Dr Jacqueline Houghton

Profile

I am an Associate Professor of Geoscience Education.  My current research focuses on exploring, developing and disseminating good practice in inclusive geoscience teaching, with a particular emphasis on fieldwork, and in advocating for equality, diversity and inclusion across the discipline. I am the School’s Academic Disability Contact, working with students with disabilities to support their studies, and raising awareness amongst staff of how to support students.  I am the Faculty of Environment Access and Student Success Academic Lead, a role which includes developing Faculty strategy to ensure our educational activities and academic community are inclusive and enable success for all our students. I have also been involved in developing the University’s inclusive learning and teaching baseline standards.  I lead the Virtual Landscapes Project, which creates video games-based worlds within which to teach geological field skills. These landscapes can be used to provide alternative field experiences for students who might otherwise not be able to participate or fully participate in fieldwork. This was awarded the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Digital Innovation in Teaching or Research, 2016.

I am co-founder and co-chair of Diversity in Geoscience, UK (DiG-UK) a charitable organisation that promotes equitable access in geoscience. DiG-UK aims to improve equality, diversity and inclusivity within the UK geosciences by raising awareness of the challenges faced by underrepresented groups, and by working with educators and employers to support the development of a more accessible, diverse and inclusive geoscience community.

Responsibilities

• Faculty Access and Student Success Academic Lead
• School Academic Disability Contact

Research interests

Research projects I am/have been involved in include:

AHRC/NERC project Decolonising UK Earth Science pedagogy - from the hidden histories of our geological institutions to inclusive curricula, part of the Hidden Histories of Environmental Science programme (2022-23).

NERC project A virtual environmental geoscience experience part of the Making environmental science equal, diverse and inclusive programme (2022).

OfS/HEFCE project Embedding and Sustaining Inclusive STEM Practices, part of the Addressing Barriers to Student Success programme (2017-2019).  As part of this grant I organised and led the “Access Anglesey” inclusive field course. This week long course gave a mixed ability cohort of students an opportunity to experience inclusive fieldwork. It aimed to explore which methods assist inclusion and accessibility in the field and to develop and share good practice.

Qualifications

• PhD, Structural Geology and Tectonics, Imperial College
• BSc, Geology, Imperial College

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Fellow of the Geological Society of London

Student education

 I currently teach on structural geology, geological history, geosocietal and dissertation mapping modules.

Research groups and institutes

• Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics