Faculty Executive Board
Faculty Executive Board
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean
Professor Gareth Stansfield
Gareth Stansfield is a Professor of Middle East Politics focusing in particular on conflict and post-conflict situations, with extensive research experience covering Iraq, Syria, Kurdish regions, and the states of the Gulf. He is a member of the UK government’s Civilian Stabilisation Group. Previously he was Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies and Associate Dean Global and interim Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean in the College of Social Sciences and International Studies.
Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Professor Adam Watt
Adam Watt is a Professor of French & Comparative Literature, FRSA: specialist in the work of Marcel Proust, and, more widely, history of the novel in French. Previously Associate Dean for Research (HUMS) and Head, Modern Languages & Cultures.
Email: A.A.Watt@exeter.ac.uk
Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Professor Helen Berry
Helen Berry is Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for HASS. A specialist in eighteenth-century history and prizewinning Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she has a passion for interdisciplinary research, education and mentoring. She has held a number of leadership roles including Head of the History Department at the University of Exeter, and Head of School (History, Classics and Archaeology), Dean of Postgraduate Studies and Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor in the HASS Faculty at Newcastle University.
Email: H.M.Berry@exeter.ac.uk
Cathy Durston
Cathy is the Director of Faculty Operations (Interim) for the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
Email: c.durston@exeter.ac.uk
Deputy Director of Faculty Operations
Roo Haywood Smith
Roo is the Deputy Director of Faculty Operations in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. She originally joined the College of Social Sciences and International Studies in 2012 and prior to joining the Faculty, she worked in the University’s Strategic Delivery Unit and the Living Systems Institute (LSI). Roo has a military background and is the University lead for the Armed Forces Covenant.
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact
Professor Susan Molyneux-Hodgson
Susan Molyneux-Hodgson is a Professor of Sociology specialising in the field of science and technology studies. Previously at Exeter she was Associate Dean for Research and the Industrial Strategy Champion, in the College of Social Sciences and International Studies, and Director of Research for Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology.
Email: S.Hodgson@exeter.ac.uk
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education & Student Experience
Professor Duncan Russel
Duncan Russel is an environmental scientist who has specialised in public policy, particularly in the areas of biodiversity and climate change. In previous leadership roles, he has served as the Head of The Politics Department and the Associate Dean for Education in the College of Social Sciences and International Studies.
Email: D.J.Russel@exeter.ac.uk
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement
Professor Li Li
Li Li is an applied linguist, specialised in language teacher cognition, higher-order thinking skills, and technology-enhanced language learning. Previously she was Director of Research and Director of Global Engagement at the Graduate School of Education, and Associate Dean Global in the College of Social Sciences and International Studies.
Email: Li.Li@exeter.ac.uk
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Business Engagement and Innovation
Professor Abhilash Nair
Abhilash Nair's principal area of research is internet law, specifically the regulation of illegal and harmful content, internet pornography, and online safety. He is an internationally recognised expert on online child safety laws, and has advised various international and national bodies on regulating illegal content, online child sexual abuse material, and content-related cybercrime.
Email: A.Nair@exeter.ac.uk
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Business Engagement and Innovation
Professor Will Higbee
Will Higbee studied as an undergraduate at the University of Birmingham (BA French) and the University of Exeter (PhD in French Cinema). He was appointed to a lectureship at Exeter in 2002. His research focuses primarily on French and Francophone cinema, with a particular emphasis on immigrant and post-colonial cinema in France and the cinemas of the Maghreb. His research is also concerned with broader issues of national, transnational and diasporic cinema.
Email: W.E.Higbee@exeter.ac.uk
Head of Department - Classics, Ancient History, Religion and Theology
Professor Rebecca Langlands
Rebecca Langlands is Professor of Classics, with particular interests in Latin literature and Roman culture, ethics and exemplarity, the history of sexuality and classical reception. She is the author of Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome (CUP 2006), Sex, Knowledge and Receptions of the Past (edited with Kate Fisher, OUP 2015), Exemplary Ethics in Ancient Rome (CUP 2018) and Literature and Culture in the Roman Empire, 96-235. Cross-Cultural Interactions (edited with Alice König and James Uden, 2020).
Email: r.langlands@exeter.ac.uk
Rebecca's profile | Classics, Ancient History, Religion & Theology website
Head of Department - School of Education
Professor Sandy Allan
Sandy Allan's research interests reside in the Sociology of Education. Broad areas of interest include: gender, social class, ethnicity, academic achievement, and educational transitions (across the different stages in education, from education to employment, and across various career stages/professions). She has a wide range of methodological interests (including ethnography, visual methods, thematic and discourse analysis, interview and diary/blog methods).
