Education
- 01/14-01/15: PG Cert Learning and Teaching (Higher Education), Anglia Ruskin University.
- 09/13-09/14: MA Fine Art, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. (Distinction).
- 10/08-07/11 (Viva/graduation 2012): PhD in French Philosophy, Art and Aesthetics, Jesus College, University of Cambridge.
- 10/07-07/08: MPhil ‘European Literature and Culture’ Jesus College, University of Cambridge (High Distinction).
- 09/06-07/07: BA ‘Media, Culture and Communications’, Greenwich University. (Completed in 1 year, highest mark in cohort, 1st Class Honours).
Awards/Grants
- 01/21: Grand Challenges, Age and Society: Life Through Generations, University College London (£9,000).
- 02/15: Appointed Fellow of Anglia Ruskin University.
- 01/15: Appointed Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
- 03/10: Entente Cordiale Language Scholarship.
- 01/10: Elected life member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics).
- 04/09: UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Scholarship (Funding PhD).
- 12/08: Foundation Scholarship, Jesus College, University of Cambridge (Funding MPhil).
- 10/08: The Odette de Mourgues Scholarship, University of Cambridge (Funding MPhil).
- 09/07: Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement, University of Greenwich.
Career: teaching and research
- 2022: Lecturer (Teaching), Co-Director, MASc Creative Health, Arts and Sciences Department, UCL
- 2021-22: Project Manager, Qualitative Researcher, CICADA-ME: Coronavirus Intersectionalities: Chronic Conditions and Disabilities and Migrants/Ethnic minoritisation, Social Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London. Funded by NIHR (£700,000).
- 2021-2022: Co-lead, Creative Health Community, UCL Health of the Public.
- 2021: Principal Investigator, Grand Challenges: ‘Creative Lives: Tackling Inequalities’, University College London.
- 2021: Research Fellow, Department of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London.
- 2015: ‘Art and Cognition’, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
- 2014 – 2016: Lecturer, Course Leader, Media Studies, Art Theory and Contextual Studies, Anglia Ruskin University.
- 2014-2015: Lecturer, Art Theory and Contextual Studies, Cambridge Regional College.
- 2013: Lecturer, Art Theory, 2nd year arts degrees undergraduates, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.
- 2012: Lecturer, Course Leader, ‘Modern and Contemporary French and Francophone Culture: Articulations of the Real’ (Contextual Studies), MPhil. students, University of Cambridge.
- 2011-12: Lecturer at the Sorbonne, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III (Culture, Contextual Studies).
- 2011-12: Lecturer at Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris II (Culture, Contextual Studies).
Career: arts and health
- 2022: Co-leader, co-producer, ‘Creative Nepal’, an arts/health network in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- 2021: Co-designer, Royal Society for Public Health Online Arts and Health Course.
- 2021: Panelist, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (art and the Mental Health Act).
- 2021: Research Fellow, Arts & Heritage, University College London Hospitals.
- 2019-21: Disciplinary Expert, Member of Selection Group and Steering Group of MARCH Network.
- 2019-21: Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Representative, Arts Health Early Career Research Network.
- 02/20. TEDxCoventry: ‘How Creativity Revived Me’. https://youtu.be/smKOkjUfzHw
- 2020-2021: Lead: ‘#BeCreative’ Art Workshops, for adults, children, mental health service users, during Covid-19 Lockdown.
- 2018: Arts in Health Project Worker, Central and North-West London NHS Trust.
- 2017-18: ‘Making Sense: The Art Van’, art workshops for displaced ‘Adivasi’ tribes, Chhattisgarh, India.
- 2016: Artist-in-Residence and lecturer, MA Art Therapy Programme, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore.
Career: clinical work
- 2022: Member, Expert Working Group, Co-Author, ‘Medical Emergencies in Eating Disorders’, https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/campaigning-for-better-mental-health-policy/college-reports/2022-college-reports/cr233
- 2020: Facilitator: Scottish Government National Service Review for Eating Disorders.
- 2020: Lead, initiator: Eating Disorders Patient Forum, Oxford Health NHS Trust.
- 2020: Patient Representative, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Faculty of Eating Disorders.
- 2020: Patient Representative, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Quality Network for Eating Disorders.
- 2020: Peer Support Worker, Bucks Community Eating Disorder Team, Oxford Health NHSFT.
- 2019-20: Time to Change Hub Coordinator, Bucks Mind.
Talks/workshops on mental health, recovery and the arts:
- 05/22. ‘Hidden Lives, Hidden Gems’ Conference (performance workshop).
- 04/22. International Eating Disorders Conference (workshop).
- 04/22. BEAT conference (workshop).
- 06/21. International Conference on Eating Disorders (workshop).
- 06/21. Lead, “Creative Lives” conference (UCL and global).
- 05-07/21. Presenter/producer, “Creative Lives” podcast.
- 05/21. Presenter at All-Party Parliamentary Group, political discussion about Mental Health Act, arts and creativity.
- 02/21. ‘The Butterfly Effect: Art, Creativity and Transformation’, Arts Play Health conference
- 12/20. Talk and respresenting patient voice at NHSE meeting about risk and funding for eating disorders.
