Dr Kerry Traynor, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool
Dr Kerry Traynor, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool, describes her experience of achieving National Teaching Fellowship 2025, an Advance HE award which celebrates and recognises individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education.
Kerry writes:
As the first in my family to attend university, I never imagined I would one day teach in higher education myself, never mind win a national award for it.
Although I now feel like an ‘outsider’ much less than I used to, my ‘first-gen’ experience has shaped my career and professional philosophy as an educator and scholar ever since.
The ‘golden thread’ that runs through my teaching, scholarship and practice centres on developing inclusive, practice-based, active and authentic learning experiences that build students’ distinctive cultural capital to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes needed for meaningful graduate lives and careers. I’m passionate about critical media pedagogies which foster critical approaches to media production and enabling students to use their communicative powers for social good.
At the University of Liverpool, this has played out in the form of new practice-based modules in media writing and viral media involving collaborations with many interdisciplinary colleagues and external partners, providing students with invaluable experience in working with subject experts and industry ‘clients’ from a range of sectors and applying their media expertise in a range of contexts.
It also led me to create the Russell Group’s first Communication and Media Year in Industry programme, which enables students to study within a research-intensive critical and theoretical department while also applying and deepening their knowledge through meaningful practical experience. Over several years, these changes led to significant improvements in student employability and graduate outcomes.
That ‘golden thread’ also underpins my research and scholarship, which seeks to enhance student experience and outcomes and narrow awarding gaps, increase communicative power within the third sector, and rebuild social and cultural infrastructure through community asset development. You can read more about my research and scholarship here https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/kerry-traynor
It’s enormously rewarding to know that the values that underpin my teaching and scholarship are shared and celebrated within the NTF community, and I’m excited about the next steps, which I hope will bring new collaborations with educators, scholars and practitioners across the UK and internationally.
For more information: For more information contact Kerry via K.Traynor@liverpool.ac.uk or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kerry-traynor/
Image: Dr Kerry Traynor receives her National Teaching Fellowship certificate from Advance HE
