Lydia is a PhD researcher with a passion for justice and inclusion. She is also an experienced teacher and facilitator, having taught English for over twelve years. Whilst a decade of her previous teaching career was spent working with pupils at the Manchester Grammar School, where she was also a Head of Year for three years, she first began by teaching a wide range of adult learners in the Access Department of what was then The Manchester College of Arts and Technology. Alongside the first half of her current PhD studies, she worked for the Boaz Trust, supporting people with refugee status whilst developing the charity’s provision in this area. She was also part of a team from the University of Manchester who researched and wrote the ground-breaking report, Breaking the Glass: Understanding the Barriers faced by Black Professional Women in Career Progression (2021) as part of the Collaboration Labs programme and in partnership with local NGO, She Leads for Legacy.

Lydia’s undergraduate degree was in English (Literature), and she holds an MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy, and one in Practical Theology. As a researcher, she enjoys qualitative approaches, including ethnography, interviews, focus groups, workshops, and developing empowering, participative and creative approaches. Her current research project is a womanist endeavour, which engages voice and identity in Black women of Caribbean descent in the UK, drawing on my facilitation experience to craft an interactive, rich, rewarding and empowering experience for the participants. Aside from Womanist and Black Theology, Lydia is interested in hospitality, theopoetics, embodiment, ecclesiology and developing participative and creative (Arts-based) research methodologies.