Mrs Helen Thomas-Hughes
BA(Hons), MSc., SFHEA
Expertise
Current positions
Associate Professor of Community Engaged Research and Pedagogy, Director of Education
Cabot Institute
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
- Community-engaged and co-produced research method and ethics
- Community researchers and community researcher training
- Community-engagement pedagogy
- Parenting support and intervention approaches in the UK
- Small/medium third sector organisations
- Third-sector delivery of parenting support
- Intimate-partner violence in young people and approaches to intervention in the UK
- Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities programme
Research Projects
- Interdisciplinary Supervision: Building Cross-Disciplinary Expertise In Future Environmental Research Leaders (PI). 2023.
- Co-developing environmental and sustainability pedagogy. How can co-producing pedagogy engage, empower, and inspire diverse student bodies as collaborative environmental change makers? (PI). partnered with The Young Foundation and a team of student 'peer' researchers. 2022-23.
- Qualitative insights into the Connected Network (PI). 2023.
- From PGR to Professor: Re-Imagining a Culture of Belonging in the Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences (PI). Research England, Enhancing Research Culture-funded. 2022-23.
- Building Inclusive Culture in Environmental Research: A Case Study of the Cabot Master’s by Research in Global Environmental Challenges (MScR) (co-PI). Research England, Enhancing Research Culture-funded. 2021-2022.
- Co-producing new inter-disciplinary solutions: coming together to tackle climate impacts, health, and wellbeing (PI), NERC-funded. Partner: Praxis Research. 2021-2022.
- Advanced Research Methods Training: Co-Production and Community Research (PI). ESRC-funded. Delivered to academic and public audiences through National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) in 2021.
- Accrediting Community Engagement: A Bristol Approach to Service-Learning (PI). 2018-2019, Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching (BILT).
- Productive Margins: Regulating for Engagement (Senior Research Associate). 2013 - 2018, ESRC/AHRC.
- Community-Based Researchers - Making Co-production Happen (PI). 2017-2018, CC Catalyst Fund
- Girls Making History.(Project Lead). 2014 - 2015, EPSRC. (High Commendation from University of Bristol Engage Awards 2014/15)
- Gender Based Violence and Displacement. (methodological consultant). 2017 - 2019, ESRC/AHRC.
- Negotiating the Regulatory Terrain, An Ethnographic Case Study of Third Sector Parenting Programme Delivery in the UK. 2014 - 2024 (PhD research), ESRC, UoB Law School.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Testing The Toolkit: Exploring The ‘Research Team Culture Toolkit’ With Environmental PGR Communities
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Cabot InstituteDates
01/02/2024 to 31/07/2024
Exploring Research Communities Post-Pandemic
Principal Investigator
Description
This project will work with The Young Foundation to employ 2 PGR students as Community ‘peer’ Researchers (CRs). Community research is a key methodological tool for this project due to…Managing organisational unit
Cabot InstituteDates
30/11/2023 to 30/06/2024
Returning to Research: Enabling Mature PGRs to Thrive in Environmental Research Careers
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Cabot InstituteDates
10/11/2023 to 31/07/2024
Interdisciplinary Supervision: Building Cross-Disciplinary Expertise In Future Environmental Research Leaders
Principal Investigator
Description
Developing specialist training unit for Interdisciplinary research supervisors.Managing organisational unit
Cabot InstituteDates
01/04/2023 to 31/08/2023
Co-developing Environmental and Sustainability Pedagogy through Peer Research
Principal Investigator
Dates
01/01/2023 to 31/07/2023
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
01/08/2021The Ethics of Co-Production in Practice: Reflections
Sage Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry
Interlude: Community Researchers and Community Researcher Training
Imagining Regulation Differently
Conceptualising quality in co-produced research
Qualitative Research
Reflections from the Field: Researchers Experiences of Co-Production
Research for All
Collaborative Fiction Writing with Community Groups: A Practitioners Guide
Collaborative Fiction Writing with Community Groups: A Practitioners Guide