Our people

Dr Dominik Havsteen-Franklin Dominik Havsteen-Franklin’s work explores how arts therapies and creative health practices contribute to personal, social, technological, and systemic change. As Professor of Practice in Arts Therapies at Brunel University London and Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, he works across clinical practice, research, education, public health, digital innovation, and cultural partnership. His scholarship is concerned with the conditions through which change becomes possible. Drawing on complexity theory, critical realism, new materialist and posthumanist thought, systems thinking, ecological models, mentalization-based approaches, and critically pluralist arts therapies theory, Dominik examines how wellbeing emerges through relations between people, materials, places, institutions, cultures, technologies, and forms of knowledge. A central theme in his recent work is the relationship between creativity, artificial intelligence, and wellbeing. He is interested in how AI and digital systems organise patterns of convergence and divergence: how they can narrow complex experience through prediction, classification, optimisation, and repetition, but also how they may support generative reflection, relational insight, and imaginative forms of inquiry when developed within ethical and participatory frameworks. His methodological work spans realist evaluation, arts-based inquiry, participatory research, mixed-methods evaluation, psychometric development, and complexity-informed programme design. He is particularly interested in methods that can account for emergence, uncertainty, power, context, and lived experience, especially where conventional models of evidence struggle to capture the relational, material, and ecological dimensions of arts-based practice. Dominik’s current projects include research on ethical digital creative health through p_ART_icipate!, education and wellbeing through the Art of Wellbeing in Education Project, AI-informed approaches to relational and linguistic change in mental health contexts, and creative systems approaches to NHS team development and organisational learning (CaRE Project). His work with teams focuses on how affect, communication, leadership, professional identity, institutional pressures, and psychological safety interact within complex organisational ecologies. Across these projects, Dominik works with partners in health services, higher education, cultural organisations, digital innovation, community settings, and international arts therapies networks. His research seeks to develop approaches that are theoretically rigorous, practically useful, and accountable to the communities, practitioners, institutions, and technologies through which contemporary wellbeing practices are shaped. My research explores how arts therapies and creative health practices contribute to wellbeing, mental health, education, social change and systems development. I am particularly interested in relational and ecological approaches to practice, and in how change emerges through interactions between people, materials, places, institutions, technologies and wider socio-political contexts. My work draws on complexity theory, critical realism, new materialist and posthumanist thought, systems thinking, mentalization-based practice and critically pluralist arts therapies theory. Methodologically, I work across realist evaluation, arts-based research, participatory inquiry, mixed-methods evaluation, psychometric development and complexity-informed programme theory. Current research interests include digital creative health, ethical wellbeing technologies, artificial intelligence and creativity, convergence and divergence in mental health and wellbeing, arts-based approaches to team development, creative health in education, social art therapy, trauma-informed practice, and context-sensitive approaches to evaluating creative health interventions. Arts therapies and creative health Social art therapy and arts-based approaches to social change Digital creative health, digital wellbeing, and ethical online practice Artificial intelligence, creativity, mental health, and wellbeing Complexity theory, systems thinking, and ecological approaches to care Realist evaluation, Living Logic Models, and complexity-informed programme evaluation Participatory, arts-based, and practice-based research methods Mentalization, relational practice, and psychodynamic approaches in arts therapies Team development, organisational learning, and psychological safety in healthcare systems Education, curriculum development, and wellbeing in higher education Trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and socially situated arts therapies practice Psychometric development and evaluation of creative wellbeing measures Ethics, regulation, accessibility, and inclusion in creative health and arts therapies Interdisciplinary partnerships across health, education, culture, community, and technology sectors

Ms Liliana Montoya De La Cruz Liliana Montoya De La Cruz is the Programme Lead for the MA in Art Psychotherapy. She is an Advanced Arts-based Practitioner, Educator and Visual Artist born in Colombia, and has lived most of her life in Europe between the UK, France and Spain. She has an MA in Art Therapy from the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, where she has been lecturing and tutoring since 2017. Liliana has worked with children and adolescents in schools and in social services with women victims of domestic abuse. More recently she has worked in the humanitarian sector with the Red Pencil and the Red Cross implementing Art Therapy first-aid interventions for asylum seekers in refugee reception centres in Spain and Greece. Since 2007 she runs a community arts studio in Surrey and in 2014 she co-founded an inclusive arts school in Southern Spain. She is also a practising visual artist using primarily ceramics as her medium of expression.

