, she works closely with the Deputy Dean to assure and enhance academic standards, quality and student experience across the range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses within the School, including collaborative and distance delivery. This includes supporting course teams in curriculum review, design and approval.
Rebecca is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), she received the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2022 and was shortlisted for the NTSU Student-Led Teaching Award in 2021. At University level, she is a member of the External Examiner Approval Panel and is a reviewer for applications for Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
Career overview
Rebecca joined NTU in 2009 on a PhD studentship, and completed her practice-based PhD in the Nottingham School of Art & Design. Previously graduating with a Bachelors degree in Art and Design (BCU) and a Masters in Interactive Art and Design (Falmouth University), Rebecca has exhibited work and curated exhibitions in galleries across the UK, including commissions from Arts Council England, Game City, WEYA and Sideshow (British Art Show 7's fringe festival). She has worked in art galleries and studios and was a committee member of Surface Gallery (2008-2011) and as Chair of the Board of Directors for Primary (2013-2016).
Prior to her current role, Rebecca was in the Product Design department in the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment at NTU for 8 years. During this time, her varied roles have included Principal Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader (recently for MA Design: Products and Furniture and MSc Design: Products and Technology, and previously for BA (Hons) Furniture & Product Design). This has involved module leadership, teaching and assessment at levels 4-7 and PhD supervision, leading the periodic course review for the department, curriculum development and reaccreditation, and managing the annual Degree Shows, external New Designers exhibitions, and the student expo committee - NTU Design Industries.
As a member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Rebecca contributed to the ADBE School’s successful Athena Swan Bronze Award, and later became the Athena Swan Champion. Alongside the School’s Race Equality Champion, Rebecca has led School-wide initiatives to value marginalised voices and improve the student experience through co-creation. This has included Seedcorn funded research and a collaborative project with the Open University, which was presented at Advance HE’s annual EDI Conference in 2024.
Passionate about increasing the visibility of diverse role models and furthering opportunities for women in leadership in the creative sector and HE, Rebecca has hosted a number of Women in Design panel talks, continues to mentor externally for Advance HE's Aurora leadership programme for women and is currently completing the ILM Level 7 Certificate in Executive Coaching and Mentoring, supporting women to navigate big careers and family life.
Research areas
Dr Rebecca Gamble's research interests stem from her practice-based PhD ‘The Practice of Everyday (Virtual) Life’ gained in 2016 from Nottingham School of Art & Design at NTU, and current PhD supervision. This includes:
- Curating physical and virtual spaces
- Participation / Co-Design; actively engaging audiences/users/communities
- Interactive art/design; interactivity and experience, between people, objects and spaces
- Speculative / Critical design; challenging expectations about the role objects play in everyday life
- Emotionally Durable Design; building relationships between users and products to encourage durability and longevity
- Politics; the power of art/design for positive social change, including activist strategies, gender, diversity, ethics
- Methodologies; practice-led research, qualitative research, ethnography, observation, semi-structured interviews, participatory action research
- Pedagogy; active collaborative learning, co-creation with students, digital practice, reflective learning