Dr Ryan Bramley
BA, MA (English Literature), MA (Social Research), PhD, SFHEA
School of Education
School Student Experience Lead
Lecturer in Education
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Full contact details
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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I am a lecturer, filmmaker, and arts-based researcher currently based at The University of Sheffield’s School of Education. My research primarily focuses on accessible storytelling, community filmmaking, and improving accessibility practices in digital media.
As the School of Education’s Student Experience Lead, I play a leading role in implementing our department’s Education portfolio, with key responsibilities for enhancing Student Employability, overseeing Digital and Inclusive Education, and improving our school’s performance on Student Voice. My work in this role is well complemented by my research interests, given my knowledge and expertise in the fields of digital media, representation, and accessibility.
I was the ‘Overall’ and ‘Early Career Researcher’ winner for the ‘Outstanding Partnership or Impact in Creativity/Culture/Society’ category at the 2025 University of Sheffield Knowledge Exchange and Impact Awards, recognising the ‘Animating Inclusion: Rethinking Subtitles for Deaf Audiences’ project (which I co-led with Dr Kirsty Liddiard).
My contributions to learning and teaching are also regularly recognised at an institutional level, having been nominated for several University of Sheffield Education Awards, including ‘Peer Teaching and Mentoring’ (2024), ‘Doctoral Supervision’ (2024) and ‘Supporting Education’ (2024 and 2025).
- Research interests
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I have developed and worked on several research projects that have explored the ethics of community representation and co-production, advocated for interdisciplinary education and innovative literacies teaching practices in schools, and recommended more accessible and inclusive approaches to film and TV subtitling design that centres d/Deaf audiences’ experiences in particular.
In addition to publishing recent articles in high-ranking journals, I also was an Executive Editor on the 2024 report, ‘An evidence-based plan for upskilling our children and young people for digital futures’ (produced by Child of the North and the Centre for Young Lives). A media interview I did with Sky News Breakfast to promote the report can be viewed via this link.
I am interested in any prospective PhD or EdD student looking at any of the following themes: New/Digital Media, Contemporary Film, Digital Literacies, Creative Writing, Working-Class Identity & Representation, Alternative Media, Active Citizenship, Multimodality, and the educational work/role of Third Sector and Non-Profit Organisations. Additionally, I am particularly keen to supervise new Practice-based PhD students.
Recent funded projects
- Animating Inclusion: Rethinking Subtitles for Deaf Audiences, Sheffield Innovation Programme (European Regional Development Fund) and University of Sheffield Public Engagement Fund, Co-Principal Investigator, 2021-2024
- Designing an Interdisciplinary Subject, Holistic Think Tank, Co-Principal Investigator, 2023-2024
- My Media, My Power, My World, Holistic Think Tank, Co-Principal Investigator, 2022
- Evaluating Trespass Prevention, UKRI (National Productivity Investment Fund), Principal Investigator, 2021
- Publications
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Journal articles
- ‘One person can’t deliver it’: exploring teachers’ agency and stance in relation to integrating an interdisciplinary subject in UK primary and secondary schools. Cogent Education, 12(1).
- Evaluating trespass prevention: working with young people as co-researchers and filmmakers on a railway safety project. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 29(1), 2308080.
- Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation – collaborative approach reveals the people behind the paintings. The Conversation.
- Beyond ‘do no harm’? On the need for a dynamic approach to research ethics. Area.
- ‘Resisting Neoliberalism: Swimming against the Tide’ Life for the Academic in the Neoliberal University. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 28(4), 650-653.
- ‘Born of Coal’ - Project Report. Track Changes, 9, 110-123.
- What sits, what sticks: moving into lived, disruptive, co-produced filmmaking practices in literacy classrooms. Education 3-13, 1-14.
- ‘A Community Legacy on Film’: using collaborative documentary filmmaking to go beyond representations of the Windrush Generation as ‘victims’. Studies in Documentary Film, 1-18.
Chapters
- “Just Coal Seams and Heartbroken Miners”: Poetic Representations of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike in (Post-)Industrial South Yorkshire, Performative Representation of Working-Class Laborers (pp. 17-37). Springer Nature Switzerland
Reports
Theses / Dissertations
- In Their Own Image: Voluntary Filmmaking at a Non-Profit Community Media Organisation.
- ‘One person can’t deliver it’: exploring teachers’ agency and stance in relation to integrating an interdisciplinary subject in UK primary and secondary schools. Cogent Education, 12(1).
- Teaching interests
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The majority of my teaching relates to research methodologies, ethical researching, identifying and exploring critical issues in education, and digital literacies. I am also a strong advocate for creative and non-traditional approaches to academic assessment. In addition to assessing students on reflective writing and academic essays, I have also run modules that ask students to create short films, both individually and collaboratively (e.g. on the undergraduate ‘Children and Digital Cultures’ module). I am a firm believer in offering a diverse range of assessment modes, not only to provide variety in terms of the student experience, but also to further enhance students’ employability as well.
Additionally, I am interested in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teaching, particularly when it involves bringing arts-based methods and methodologies into new spaces. As such, I have made significant contributions to university learning and teaching beyond the School of Education. I delivered an annual Guest Lecture, ‘Introduction to Storytelling’ for Master’s of Architecture (M.Arch) students at the Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA) between 2015-2018. I have also lectured on the School of English’s MA Research Methods module, delivering an interactive session on ‘Filmmaking as an Arts-Based Research Practice) to postgraduate Language & Linguistics students.
One of my proudest achievements was the substantial role I played in the development and implementation of a new, innovative learning and teaching opportunity for students across the Faculty of Social Science: a 'PhD-by-Practice' Programme, introduced in 2021-22. In contrast to the traditional 80,000-word written thesis, a PhD-by-Practice allows a student to make a creative submission for their doctorate (e.g. poetry, film, photographic essay, drama performance, etc.), along with a written creative commentary that explores the theoretical and practical considerations underpinning the piece.
I am keen on continually improving my pedagogy, and value feedback from both colleagues and students on how I can achieve better learning and teaching outcomes. To this end, I have participated in multiple peer observation initiatives, including the Student Observation of Teaching (SOOT) Scheme in 2024, and the School of Education Peer Observation Programme in 2025.
- Teaching activities
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I have taught and supervised students across a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes within the School of Education:
Modules taught on include: Children and Digital Cultures (Module Lead); Making Sense of Education - Facts, Fiction and Data; Research Project in Education, Culture and Childhood; Academic Seminars for Year One and Year Two students
Modules taught on include: Critical Issues in Education and Educational Research; The Practice of Research; Dissertation Module
Modules taught on include: Critical Issues in Contemporary Education (Module Lead); Educational Research, Theory and Practice (Module Lead)
- Professional activities and memberships
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Peer reviewer for multiple academic journals, including the Journal of Education and Teaching, The Sociological Review, and YOUNG
ECR and Overall Winner, ‘Outstanding Partnership or impact in creativity/culture/society’, University of Sheffield KE and Impact Awards (2025)
AHRC Peer Review College Member (2022-)
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2021)
Academic Award for Outstanding Contribution to Learning and Teaching, University of Sheffield/Sheffield Students’ Union (2020)