Dr Yohai Hakak Dr Yohai Hakak joined Brunel in September 2014. Dr. Hakak's practice experience is in mental health social work. His areas of research interests are migration, embodiment, parenting, risk-perception, youth, religion, gender and mental health and the connection of these areas with social work. Dr Hakak published in these areas numerous articles. His last manuscript titled Haredi Masculinities between the Yeshiva, the Army, Work and Politics: The Sage, the Warrior and the Entrepreneur was an ethnographic study of Jewish Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) young men in Israel. It was published by Brill in 2016. The outcomes of Yohai’s academic work included also several award-winning documentary films. Yohai is interested in supervising students in the following areas and in relation to social work: Migration Embodiment Religious minorities Masculine identities Mental health Risk and its perception Mixed couples Yohai's current areas of research interest are: Embodiment in Academic and Professional Practice | Brunel University London The migration of professionals Mixed families Religious minorities Mental health State power

Professor William Watkin William Watkin is Professor of Contemporary Philosophy and Literature. He has been at Brunel University since 1999, and has held a personal Chair there since 2008. He is currently Director of Research for the Arts and Humanities Department, a position he has held more than once. During his time at Brunel he has also served as Head of English and of the English and Creative Writing Division and Deputy Head of the School. Professor Watkin has extensive experience with research assessment. He wrote English’s successful RAE2008 bid, our first submission as a unit to the RAE. He then supervised the early stages of our successful REF 2014 bid, overseeing the school’s internal mock-REF. He took over the final stages of the REF2021 submission, creating a vision for the division "Transforming the Literary Landscape." This submission was highly commended by the university and resulted in one of the highest GPAs at Brunel. Prof. Watkin’s research profile is extremely well-established, highly-regarded, influential and wide-ranging. His main area of interest for the last decade has been the philosophy of indifference. Although a well-established philosopher, Watkin began his career working on contemporary poetics and literary theory and wrote three books in this area. The third of these "The Literary Agamben", was highly regarded by Agamben himself and paved the way for the second phase of Watkin's career as he transitioned from a literary theorist to a continental philosopher. Watkin is the world's leading expert on the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben. Of his fourth book "Agamben and Indifference" Agamben himself wrote: "Watkin has produced a work of astonishing originality, which any attempt to read twentieth-century philosophy will be obliged to confront”. Of the same book leading philosoher François Laruelle wrote: “Watkin’s sharp lens is indispensable for those who want to grasp a central aspect of contemporary philosophy." Watkin is also one of the leading voices on the philosophy of Alain Badiou having written two books on key concepts in Badiou's overall project: "Badiou and Indifferent Being" and "Badiou and Communicable Worlds". Watkin's seventh book, "Bioviolence: How the powers that be make us do what they want" applies his philosophy of indifference to biopolitical theory, another area where he has extensive expertise. "Bioviolence" is also the first attempt by Watkin to apply indifferential thought to contemporary, real-world examples. This project is continued in his next book "Herd Immunities: The Philosophy of Covid" which analyses the global pandemic using the indifferential reasoning he has developed in the earlier work. Watkin is a published journalist with articles in The Independent, The Week, Newsweek Europe, The Big Issue, The Conversation, The New Philosopher, TES and The White Review. He has made various media appearances, and is also also a blogger and film-maker. He has a strong interest in the internet, social media, disinformation and, more recently AI. He is also a painter and large abstract acrylics. Many of the covers of his books were painted by him. Research Areas: Continental philosophy: