Role
Dr Katherine Friend is an Associate Professor of Higher Education.
Evaluation Lead, Equity in Doctoral Education through Partnership and Innovation (EDEPI) https://www.ntu.ac.uk/c/equity-in-doctoral-education-through-partnership-and-innovation
Career overview
Dr. Katherine Friend joined NTU in January of 2016. As an Associate Professor and Course Leader for BA (Hons) Education Studies, Katherine is involved in a variety of undergraduate modules ranging from Race, Culture and Education to examining Social Justice and Morality. Dr. Friend also supervises Postgraduate research students.
Katherine received her Ph.D. at the Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh in 2016. Her doctoral work investigated the experiences of underrepresented students enrolled at elite universities in the US and the UK, and considered how government policy to widen participation attempts to provide equal access to higher education institutions. Her doctoral work illuminated how, on one hand, the expansion of higher education has fostered discussions pertaining to the social characteristics of the student body, and, on the other hand, how the massification of higher education has paradoxically created an institutional hierarchy. Previously, she attended the University of Warwick where she received an M.A. in Social and Religious History 1500-1700 and a BA (Hons) History at the University of Colorado Boulder (U.S.A). It was her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in history that first sparked discussions of one’s ‘place’ or ‘space’ in society and how social and cultural hierarchies contribute to identity, power, and in/out discourses.
Research areas
Katherine is a research-active member of staff, and her work focuses on three themes: the underrepresented student experience on university campuses, the importance of undergraduate engagement in the cultural sector, and reconciling international and academic identities. Threading all three themes together are discussions of one’s ‘place’ and/or ‘space’ in higher education and society more broadly, and how social and cultural hierarchies contribute to identity, representation, and belonging. Furthermore, all themes explore what it is like to study, live, and work in a society that arguably does not represent or include everyone. Much of the discussions around university inclusion and creating an inclusive campus environment rightly centre around university students, particularly those who are underrepresented. Yet, by exploring not only the students on university campuses, but also their involvement in the community and the staff who instruct them, ideas of inclusion can expand.
Katherine’s research interests include the following (in both British and American higher education contexts): the student experience; social and cultural hierarchies and their effects; internationalization in HE; incorporating the arts, culture and heritage sector into HE; international and academic identities.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Equity in doctoral research, Evaluation Lead. EDEPI is one of 13 Research England and Office for Students funded programmes, created to tackle persistent inequalities that create barriers to access and participation in doctoral education for racially minoritised groups. The EDEPI programme is divided into three distinct work packages targeting recruitment, admissions and transition as critical points of systemic inequality, through sector-leading initiatives delivered at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). For more information: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/c/equity-in-doctoral-education-through-partnership-and-innovation
Reconciling international and academic identity: creating a space for storytelling for transnational lecturers. As universities continue to push the global agenda and recruit international academics, practical aspects of ‘foreignness’ like visas and navigating one’s new country are up to the transnational academic. As a result of today’s wider political climate, questions such as who is an ‘acceptable’ immigrant add to the pressure of navigating academic life.
No place like home: exploring the student residential experience. School of Social Science Studentship. To find out more or apply for this studentship click here.
CURRENT DOCTORAL STUDENTS
Alex Kosogorin, A Nested Case Study exploring the educational construction and reconstruction of Britishness in 3 primary schools (from varying local contexts), 8 years on from the duty to promote FBVs. (Director of Studies)
Bamba Khan, Exploring the participation and lived experience of Black African, Black Caribbean and Other Black (BACOB) doctoral candidates in English universities (Co-Supervisor)
Dan Gray, Student perceptions of career: Do employability teaching interventions support student career construction? (Director of Studies)
Laura Pacey, Careers practitioner perspectives on the influence of CEIAG on the social mobility of students and graduates. (Director of Studies)
PREVIOUS DOCTORAL STUDENTS
Michael Drayson, Beyond ‘Feedback’: Exploring staff-student rapport in sport-related undergraduate programmes at a UK HEI: A case study for implications for practice.
NTU offers many opportunities to carry out postgraduate study. To find out more, contact the NTU Doctoral School.
External activity
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Society for Research in Higher Education, London
CREID & CES Widening Participation in Scotland
Access and Widening Participation Colloquium, Scotland
Association of American Colleges and Universities (USA)
National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (USA)
American College Personnel Association (USA)
Institute on Sophomore Student Success (USA)
Conference on the First Year Experience (USA)
International Center for Supplemental Instruction Training (USA)
Publications
Friend, K.L. (under consideration) Bow ties, brie, and the performance of ‘legitimate’ culture by underrepresented university students. British Journal of Education Studies.
Friend, K.L. (2020) Social capital and the creation of social networks: the experiences of widening participation students at three elite institutions, Pedagogy, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2020.1735496
Friend, K.L. (2020) Rethinking higher education during a pandemic: how can we make HE better for all? NIoE Blog 12 May 2020. https://nottinghaminstituteofeducation.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/rethinking-higher-education/
Friend, K.L. (2018) The Price of Education: economic capital and the experience of underrepresented students in an elite US university. In S.Riddell, S. Minty, and E. Weedon (Eds.) Higher Education, Access and Funding: The UK in International Perspective, Bingley: Emerald Publishing.
Conference Papers & Presentations:
'Rethinking Approaches to Outreach and Recruitment of PGRs: EDEPI and the NHS'. NEON, 2023.
'Experiential learning in the pandemic: lessons learned from alternative placements in Education'. Presented at Society for Research in Higher Education, 2021.
'International collaborative exchange project: stories from first-year university students during the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic'. Presented at Society for Research in Higher Education, 2021.
'Reconciling international and academic identity: creating a space for storytelling for non-British lecturers'. Presented at Society for Research in Higher Education, Newport, South Wales, 2019.
'Brexit: EU student reflections of belonging at one university in the midlands'. Presented at Society for Research in Higher Education, Newport, South Wales, 2019.
‘Grievability and value: applying Judith Butler’s framework to better understand the underrepresented student.’ Digest Seminar, Nottingham Institute of Education, 2019.
‘Finding a fit? The experiences of students from less advantaged backgrounds in an elite US university.’ Presented at Higher Education, Funding and Access: Scotland and the UK in International Perspective, Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity, University of Edinburgh, 2017.
‘The Underrepresented Student Experience at Elite Institutions: Six students’ views from England, Scotland, and America.’ Presented at Society for Research in Higher Education, Newport, South Wales, 2016.
‘Class, Gender, and Widening Participation: How three elite institutions balance admission pressures with rank, and the impact on first-generation, low-income, male students.’ Presented at Interweaving Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2013.
‘Digital Media and the Relation to Student Learning: Student-Created Media: Four Instructors Talk.’ Center for the First-Year Experience, Madison, Wisconsin, 2011.
‘Peer Mentoring for Success.’ Presented at American College Personnel Association Convention, Boston, Massachusetts, 2010.
‘Peer Mentoring for Success.’ Presented at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, Washington, D.C., 2010.