We have a multi-disciplinary team of researchers working on our Cultural Value project:

Dr Jackie Reynolds:

Jackie is the Principal Investigator on Staffordshire University’s Cultural Value project. She is a Senior Researcher working across the Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies and contributes to the on-going development of the Faculty’s two Applied Research Centres: the Institute for Applied Creative Thinking and the Centre for Media Arts and Technology. She has a PhD in Social Gerontology, and her research interests focus on arts engagement, community, social capital and ageing. She specialises in qualitative methodologies and creative research methods.

Janet Hetherington

Janet is the Co-Investigator. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Creative Communities Unit at Staffordshire University, and is Lead Tutor for the MA in Community and Participatory Arts.  Her academic and professional practice is based around arts and health and civic engagement, particularly within the creative sectors. She has led audience development and community engagement work within cultural institutions throughout the UK, and has developed a specialised practice around the development of arts and health work within public health and the acute sector. She is currently in the final stages of her PhD, entitled ‘What is the business case for arts and health?’

Dr Ann O’Sullivan

Ann is a Postdoctoral Researcher on the project. She has a PhD in Sociology, and has taught sociology and social research methods for over a decade. She has a broad range of research experience, having conducting local, national and cross European projects, and her research interests focus on youth homelessness, youth transitions into the labour market, family conflict and family mediation, and post structural therapies.

Dr Kelvin Clayton

Kelvin is also a Postdoctoral Researcher on the Cultural Value project. He gained his PhD from Staffordshire University in 2012 and his main research area is in social philosophy. He is particularly interested in the relationship between individual social actors and emergent social forms, structures and norms, and the relationship between individuals and their social milieu from the interrelated perspectives of social ontology, ethics and politics. His research is highly inter-disciplinary and he is currently working to apply an updated virtue ethics to issues regarding sustainability, the work-place and health care.

John Holmes

John is an expert in cultural sector fundraising and commercial development, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Staffordshire University.