Agamben, Badiou, Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault, Kristeva, Nancy, Esposito Analytical philosophy: Extensional logic, Frege, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine Literary Theory Contemporary and Modern Poetics Violence Biopolitics Covid Social media, AI and digital culture Prof. Watkin will supervise projects on any aspects of the work of Agamben, Badiou, Nancy and Deleuze. Further he will consider supervising students on any areas of literary theory, continental philosophy, contemporary literature, experimental poetry and poetics in general. His current research interest is indifference as a development, completion and critique of discourses of difference that have predominated in the humanities for the last forty years. He just completed a monograph on the work of philosopher Giorgio Agamben in relation to indifference. Agamben is one of Watkin’s areas of specialisation, having published the first critical monograph on Agamben and literature in 2010. He is currently working on Deleuze and indifference. His other major project is a consideration of the complex relation between poetry and philosophy since Heidegger, which conceives of poetry/literature as a mode of thinking or, as Watkin calls it, logopoiesis. His 2010 Agamben monograph is part of a three volume study of logopoiesis which will include work on Nancy and Badiou in the years to come. Previously Watkin has published books on the New York School of poetry in relation to avant-gardism and theoretical consideration of literatures of mourning in the modern era. He has published numerous articles on contemporary experimental poetry: Ashbery, O’Hara, Koch, Schulyer, Hejinian, Silliman, Bernstein, and Du Plessis Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Literature and Philosophy Contemporary Continental Philosophy: Agamben, Badiou, Deleuze, Nancy Indifference William Watkin has taught a wide variety of areas at Brunel. His current teaching interests revolve around the changing face of literary theory in the new millennium. He runs courses on the relation of philosophy to literature and the arts from the historical origins of aesthetics through to the most contemporary philosophical statements on aesthetics and literature. He has also taught contemporary literature for many years, specialising in contemporary poetry and poetics. He has a wider interest in poetics and has taught the history of poetry. Another interest is the avant-garde and experimentalism. He taught modernism and the avant-garde for many years and continues to run seminars on experimental, contemporary poetry. Activities: Key Publications: “The Poetics of Presentation: Lyn Hejinian’s My Life Project and the work of Giorgio Agamben” Textual Practice 2012. “The / Turn and the “ ” Pause: Agamben, Derrida and the Stratification of Poetry” in Textures Series, Lexington Press 2011. “Poetry’s Promiscuous Plurality: On a Part of Jean-Luc Nancy’s The Muses[PG1] ” in Jean-Luc Nancy and Plural Thinking SUNY 2011. The Literary Agamben: Adventures in Logopoiesis (London: Continuum University Press, March 2010). “Derrida’s Limits: Aporias between ‘Ousia and Grammē’,” Derrida Today 3.1 (2010): 113-136. “Projective Recursion: The Structure of Ron Silliman’s Tjanting,” Jacket 39 (2010). “Taking steps beyond elegy: poetry, philosophy, lineation, and death,” Textual Practice 23.6 (2009): 1051-1065. “The Materialization of Prose: Poiesis versus Dianoia in the work of Godzich & Kittay, Schklovsky, Silliman and Agamben,” Paragraph 31.3 (2008): 344-364. “‘Systematic rule-governed violations of convention’: Ron Silliman’s Poetic Procedures,” Contemporary Literature 48.4, 2007: 499-529. “Counterchange: Derrida’s Poetry,” in Encountering Derrida: Legacies and Futures of Deconstruction (London: Continuum, 2007). On Mourning: Theories of Loss in Modern Literature. (Edinburgh University Press, 2004). “Revolution, Melancholia and Materiality in the Work of Julia Kristeva”. Paragraph 26.3 (2003): 86-107. “Friendly Little Communities: Derrida’s Politics of Death.” Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture and Politics 15.2 (2002): 219-237. In the Process of Poetry: The New York School and the Avant-Garde. (Lewisburg, Penn.: Bucknell University Press, 2001). “Poetry Machines: Repetition in the Early Poetry of Kenneth Koch.” EnterText 1.1 (Dec. 2000): 83-117.

