Committee
Jeni Driscoll, Convenor
Jeni Driscoll is an EAP practitioner at the University of Liverpool. She teaches across a range of discipline-specific In-sessional programmes, specialising in EAP for Post-graduate researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine. She has been centrally involved in the introduction and development of discipline-specific EAP at Liverpool since 2002. With colleagues at Liverpool, she has conducted research into disciplinary differences in the uses of literature. Her research background is in Systemic Functional Linguistics and medical discourse.
Deak Kirkham, Convenor
Deak Kirkham is a Lecturer in EAP at the University of Leeds where he works on In-sessional provision in the School of Mathematics and pre-sessional for Business, also delivering on a number of linguistics modules. His current scholarship interests are around the affordances of linguistics to language teaching and the learning and teaching of Welsh and Esperanto.
Jessica Sequera, Secretary (shared role with Deborah Hardin)
Jessica Sequera is an Assistant Professor (Education) in the Durham Centre for Academic Development (DCAD) at Durham University. Jess both coordinates and teaches on the in-sessional and pre-sessional programmes within DCAD. She has a variety of research interests, including the impact of emotions on writing and the reading into writing process, particularly in the area of note-taking.
Deborah Hardin,
Secretary (shared role with Jessica Sequera)
I have been working as an EAP tutor at the University of Dundee since 2014. Currently, I am leading on a business in-sessional module. Before coming to Scotland, I taught English in Romania, Switzerland, and the U.S. My interests include intercultural communication in higher education and academic literacies.
Neil Robbie, Treasurer
Neil is the In-sessional programme tutor at SOAS University of London. He has held that post for the past decade and is interested in the different kinds of In-sessional provision currently available in UK and issues of capacity and pedagogy around them. He also teaches in the regular Foundation programmes at IFCELS, the English language centre at SOAS, supporting the Development Studies programme, works closely with SOAS English admissions and is an external examiner at Oxford Brookes University. He is interested generally in the international student experience and in developing writing materials for genre specific ESAP.
Jenna Bodin-Galvez, Events Co-ordinator
Jenna Bodin-Galvez has been teaching English since 2008, where she started as an EFL teacher in Spain and then Poland. She is currently a lecturer in English for Academic Purposes at the University of Leeds, where she has been working since 2014. She has been seconded to the School of Food Science and Nutrition since 2018, and is responsible for coordinating and delivering insessional provision for taught postgraduate students. She also co-leads a Business summer presessional programme; Language for Business Management and Enterprise. Previously at Leeds, she has taught and led on a number of year round presessional modules, and taught for one semester at South-West Jiatong University at the Leeds Joint School in Chengdu. Her scholarship interests lie in the impact of insessional programmes, on the students, the practitioner and the wider school.
Stella Bunnag has had a 30-year career in commercial digital academic publishing, qualification development and lecturing. A senior Lecturer in EAP at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), she is involved in a number of projects across the department and responsible for EAP and intercultural communication provision within NTU’s Joint Institute MA programmes with Communication University of China (CUC). Within the wider academic community, she is the Events Coordinator within the BALEAP SIGs: Teacher Education Development in EAP (TEd in EAP) and Transnational Education (TNE), as well as the Social Media Coordinator within the In-Sessional special interest group. Her research interests include digital learning, intercultural communication and the metaverse. Stella Bunnag has had a 30-year career in commercial digital academic publishing, qualification development and lecturing. A senior Lecturer in EAP at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), she is involved in a number of projects across the department and responsible for EAP and intercultural communication provision within NTU’s Joint Institute MA programmes with Communication University of China (CUC). Within the wider academic community, she is the Events Coordinator within the BALEAP SIGs: Teacher Education Development in EAP (TEd in EAP) and Transnational Education (TNE), as well as the Social Media Coordinator within the In-Sessional special interest group. Her research interests include digital learning, intercultural communication and the metaverse.
Stella Bunnag,
Social Media Coordinator
Rob Playfair, Ordinary Member
I am an EAP practitioner and PhD researcher at Birkbeck, University of London. I have taught on a range of in-sessional provision across three universities in the UK. Using ethnographic and academic literacies approaches, my research focuses on in-sessional teachers and the kinds of knowledge we develop and use working within these contexts.
Chris Jannetta,
Web Co-ordinator
Chris is an Academic Skills Tutor at the University of Dundee. With over 20 years' teaching experience including 5 years in Japan, Chris has worked as an EAP practitioner, engaged in the delivery of learning and teaching, peer support in the form of professional development workshops and sessions, and research into language learning and scholarship. With a background in technical authoring and IT networking, he has a particular interest in the effective dissemination of information through multimedia technologies.