Summary
As Head of Engagement (Evaluation and Capacity Building), Amy works to embed, enable and evaluate a culture of public engagement at Imperial. Managing a team within the Public Engagement department, Amy's role helps to deliver the Strategy for Engaging with Society and Public Engagement Strategic Plan.
Amy and her team provide training and support for staff and students to develop their public engagement skills and ideas. This includes Imperial's accredited six-month Engagement Academy, undergraduate Public Engagement module, an annual Engagement Day, engagement masterclasses, seed funding, awards, internal communications and networks.
Amy collaborates with colleagues across the College to embed public engagement within research strategy, impact, knowledge exchange and funding. Key to this is understanding and evidencing the impact of our engagement work - whether in relation to meeting our EDI aims, as part of the Research Excellence or Knowledge Exchange Frameworks, or to improve the experiences of those contributing to and taking part in our public engagement programmes.
Before joining Imperial in January 2017, Amy worked at the Wellcome Trust supporting researchers in their public engagement activities and managing funding for engagement with research. Prior to that she was a Research Associate at King’s College London focusing on science capital, science education and informal science learning.
Amy has collaborated with many organisations as an evaluation consultant to develop and deliver evaluation and research projects, including the Natural History Museum and ZSL London Zoo. Her PhD research explored public engagement in museums, and she holds an MSc in Science Communication and a BSc in Biology.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Dawson E, Archer L, Seakins A, et al., 2020, Selfies at the science museum: exploring girls’ identity performances in a science learning space, Gender and Education, Vol:32, ISSN:0954-0253, Pages:664-681
Seakins A, Fitzsimmons A, 2020, Mind the gap: can a professional development programme build a university’s public engagement community?, Research for All, Vol:4, ISSN:2399-8121, Pages:291-309
Archer L, Dawson E, Seakins A, et al., 2016, Disorientating, fun or meaningful? Disadvantaged families’ experiences of a science museum visit, Cultural Studies of Science Education, Vol:11, ISSN:1871-1502, Pages:917-939
Archer L, Dawson E, DeWitt J, et al., 2015, “Science capital”: A conceptual, methodological, and empirical argument for extending bourdieusian notions of capital beyond the arts, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol:52, ISSN:0022-4308, Pages:922-948
Seakins A, Dillon J, 2013, Exploring Research Themes in Public Engagement Within a Natural History Museum: A Modified Delphi Approach, International Journal of Science Education, Part B, Vol:3, ISSN:2154-8455, Pages:52-76