Miss Alice Myles Alice Myles is a lecturer and module lead on the MA Art Psychotherapy at Brunel University. Alice also currently practices as an art psychotherapist in forensic and adult mental healthcare. Alice has an interdisciplinary academic background, including Psychology, MSc Advanced Multivariate Statistics, Philosophy, Imaging research in the NHS, and Lacanian Psychoanalysis. She has published in the forensic art psychotherapy literature on themes of diagnosis, ethics and a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective on the treatment of patients who have committed sexual offences. Her current research interests include intersections of ethics and aesthetics in teaching quantitative methodologies in art psychotherapy; posthuman feminism and queering teaching practices to meet the challenges of late capitalism; and the application of a Lacanian lens in art psychotherapy treatment of patients diagnosed with a personality disorder in secure hospital settings.

Dr Ivan Girina Ivan Girina is a Senior Lecturer in Game Studies and holds a PhD in Film and Television Studies from the University of Warwick, his research is currently focused on digital games asethetic, particualrly its relationship with cinema and larger visual media landscapes. Ivan is also co-founder and member of the Editorial Board of the international academic journal G|A|M|E – Games as Art, Media and Entertainment. He has published on a variety of topics such as: cinematic games; video game agency; film and new media; media literacy and education; and Italian regional cinema. I am Module Convenor for: FM2608 (BA) - Game Studies 2: Concepts and Analysis FM3615 (BA) - Theory Project: Business & Development FM3616 (BA) - Theory Project: Game Analysis GD3600 (BA) - Film and Video Games GD5600 (MA) - Interdisciplinary Module GD5604 (MA) - Game Studies: Cocepts, Contexts & Analysis

Mrs Jasmine Cooper I am the Director of Student Experience for the Business School as well as Senior Lecturer in Business Education Support.Part of my job is to oversee the guidance and tailored personal support that the Student Experience Team is offering for students who are experiencing difficulties during their studies. I am responsible for the coordination of the personal tutoring support delivered by all academic staff members to both undergraduates and post-graduate students. In my role I continually develop new approaches to support students in their learning, aligned with the Business School's strategy. The Student Experience team is creating greater engagement by meeting expectations and improving the student experience. I am available on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays between 10 - 4 pm. Office hours: Monday - Wednesday 1 - 3pm Please email me for an appointment if you need a private meeting on tutorsbbs@brunel.ac.uk I have keen interest in the psychological impact of the pandemic on students and it will be part of the second phase of the qualitative study currently conducted. I am currently undertaking a pilot project on Embedding Wellbeing and Self-care into the curriculum. The project will feed into an educational context where developing a creative participatory knowledge of group work, relationships, social responsability integrated into the learning journey.

Mrs Nehama Grenimann Bauch Nehama Grenimann Bauch holds an M.A. in Art Therapy from the University of Haifa, Israel, and a BFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, Italy. Her M.A. thesis focused on fathers, clay, paternal representations and mentalization. She has worked over the years with diverse populations in different settings and countries, such as Ethiopia, Armenia and Israel. For the past six years she has been working in Berlin, Germany, with at-risk children from migrant and refugee backgrounds and their parents. Nehama is currently focusing both her clinical practice and research on the integration of art therapy in schools and refugee-shelters, working as part of an international psychosocial team through IsraAID Germany e.V. My current academic interests can be divided into three main research areas: 1. Parental (and specifically – paternal) mentalization within the context of art therapy interventions 2. Creativity and mentalization among primary-school aged children. 3. Parent-child workshops, open studio settings and trauma-informed art therapy settings for refugee and immigrant children. My sense of the interrelatedness of fine art, social science, art therapy and neuroscience, and the creative prospects and challenges thus engendered, strongly attracts me to opportunities for interdisciplinary research and collaboration, which lie at the core of the research I would like to conduct in the future. Arts Therapies,Art psychotherapy, Mentalization, Parental Reflective Functioning, Fathers, Paternal Mentalization, Parental Representations, Attachment, Embodiment, Resilience, Creativity, Qualitative Methodology, Trauma and Displacement, Focus Groups

Mrs Kate Lenton HCPC registered art psychotherapist and doctoral researcher investigating how we improve equitable access and engagement with art therapy for marginalised boys at risk of secondary school exclusion.I am planning to use critical participatory ethnography in academy schools, working with young people as co-researchers through an Expert Reference Panel. My clinical experience in forensic, trauma support and school settings grounds the research in practice, and the design is explicitly oriented towards policy impact.