Kate Carruthers Thomas is a Research Fellow at Birmingham City University. Her doctoral research at Birkbeck, University of London: Dimensions of belonging: rethinking retention for part-time, mature undergraduates in English higher education, draws on spatial, psychosocial and psychogeographical ideas to critique and re-imagine a influential narrative of contemporary English higher education: that belonging is critical to student retention and success. Kate argues that uniform concepts of belonging in HE are modelled on a young, full-time undergraduates, relying on a common understanding of what belonging is which is incompatible with complex lives.
Kate’s poetry has been published in Envoi, in the anthology May Day & other poems (Cinnamon Press, 2014) and www.shedloadofwork.com. She is currently working on a poetry collection to be published by Cinnamon Press in 2018. She is poet in residence at P.O.D. (poetry on demand) which provides the opportunity for individuals to commission a poem of any style and length for anyone or any event.
Kate lives in Sheffield.
campuschronicler: dispatches from the field 