Experts directory - S

Jane Sarkar - (Email)
Course Director, Fashion Retail Management, BIAD

• Fashion

Owen Saunders - (Email)

• European Law

Vicky Schofield-Vollans - (Email)
Head of Academic Skills Centre

• Study skills provision for home students
• Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL)

Louise Shephard - (Email)
Head of Singing, Birmingham School of Acting

• Singing
• Voice
• Acting through song
• Musical Theatre
• Singing Techniques
• Singing Coaching
• Repertoire
  

Louise studied singing at Birmingham City University Conservatoire and won a scholarship for Post-Graduate study of Music Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst in Birmingham she worked extensively with Ex-Cathedra Choir and Consort and as a singing tutor for their Sandvik Schools Choir Educational programme. On leaving the Royal Academy of Music, as well as performing, Louise became head of singing at Elmhurst School for Performing Arts where she devised the singing component for the Jazz and Commercial Dance course, focusing on technique and communication through song and introducing a workshop programme with leading practitioners in the field of music theatre.

She has worked at many leading drama schools, is vocal coach for the CBSO youth choirs and has a successful singing practice in London teaching and trouble-shooting with performers in the West End.

In Sept 2005 Louise became head of singing at Birmingham School of Acting and is currently developing a new post-graduate course in Music Theatre.

Stephen Simms - (Email)
Director, Birmingham School of Acting

• Acting
• Directing
• Acting for screen, acting Shakespeare

Stephen is a graduate of Bristol University and RADA, where he trained before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company, with whom he acted for several years.

He has appeared in the West End, feature films, television, and regional and international theatres. He has worked as a director and drama tutor with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust the University of Ferrara, Italy, and several Universities in the USA. Stephen directs and teaches on both BSA programmes and is the School’s Head of Acting. Stephen is currently reading for a PhD exploring the training of actors to perform Shakespeare.

Dr Amanda Simpson - (Email)

• Primary mathematics

Dr Amanda Simpson is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education in the Faculty of Education, Law & Social Sciences. She teaches on the BA Primary Education (with QTS) and the MA degree. A graduate from the University of Warwick, Amanda is currently researching children's conceptual development in mathematics; transfer and application of knowledge in primary mathematics; and cognition-focused teaching in mathematics. Previously a class teacher and Deputy Head Teacher in Birmingham primary schools, Amanda changed direction and moved into Educational research in 2002, working for Warwick University. In 2004 she began lecturing at Birmingham City University, mainly on the BA(QTS) and MA courses. Her particular interest is in how children develop knowledge and understanding in all areas of mathematics and her doctoral studies focused on children's knowledge building and transfer about numbers.

Professor Philip Smallwood MA (Oxon), M.Phil (Oxon), Ph.D (London), FRSA- (Email)  

Professor of English

• Dr Samuel Johnson
• R.G. Collingwood
• The History of Literary Criticism
• Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Poetry and Criticism

Philip Smallwood, who is a graduate of the universities of Oxford (Lincoln College) and London (King's) is Professor of English at Birmingham City University where he teaches courses on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature, on the poetry and prose of Dryden, Pope and Johnson, on literary thought, and the history of literary criticism. He is the author of 9 books and numerous articles, chapters, and essays, and has given invited lectures at Columbia University, Oxford University, the University of Virginia and the University of Bristol. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the US Johnsonians, and has held a Visiting Fellowship at Yale University and Visiting Scholarships at the Universities of Oxford and London. His specialist publications include a book on modern criticism (1990), on Pope (Reconstructing Criticism, 2003), and on Johnson (Johnson's Critical Presence, 2004), and has edited collections of essays on Johnson (2001, 2^nd ed. 2009) and on the history of criticism (2004). He has written and lectured widely on eighteenth-century literature, theory and historiography and is co-editor of R.G. Collingwood's The Philosophy of Enchantment (Oxford University Press, 2005, 2^nd ed. 2007), as well as being a contributor to the forthcoming OUP edition of Collingwood's Autobiography. He is also a contributor to the 1660-1790 volume of the Oxford History of Literary Translation in English (2005), and to the forthcoming volume 3 of the Oxford History of Classical Reception. Current projects include a study of the historiographical principles of eighteenth-century critical history. Smallwood is co-editor, with Greg Clingham, of Johnson After 300 Years to be published in the summer of 2009 by Cambridge University Press.

School of English, BCU, B42 2SU

George Smith - (Email)

• Welfare state (the)
• Social security

Richard Snell - (Email)
Head of Department of Fashion, Textiles and 3 Dimensional Design, BIAD

• Fashion
• Furniture

Debbie Stringer - (Email)

• Family Law

Dr Panch Suntharalingam - (Email)
Course Director, MA Design and Visualisation, BIAD

• Computer Aided Design (CAD)
• Design and Visualisation
• Engineering Product Design
• Industrial Design
• Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programmes
• Software Programming
• Enterprise Development
• Medical Product Design
• Interior Products
•  Rapid Prototyping

Panch is a Course Director for MA Design and Visualisation in BIAD. He teaches product design, design, interior design and interior product design and his areas of expertise and interest include: Computer Aided Design (CAD), Design and Visualisation, Engineering Product Design, Industrial Design, Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programmes, Software Programming, Enterprise Development, Medical Product Design, Interior Products, Research and Rapid Prototyping.

Panch's current research interest include new products. Panch received his PHD from Birmingham City University and he first graduated from Middlesex University with a BSc (Hons) Mechanical Engineering degree.

Panch Suntharalingham is a trained engineer and computer scientist and has published many well known opening title sequences on BBC and ITV networks including 'Top Gear'. His wealth of experience with industry includes 'knowledge transfer partnerships', gaining two 1st class DTI awards. He is also an External Examiner at various national and international universities at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Furthermore, he is a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering.

Professor John Sparrow - (Email)

Professor of Occupational Psychology,                Associate Dean (Research and Staffing) Business School

• Occupational Psychology
• Knowledge Management
• Reflective Practice
• Coaching
• Creativity
• Innovation
• Knowledge Transfer 

John Sparrow is a chartered psychologist. He is Associate Dean, Professor of Occupational Psychology and Director of the Management and Enterprise Development Centre in Birmingham City Business School. He has conducted work on behalf of the EU, UK Government, industry federations, large businesses and small and medium sized enterprises. He has written extensively on organisational cognition, knowledge management and reflective practice as they relate to knowledge creation at work. He has a particular interest in the role of emotion in creativity, decision-making and entrepreneurial learning and the contribution that coaching can make.

Tel: (w) 0121 331 5217

Email: john.sparrow@bcu.ac.uk