DrKirsty Hemsworth
Skills Manager
Professional Services
RESEARCH, INNOVATION & KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
My research and scholarly practice explore the intersections of academic literacies, partnership pedagogy, digital learning, and social justice in higher education. Key areas of interest include:
- Student–staff partnership as emancipatory practice: partnership models in library and learning development settings; relationships between power, participation and co-creation; student voice as a driver for equitable curriculum design.
- Inclusive and anti-deficit approaches to academic skills: tackling hidden curricula; widening participation; understanding help‑seeking behaviours; supporting Global Majority and other minoritised learners.
- Digital learning and accessibility: asynchronous pedagogy; accessible resource design; technology-enhanced academic skills teaching; digital capabilities and confidence-building.
- AI literacy and student behaviour: user experience approaches to GenAI; how students understand, problem-solve and navigate learning technologies; prompting as an academic literacy.
- Participatory and practice-based research methodologies: co-authored, co-designed and student-led research; reflective and narrative methods; UX approaches within library pedagogy.
Across these areas, I am particularly interested in how libraries and learning development teams can challenge structural inequities by making academic practices visible, negotiable and co-created.