Willy Kitchen, LLB, MA, PhD

Willy is the Programme Director for the Foundation Programme of the part-time Combined Studies degree offered by The Institute for Lifelong Learning. He plays an active role in supporting a range of University learning and teaching and widening participation initiatives, most recently through his involvement in the development of The Academic Skills Hub (TASH). He is also a member of the University's Widening Participation Forum and sits on the steering committee for Maths And Statistics Help (MASH)

He remains committed to the notion that adult higher education, including widening access to that education, really can change the world.

Teaching

Willy teaches the introductory study skills and social science modules on the Foundation Programme. He has turned his hand in the past to subject areas as diverse as Archaeology, contract law, local history and trigonometry.

Research Interests

Willy´s current research interests include the experience of adult learners making the transition into full-time higher education, inquiry-based lifelong learning and the social archaeology of the South Yorkshire coalfield. He has also campaigned against the proposed construction of the Ilisu Dam in S.E. Turkey.

Other Experience

Willy originally qualified as a solicitor at a law firm in Bristol, where he also completed his undergraduate degree. He moved to Sheffield in 1993 where he reinvented himself as an archaeologist, completing an MA and PhD in the Department of Archaeology.

Activities and Awards

Willy received a Senate Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching from the University of Sheffield in July 2008, in the category 'Rising Star'.

Key publications

Kitchen, W. 2004. Pathways to Higher Education for Adult Learners. Booklet written in conjunction with the South Yorkshire Higher Education Guidance and Support Network.

Kitchen, W. and Ronayne, M. 2002. The Ilisu Dam Environmental Impact Assessment Report: Review and Critique. Public Archaeology, 2(2): 101-16.

Kitchen, W. and Ronayne, M. 2001. The Ilisu Dam in Southeast Turkey: archaeology at risk. Antiquity, 75: 37-8.

Kitchen, W. 2001. Tenure and territoriality in the British Bronze Age: a question of varying social and geographic scales? In Bronze Age Landscapes: Tradition and Transformation (ed. J. Brück). Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp.110-20.

Kitchen, W. 1998. From Croatia to Cape Town: the future of the World Archaeological Congress. Antiquity, 72: 747-50