Staff Profile

I am an educational researcher. I use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, with a specialism in comics as a method in social science research. My main research interests are: the role of comics in constructions of understanding, and a co-production methodology for making comics that communicate critical research to specific audiences. 

Qualifications/accreditation:

• I began my part-time PhD in Education in January 2015, due to complete in 2022 (ESRC, NINEDTP/NEDTC funding awarded from 2015/16).  My research is about British comics (newspaper strips, political cartoons, children’s comics, graphic novels…) 2005-2017 and readers’ constructions of Britishness.
• Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods (2017)
• Master's in Education (MEd, Newcastle University 2010).  My dissertation was about 'classroom talk' in Higher Education.
• Postgraduate Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA, 2007)
• BA in History (University of York, 2003), which included an exchange year at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Memberships and affiliations:

• British Educational Research Association (member)
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UKPSF). As a Professional Standards Advisor I mentor staff at Newcastle University applying for their own UKPSF accreditation
• Newcastle University's Research Centre for Learning and Teaching (core member)
• Honorary Contract with Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Trust (non-clinical Research Associate, Children's Services)
• Comics Studies Society (member)
• Joint coordinator (with Ian Horton London College of Communication, and John Swogger) of the Applied Comics Network, a network for anyone working with comics or graphic narrative and information
• School governor - Newcastle University representative on the governing committee of Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College, North Tyneside

Current projects: 

• VOICES project - Children and young people living in poverty: Covid-10 needs and policy implications (I am Co-I, working with PI Liz Todd and team; ESRC Covid-19 Rapid Response)
• Accelerating collaborations between comics creators and researchers (PI; ESRC IAA ABC)
• Research and comics seminar series (PI, working with Jorge Catala-Carrasco and Mel Gibson; NU Institute of Social Science)
• Patient information comics with the Great North Children's Hospital (I am Co-I with Janice McLaughlin, working with clinical teams at GNCH; GNCH Foundation)
• Gertrude Bell Archive comics Gertrude Bell: Archaeologist, Writer, Explorer (collaboration with Mark Jackson, John Miers, Helen Berry, Sana Al-Naimi, Saziye Tasdemir, Sara Qaed, Brittany Coxon)

Recent projects:

• Freedom City Comics (Overall project lead: Matthew Grenby). http://research.ncl.ac.uk/fccomics/
• evidence gathering and co-writing a REF ICS
• work with Children North East to extend the evaluation of their work Poverty Proofing the School Day(PI is Liz Todd, working with Laura Mazzoli-Smith)
• InHarmony evaluation with Sage Gateshead (PI: Karen Laing)
• ROMtels Erasmus project (PI: Heather Smith). http://research.ncl.ac.uk/romtels/ 

Teaching experience

• 2020/21 - (ongoing) Critical Realism session, HSS8007 team-taught module as part of Faculty PGR provision
• 2017/18 -2019/20 (ongoing) Seminar leader for educational theory seminar, as part of BA Education module EDU3002 Social Justice and Education
• (ongoing) Supervision of M-level students in ECLS
• (ongoing) Workshop leader for archives-based comics workshops with children, young people and adults
• 2015-2021 (ongoing) Professional Standards Advisor for UKPSF: mentoring academic staff applying for D1-D3 accreditation; assessing applications for fellowship; taking part in Single Recognition Panel
• 2013 Deputy course leader, CASAP course for academics visiting Newcastle University
• 2011-2015 Contributing teacher for CASAP Certificate of Advanced Studies in Academic Practice, Newcastle University
• 2008-2009 Module Leader for undergraduate English majors at Southeast University, Nanjing; also Teacher at English First language school, Nanjing; and summer school teacher at Fushan Lu primary school, Shanghai
• 2007 English language summer school teacher, Greenwich, London

• Wysocki L. Hate, Marginalization, and Tramp-bashing: A Raceclass and Critical Realist Approach to Researching British National Identity through Comics. In: Thom Giddens, ed. Critical Directions in Comics Studies. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2020, pp.332.
• Smith HJ, Robertson LH, Auger N, Wysocki L. Translanguaging as a political act with Roma: carving a path between pluralism and collectivism for transformation. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 2020, 18(1), 98-135.
• Wysocki L, Jackson M, Miers J, Webster J, Coxon B. Making the invisible visible: hyperlinked webcomics as alternative points of entry to the digitised Gertrude Bell archive. International Journal of Heritage Studies 2020, 26(5), 480-497.
• McNicol S, Wysocki L. Comics in Qualitative Research. In: Paul A. Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Alexandru Cernat, and Richard Williams, ed. SAGE Research Methods Foundations. Sage Publications Ltd, 2019.
• Wysocki L, Leat D. Collaborative comic as Boundary Object: the creation, reading, and uses of Freedom City Comics Cómic colaborativo como Objeto de Frontera: la creación, lectura y usos de Freedom City Comics. Tebeosfera 2019, 3(10).
• McLaughlin J, Wysocki L. Drawing the MRI: Qualitatively evaluating a comic form information guide to having an MRI and reflecting on the collaborative process. In: Great North Children's Research Community Conference: Child Health Research Across Organisational Boundaries. 2019, International Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne.
• Wysocki L. Linking research and practice: qualitative social science data collection at a UK comics convention. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 2019, 10(5-6), 505-524.
• Wysocki L. Comics as a method throughout an empirical research process. In: National Centre for Research Methods Research Methods Festival 2018. 2018, University of Bath, UK.
• Wysocki L. Farting Jellyfish and Synergistic Opportunities: The Story and Evaluation of Newcastle Science Comic. The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship 2018, 8(1), 6.
• Wysocki L, Coxon B. Freedom City Comics. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Lydia Wysocki, 2017. Anthology of comics.
• Wysocki L. Internet research methods second edition. International Journal of Research & Method in Education 2017, 40(1), 109-110.
• Wysocki L, Coxon B, (eds.). Spineless: The Newcastle Science Comic. Newcastle: Lydia Wysocki, 2015.
• Wysocki L, Thompson M. EPIC THEMES IN AWESOME WAYS: How we made Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic, and why it matters. In: Comics Forum. 2014, Leeds, UK.
• Wysocki L, Thompson P, (eds.). Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic. Newcastle: Lydia Wysocki, 2013. Comic.
• Wysocki L. Sociometric mapping of who talks to whom in class. In: BERA Special Interest Group: Innovative research methods in the study of HE. 2012, Institute of Education, London: BERA.
• Mazzoli Smith L, Tiplady L, Todd L, Wysocki L. Fighting against poverty: case studies of school action. Poverty Proofing the School Day evaluation update 2019/20. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2020.
• Smith HJ, Wysocki L. Roma Translanguaging Enquiry Learning Space (ROMtels). EAL Journal 2020, Autumn 2020, 41-44.