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Creative and Applied Participatory Resea...

Our Research : Creative and Applied Participatory Research Group

Our flourishing research and scholarship culture celebrates and enables original investigation; extending knowledge fields and developing new understanding within the arts.

Creative and Applied Participatory (CAP) Research Group

We're an interdisciplinary group of creative researchers working at the intersection of arts, design and society.

We aim to impact people’s lives positively by involving participant communities in meaningful and creative research investigations into issues directly affecting their lives.

Engaging people through creativity
Empowering voices in communities
Working to effect change
Creating opportunities for collaborating and connecting
Centring artistic expertise in creative participatory research methods
Advancing ethical practices in and improved understanding of participatory processes

Membership

Dr Emma Shercliff Associate Professor of Textiles and Participatory Making

PhD, BA(Hons), FHEA

Email me eshercliff@aub.ac.uk

Dr Emilie Giles Senior Lecturer

FHEA, PGCert, PhD, MA, BA (Hons)

Email me egiles@aub.ac.uk

Dr Asha Ward Research Fellow in Creative Technology

EngD, B.Sc.

Email me award@aub.ac.uk

Adele Keeley Senior Lecturer

MA Theatre Arts

Email me akeeley@aub.ac.uk

Woman in pink dress sits on kitchen worktop beneath drying wetsuit and boots hanging from wooden rack above blue tiled splashback.

Pauline Ferrick-Squibb Senior Lecturer

MA, PGCE, FHEA

Email me pferricksquibb@aub.ac.uk

Associate Professor Andrew Vallance Course Leader

BA, MA, PhD

Email me avallance@aub.ac.uk

Woman with blonde bob haircut in navy top and red patterned trousers, smiling whilst seated beside wooden bookshelves filled with books.

Cathy John Senior Lecturer

MPhil, BA (Hons), FHEA

Dr Alex Blower Research Fellow

PhD, MA, BA, FHEA, FRSA

Email me ablower@aub.ac.uk

PhD candidates and students

Ayodeji Alaka (PhD)
Helen Dowdeswell-Sill (PhD)
David Baker (MA)

Non-AUB affiliate members

Dr Katie Gaudion

Dr Katie Gaudion is a design consultant and Senior Research Associate at the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design...

Dr Ashley Woodfall

Dr Ashley Woodfall is Associate Professor of Children’s Media at Bournemouth University. His research focuses on children’s media...

Projects

Ferrick-Squibb. P., & Casey. C. (Bournemouth University) (2025) Nourish the New You: Wessex Health Partnerships and AUB KE funded project. Film and textile art exhibited at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Shercliff, E., Jacobs, J., Macleod, K., O’Mara, E., Moreau, A., Gabaly, S., Hussein, M., Mirza, S. & Hugo Costa, V. (2025) Sinai Stories: stories of life and labour told through textiles. Film Screening & Exhibition with a special display of Kirstie Macleod’s The Red Dress and Fansina artefacts.
Shercliff, E., Ward, A., Gaudion, K., Giles, E., Goy, S., Morgan, N., Njaka, C. L., Schulte, H. & Smith, K. (2025) QUILT: Questions for Understanding Impact and Learning Together. Card deck impact assessment toolkit.
Ward, A. & Newell, D. (Health Sciences University) (2025–26) Mixed Reality embodiment as therapeutic interventions for chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain: Leveraging body illusions in therapeutic encounters project. XR labs funded project.
Ward, A., Burgess, J. & Victoria Education Centre (2025–26) voxUP: A creative participatory research project to design an accessible beatbox looper music technology.
Alaka, A. (2026) Poster as Catalyst. Round table discussion and exhibition at UAL.
Alaka, A., Andrews, M. (UAL), Baumgartner-Cohen, B. (Guildhall) & Young, R. (Guildhall) (2026) A Living Archive of London Encounters. A cross-institutional, practice-led collaborative mapping project, funded by the UAL Catalyst fund.

Shercliff, E., & Twigger Holroyd, A. (Nottingham Trent University) (2019–20) Stitching Together. Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research network.
Keeley, A. & Hubbard, J. (2021) Improvise Jamming Under the Covid Cloud.
Shercliff, E., Devall, L. & Conrad, F. with the Pamoja tailors (2021–22) Co-development of drowning prevention tools: low-cost buoyancy aids in Zanzibar and training guidelines for local production. Global Challenges Research Funded (GCRF) project.
Vallance, A. (2022–25) Underline. Co-curated with Jenny Baines, Underline re-imagines urban space through artist intervention. By addressing sense-of-place, its impact on sense-of-self and community, it proposes that creative participation can develop new skills, enhance collective awareness and 'self-of-ownership'.
Keeley, A. & Hubbard, J. (2023–26) The Moving Canvas Project. Choreography using drawing and movement with community dance company Co-Evo.
Shercliff, E., Ward, A., Bliesemann de Guevara, B., Hackney, F., Njaka, C. L., Sanchez, E., Strohmayer, A., Twigger Holroyd, A. & Wellesley-Smith, C. (2023) The Macramé Framework: evaluating creative participatory making in research. Experimental macramé modelling of participatory research processes.
Ferrick-Squibb. P., (2024) This is Menopause: UKRI Research England funded project. Portraits, film and textile art exhibited at the House of Commons (2026)