Email: A.J.Allan@exeter.ac.uk
Head of Department - Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
Professor Christina Phillips
Christina Phillips is an Associate Professor in Arabic and Comparative Literature and Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. Her research interests are Arabic and Arab Anglophone writing, comparative literature, religion & literature, translation studies and ecocriticism. Christina's recent book, Religion in the Egyptian Novel: Themes and Approaches was published by Edinburgh University Press in July 2019. She is currently working on a new monograph on Literature and Environment in Israel/Palestine.
Email: C.Phillips@exeter.ac.uk
Christina's profile | Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies website
Head of Department - English and Creative Writing
Professor Vike Plock
Vike Plock is Professor of Modern Literature and Culture. She is the author of several books and of numerous articles and book chapters including Joyce, Medicine, and Modernity (2010), Modernism, Fashion and Interwar Women Writers (2017) and The BBC German Service during the Second World War: Broadcasting to the Enemy (2021). Her research has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the AHRC and several research library fellowships. She is co-editor of the interdisciplinary academic journal Literature & History and an advisory editor of the James Joyce Quarterly.
Email: V.Plock@exeter.ac.uk
Head of Department - Law School
Professor Caroline Fournet
Caroline Fournet is Professor of Law and Head of the Law School.
Email: C.I.Fournet2@exeter.ac.uk
Head of Department - Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies
Professor Fiona Cox
Fiona Cox is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature. She was brought up in Worcestershire and educated at the University of Bristol, where she gained a BA in French and Latin and then a PhD for a thesis on Virgil’s Presence in Twentieth Century French Literature. She worked at the Université de Bordeaux III and University College, Cork before coming to Exeter in 2010.
Email: f.m.cox@exeter.ac.uk
Fiona's profile | Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies website
Head of Department - Communications, Drama and Film
Professor Jane Milling
Jane Milling is Professor of Drama. She researches and teaches on popular and political performance in British theatre of the long eighteenth century and the modern and contemporary. She is particularly interested in questions around cultural participation, see her collaborative projects Ecologies of Amateur Theatre (2018) and Devising Performance: A Critical History (2015).
Email: j.r.milling@exeter.ac.uk
Head of Department - Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Professor Robert Lamb
Robert Lamb is a Professor of Political Philosophy. His research and teaching interests lie in the history of political ideas and contemporary political philosophy/theory.
Email: R.Lamb@exeter.ac.uk
Robert's profile | Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology website
Head of Department - Archaeology and History
Professor Naomi Sykes
Naomi Sykes is the Lawrence Professor of Archaeology. She researches and teaches on human-animal-environment interactions over the last 10,000 years, exploring how they inform on the structure, ideology and impact of societies, past and present.
Email: n.sykes@exeter.ac.uk
Head of Department - Humanities and Social Sciences, Cornwall
Professor Clare Saunders
Clare Saunders is Professor of Environmental Politics and Head of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cornwall. She conducts interdisciplinary environmental social science research as a member of the Environment and Sustainability Institute. Her core areas of expertise are environmental politics, political participation and the ways they intersect.
Email: C.Saunders@exeter.ac.uk
Clare's profile | Humanities and Social Sciences, Cornwall website
Director of Societies and Cultures Institute
Professor James Clark
James Clark's historical interests are focused on the period between the Black Death and the Break with Rome. While a medievalist by training, he explore themes in religion, intellectual and cultural life which reach across the traditional boundaries of medieval and early modern; likewise, his approach is informed not only by the sources and methods of the historian but also by those of researchers in literary, artistic and material culture.
Email: J.G.Clark@exeter.ac.uk
Head of Finance
Faculty Executive Officer
Research Services, IIB & Doctoral College Partner
Suzie Masterman
Suzie provides the interface between the Faculty of Humanities, Arts & Social Science, and Research Services, IIB and the Doctoral College; ensuring alignment of University and Faculty planning and policy, oversight of the Faculty research portfolio, and accountability for service delivery.
Email: S.V.Masterman@exeter.ac.uk
Education & Student Experience Partner
External Engagement & Global Partner
Senior HR Partner
Director of Cornwall Operations
Amie Fulton
As Director of Cornwall Operations, Amie works closely with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Cornwall, College Operations Directors, and professional services teams to help deliver Cornwall’s vision and strategy.
Email: a.fulton@exeter.ac.uk
Contact us
For queries relating to the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty Executive Board, please contact the Faculty Executive Officer, Emily Morris.
