Professor Leila Jancovich

Profile

I worked for many years in the cultural sector as a producer, researcher and policy maker before entering academia in 2007. As a result I have a strong commitment to knowledge exchange between academia, policy and practice which is demonstrated by my leadership of a knowledge exchange network on cultural participation (www.culturalparticipation.co.uk)  

Since entering academia I have published widely on questions about not only who gets to participate in the arts, but who gets to participate in decisions about what we value as art. 

I have recently been Principle Investigator for an AHRC research project called Cultural Participation: stories of success, histories of failure (failspace), which seeks to examine the benefits of the cultural sector better identifying, acknowledging and learning from failure.  In addition I am a Co-Investigator on the Cultural Value Centre, funded by AHRC, Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation which seeks to make academic research into the value of culture more useful and accessible.

Externally I advise on a number of national bodies including beng an assessor for UKRI and British Academcy funding

Responsibilities

• Director of Research and Innovation

Research interests

My main research interests are in the field of cultural policy and participation, with a particular focus on the implications of policy on practice. 

My own work draws from public policy and political science as much as from arts and humanities.

I have published widely  on the implications of participatory governance and decision making on the cultural sector and more recently on the broader area of policy learning and the extent to which acknowledging failure is part of this process, and how learning takes account of situated practices in different contexts.

I supervise post doctoral students in the field of arts management, cultural policy and leadership, and am particularly interested in topics related to participation and/or situated practices in place   

Student education

I currenlty coordinate the taught post graduatre provision across the school, working with programme leaders to ensure students get a quality learning experience. I am also programme leader for the Msters in Audiences, Engagement, Participation for which I also act as module leader for the core module on Cultural Participation and Participatory Cultures.

In addition I am module leader fo the masters module on Cultural Policy and the Politics of Culture and the under graduate module on festivals management 

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Cultural Policy
• Audience, Engagement & Experience
• Participation

Current postgraduate researchers

• Clare Daněk
• Jaroslava Tomanova
• Ava Podgorski
• Kearn Christopher Williams