New Head of the Department of Education
Posted on 4 September 2014
Congratulations to Dr Beatrice Szczepek Reed, who has been appointed Head of Department of Education.
Beatrice joined the Department in 2010 after previous posts at the University of Nottingham and the University of Konstanz, Germany. She studied English and German at the University of Konstanz and obtained a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Potsdam. She also has a MA in Music from the University of York. Beatrice is a member of the Centre for Language Learning Research, and her work focuses on spoken language, especially phonetics and phonology, natural conversation and cross-cultural communication. She previously held the role of Chair of Board of Studies in the Department.
Professor Judith Bennett has completed her term of office as Head of Department, a role which she held for eight years (2006-14). Judith's many achievements include: leading the Department to an extremely successful outcome in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise; the further development of prestigious undergraduate programmes with new courses in English in Education and Psychology in Education; and the creation of the Psychology in Education Research Centre. She oversaw significant growth of the Department's internationally renowned provision for taught and research graduate students, including the very successful MA TESOL programme. Teacher education at York continues to be excellent. During this time of achievement and significant expansion of staff and student numbers, the Department has always been a collegial, inclusive and dynamic place to work and study.
On 1 September Judith took over the prestigious Salters' Chair in Science Education.