Dr Matthew Isherwood

About me:

My teaching experience spans high school and higher education, teaching theory, methodologies, and art techniques at the undergraduate and graduate levels. My research brings aesthetic theory and queer theory together in dialogue to explore ways of learning that animate one’s understanding of difference and potentiality. I am particularly interested in the creative practices of contemporary queer artists, such as Félix González-Torres, Zoe Leonard, Jack Smith, Derek Jarman, and Prem Sahib, and their work’s educative potential. Through engaged aesthetic reflection, I have explored how the work of these queer aesthetes invites new opportunities to see, hear, and feel that move past routine and familiar ideas regarding sexuality, gender, and race. One of the main concepts to emerge from my research is that of a queer aesthetic sensibility and how it aids the process of searching, naming, and resisting societal prejudice and normative ideals. It has been productive in informing practices for educators who wish to curate pedagogical aesthetic spaces in which prior knowledge can be questioned, and alternatives to the routine imagined.

As an educator, I have shared my research and ideas through published papers and at conferences. Currently, I am a Lecturer in Creativity & Arts Education at Exeter University’s School of Education. Previously, I taught for several years as a sessional instructor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Qualifications:

Ph.D, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia

Master of Arts, Art Education, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia

Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), Manchester Metropolitan University