Dr Kate Carruthers Thomas
Kate is a Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham City University. Her research interests are gender and contemporary higher education, academic writing practices, and creative research methodologies. Kate is also an illustrator and poet and uses both in the dissemination of her research.
She is Co-Convenor of a national research network: Higher Education and the COVID-19 Pandemic (HEC19) hosted by the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE).
Kate leads the Athena Swan Charter across BCU and is an Equalities Charter Associate (Athena Swan) for Advance HE.
Areas of Expertise
- Critical higher education studies
- Gender and inequalities
- Creative Research Methodologies
- Supporting academic writing for female academics
Qualifications
- PhD Birkbeck, University of London
- M.Ed Open University
- BA (Hons) University of Manchester
Memberships
- Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE)
Teaching
- Writing for Academic Publication
Research
- Academic writing practices and the impact of COVID-19
- Career development interventions for female staff in HE: the effectiveness of individualised pathways to success as a response to gender inequality?
- The role of embodied research dissemination in creative practice and academic identity
- Creating a resistant reading of family history through visual and disruptive research practices
Postgraduate Supervision
- Kate is currently supervising several Professional Doctorate and PhD students.
- She is an experienced internal and external doctoral examiner.
Publications
JOURNAL ARTICLES
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2024. Space in the time of COVID: Diary research, academia and gender. AREA.56 (1): Special Section: Researching Crisis Temporalities through Longitudinal Methodologies. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12894
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2021. Beyond the trap of the now: using a digital archive to engage with both present and future. The Sociological Review. 9 November.
Carruthers Thomas, K. 2021. - Carruthers Thomas, K. 2021. Being Between Binary: Personal Narratives and Power Geometry: A Visual Essay. Sexualities. 26:)(1-2). Special Issue: Here v There: Beyond Comparison in Queer and Sexuality Politics, (Browne, K. and Lalor, K. (eds). https://doi.org/10.1177/136346072110136
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2020. An alternative dynamics of research dissemination? The case of the g word tour. Qualitative Research 22 (2), pp300-312. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794120981234
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2017. Towards a Methodology: Organisational Mapping. International Journal of Professional Management: Special Edition: Arts and Management. 12 (3), pp55-64.
- Thomas, K. 2015. Rethinking belonging through Bourdieu, diaspora and the spatial. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning. 17(1), pp37-48.
BOOKS
- French, A. and Carruthers Thomas, K. eds., 2020. Teaching Excellence and Diversity Deficits. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Ltd.
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2018. Rethinking Student Belonging in Higher Education: From Bourdieu to Borderlands. London: Routledge.
BOOK CHAPTERS
- Carruthers Thomas, K. (forthcoming) Becoming a researcher/archivist: The case of the ‘Dear Diary’ archive. In Grant, A and Kara, H. (eds) Using Documents in Research: When, Where, Why, How. Bristol: Policy Press.
Carruthers Thomas, K. (in press) - Carruthers Thomas, K. (in press) Casting a long shadow: COVID-19 and female academics’ research productivity in the United Kingdom. In Acker, S., Ylijoki O-H, and McGinn, M.K. (eds) The Social Production of Research: Perspectives on Funding and Gender. London: Routledge.
- Carruthers Thomas, K. (in press) Five ‘Survive’ Lockdown: Revisualising Survey Data as a Graphic Novella. In H. Kara, D. Mannay and A. Roy (eds.) Creative Data Analysis. Bristol: Policy Press.
- Carruthers Thomas, K. (2021). The xCHANGE festival 2019: small x, big CHANGE? In Mahat, M. (ed.) Women Thriving in Academia. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Ltd.
- Carruthers Thomas, K. (2021)Gender and the University: Stories So Far and Spaces Between. In M.Murphy, C.Burke, C.Costa and R.Raaper (Eds). Social Theory and the Politics of Higher Education: Critical Perspectives on Institutional Research. p133-149. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2019. Gender as a Geography of Power. In G. Crimmins (Ed.) Strategies for Resisting Sexism in the Academy. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
RESEARCH REPORTS
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2022. Final SRHE Project Report: Dear Diary.
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2020. Living and Working in Lockdown: What’s Gender got to do with it? Research Report. Birmingham City University.
ARTEFACTS
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2022. Dear Diary – An Illustrated Digital Archive. www.deardiaryresearch.co.uk
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2021. Five ‘Survive’ Lockdown. Sheffield. Mensa. [graphic novella].
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2020. In Mercer-Mapstone, L. (ed.) The Power of Staff-Student Partnerships: Revolutionizing Higher Education. Elon NC: . Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University. [visual notes].
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2019. Being Between Binary. In Maynooth University, Here versus There: Beyond Comparison in Queer and Sexuality politics, Maynooth, Ireland, 18 June 2019. [visual autoethnography].
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2019. Towards Practice in G. Hill and S. Vaughan (eds.) Ten Ways to Investigate Research Supervision Practice. SEDA Special 43, London: SEDA. [graphic essay].
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2018. My Brilliant Career? An Investigation. In Sociological Review, Undisciplining: Conversations from the Edges. BALTIC, Gateshead UK, 18-21 June 2018. [graphic essay].
RESEARCH POETRY
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2023. Poetry in Emotion: Writing Up Emotional Labour. First Performance at International Creative Research Methods Conference, Manchester UK. September 10.
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2019. Glass Sociological Fiction Zine edition #5 pp16-24 [online]. Available at: https://sofizine.com/latest-edition/edition-5/ [Accessed 11 November 2019].
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2019. Glass. First performance: 1 September 2018.
BLOGS
- Carruthers Thomas, K. 2021. Collecting Diary Data. Methodspace. Sage Publishing. Blog. May.
- Carruthers Thomas, K. and Henderson, H. 2020. Making Space in HE Research. SRHE Guest Blog. 6 May
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2019. Redrawing Research, Rewriting Data. SRHE Guest Blog, 23 June.
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2019. Getting Graphic: Ways of Thinking. The Sociological Review Guest Blog, 13 April.
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2018. The Accidental Cartoonist. The Sociological Review Guest Blog, 28 March.
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, 2019. Glass: The Poetry of Science. 21 March.
- Birmingham City University, 2019. Research Fellow Takes Findings on National Tour. 17 January.
- Carruthers Thomas, K., 2018. Conferencing with Confidence. Conference Inference Blog.