Academic Writing & Background

My life as an academic probably began in earnest at Trinity & All Saints College (Leeds University) where I graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) in English and Media (whoop!), I really got a lot out of this degree and I later followed this with a part-time MA in English Literature at the University of Leeds.

My interests were rooted in narrative, culture, and critical politics — themes that continue to shape my writing today.

Immediately after graduating at Trinity I was offered a part time job teaching a “Recording for Pop Music” module and this was added to by Media Theory and delivering various tutorials and digital research methods. I applied for a lecturer post there and didn’t get it, so I left when later the opportunity of a proper job at the University of Bradford came up, where I eventually became a Senior Lecturer.

My academic writing during my period at Bradford Uni explored how people learn, communicate and make meaning in a rapidly changing world.

Much of of my published work sits within the fields of mobile and mixed‑reality learning but my deeper concerns were always about power, inequality, the environment, and the lived experience in spaces. (For example, I was particularly angry at one moment about how Asda had replaced a town called Pudsey but a paper about this was roundly rejected!)

I got frustrated at the Engineering approach to ‘progress’ I encountered in the department I was in because I felt it overlooked questions of power and wealth. I think I was in the wrong subject areas to be honest. The Web was a dream-space of progress and possibility. And now look!

I took on a role as “Ecoversity Pioneer”, helping develop institutional thinking around sustainability and ecological responsibility. This work sharpened my understanding of how consumerism, climate breakdown and social inequality intersect — concerns that now inform my poetry, fiction and community work far more than technical research ever did.

I think my background in literature and media was more powerful in my thinking that the requirements to publish in technical fields, and it led to something of a disconnect and sense of dissatisfaction with what I was doing. I was also overloaded and had some imposter syndrome within the job.

After more than a decade and a half in higher education, I made the deliberate but difficult decision to leave academia. I wanted to work in the “real world”, with real communities, on issues that mattered directly to people’s lives – including mine.

This eventually led to the co-founding of Capital of Cycling, and my involvement in environmental and civic campaigns across Bradford and West Yorkshire grew.

My academic background remains part of my story, but I find it slightly troublesome and uneasy how it sits alongside me now. Undoubtedly it still impacts my creative work, activism and community organising — all of which shape the themes I explore in writing.

Selected Academic Publications

Learning, Culture & Digital Environments

• The MOBO City: A Mobile Game Package for Technical Language Learning
  Fotouhi‑Ghazvini, Earnshaw, Robison, Excell — International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (2009)
• From E‑Learning to M‑Learning: The Use of Mixed Reality Games as a New Educational Paradigm
  Fotouhi‑Ghazvini, Earnshaw, Moeini, Robison, Excell — iJIM (2011)
• Designing Augmented Reality Games for Mobile Learning Using an Instructional‑Motivational Paradigm
  Fotouhi‑Ghazvini, Earnshaw, Robison, Excell — CyberWorlds Conference (2009)
• A Psycho‑Pedagogical Approach to M‑Learning in a Developing‑World Context
  Fotouhi‑Ghazvini, Excell, Moeini, Robison — International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation (2008)
• Using a Conversational Framework in Mobile Game‑Based Learning
  Fotouhi‑Ghazvini, Earnshaw, Robison, Moeini, Excell — Education Unplugged (2011)
• A Design Methodology for Game‑Based Second Language Learning Software on Mobile Phones
  Fotouhi‑Ghazvini, Moeini, Robison, Earnshaw, Excell — Internet Technologies & Applications (2009)
• Interactive and Augmented Information Spaces to Support Learning and Dynamic Decision‑Making
  Robison, Earnshaw, McClory — CyberWorlds Conference (2009)

Media, Culture & Communication

• Tsunami Mobilisations: Mobile Phones, Citizen Journalism and the Mass Media
  Robinson & Robison — in The Cell Phone Reader: Essays in Social Transformation (2006)

Environmental Awareness & Place‑Based Learning

• Geocache Adventures: Ubiquitous Handheld Computing as an Aid to Promote Environmental Awareness
  Robison — International Journal of Innovation and Leadership in the Teaching of Humanities (2011)

Creative & Cultural Academic Work

Alongside research, I founded and directed the Media and Conflict Film Festival at Pictureville Cinema (National Media Museum, Bradford). The festival brought together filmmakers, academics, journalists and peace‑studies thinkers — including Dr Paul Rogers — to explore how war, propaganda and representation interact in media (factual, fictional and so on).

Whilst still at Uni, I wrote and directed the play Death, Love and Ecstasy, and whilst teaching, I worked on several short films, including Graham Reaper, now available on YouTube.

These creative projects we part of a long‑standing interest in how stories, images and technologies shape our sense of the world.