- 12/20. Performance of my poem (‘What’s going on in my head’), at ‘What’s Going On In Your Head’ live poetry and performance jam.
- 11/20. ‘Creativity, connection and mental health’, Instagrm Live, interviewed by James Downs https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHqTCVQpcbV/?igshid=utiizxaqqbyx
- 11/20. Talk at the Royal College of Psychiatry, Faculty of Eating Disorders Annual Conference.
- 11/20. Presenting the Patient Forum, Oxford Health NHS Trust Governance Event. Awarded.
- 08/20. Interview with Dennis Relojo-Howell @psychreg on YouTube https://youtu.be/SZ3f1gqebLs
- 07/20. Creative workshop at the Mental Health Blog Awards.
- 07/20. TEDx Talk released on YouTube: https://youtu.be/smKOkjUfzHw
- 04-08/20. ‘#BeCreative’ art workshops, responding to Covid-19 Lockdown.
- 05/20. ‘Being Creative in Lockdown’, talk for Parker Hannifin employees.
- 02/20. TEDxCoventry: ‘How Creativity Revived Me’.
- 02/20 Panellist on ‘Mental Health and Loneliness’ Twitter discussion about eating disorders.
- 02/20. Panellist (expert by experience), Mental Health Question Time: ‘Should art be prescribed on the NHS?’ University College, London.
- 02/20. Talk on brain damage and mental illness, Bucks New University.
- 02/20. Talk for ‘Time to Talk Day’ event in Aylesbury, Bucks.
- 02/20. Leading art workshop at ‘One Recovery Bucks’.
- 02/20. Talk at ’64 million artists’ roundtable event, Impact Hub, Islington.
- 2020. Presenting a series of CBT-E groups, using lived experience, Cotswold House EDU, Warneford Hospital, Oxford.
- 01/20. Talk to Bucks Healthcare NHSFT staff, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, about ‘Time to Change’ and mental health.
- 12/19. Talk on ‘Time to Change’ to 5,000 fans, Wycombe Wanderers Football Club.
- 12/19. ‘Experiences of treatment for Eating Disorders’, at Art and Science of Eating Disorders: A Global Vision to Help Eating Disorder Patients and Carers, Royal College of Psychiatry Faculty of Eating Disorders Psychiatry & European Chapter of Academy for Eating Disorders.
- 11/19. Leading ‘Art in Mind’ workshop, Beaconsfield.
- 11/19. Series of talks at Buckinghamshire Recovery College, on Time to Change – building a life without stigma and discrimination about mental illness.
- 10/19. Women’s Institute, Summit on Mental Health, Oxford.
- 10/19. Workshop and presentation, Arts, Creativity and the Global Crisis; Reimagining Identity, Otherness and the Possible’, Arts Therapies conference, Pratt Institute, New York.
- 10/19. Talk on living at a healthy weight, my body’s own normal, Cotswold House EDU, Oxford.
- 07/19. Co-presenting the Oxford New Care Model to patients at Cotswold House EDU, Oxford.
- 07/19. Part of Oxford Health Panel, presenting New Care Model to NHS England, at NHSE HQ.
- 07/19. Leading art workshop: ‘‘Walking in my shoes: opening conversations about mental health’, artSmart School of Art, Beaconsfield.
- 06/19. Lecture on Mental Health, St. Mary’s Fellowship, Chesham.
- 2018-19. Lecturing and research with the medical team, on patients with co-morbidity in eating disorders. Cotswold House Ward, Warneford Hospital, Oxford.
Media appearances:
- 12/21. Double page feature, The Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10231419/A-pioneering-approach-having-impressive-results-anorexia-patients.html
- 08/21. Interview, BBC Radio Oxford, talking about my life, career and creativity.
- 12/20. Feature in The Royal College of Psychiatrists magazine (middle page spread).
- 07/20. Article in The Herald, Erin Lyons: ‘TEDx Talk on how art saved life of woman with anorexia’.
- 03/20. Interview, BBC 3 Counties Radio, Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
- 03/20. Interview, Radio Mix96, Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
- 02/20. Interview, BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire, TEDxCoventry.
- 02/20. Several appearances on Radio Mix96. Time to Talk Day 2020.
- 02/20. Interview, BBC 3 Counties Radio. Time to Talk Day 2020.
- 01/20. Interview, BBC Radio Oxford, about eating disorders.
- 01/20. Interview, Radio Mix96, talking about mental health.
- 01/20. Interview, Radio Wycombe Sound, talking about mental health.
- 09/19. Featured on BBC Radio Oxford, speaking about suicide in children’s education.
- 07/19. Featured in article on Adult Eating Disorders (and recovery), Insight, Oxford Health magazine.
- 04/19. Interview on BBC Radio Oxford, about arts and health.
- 24/02/19. Featured in article in Oxford Mail, ‘Former lecturer Lorna Collins speaks about 18-year battle with anorexia’.
- 02/19. BBC1 ‘Inside Out’, featured in coverage of Eating Disorder Awareness Week.
- 2018. ‘My Best Medicine’ podcast about art and healing, in Culture, Health and Wellbeing, December 2018.
Founder of the ‘Making Sense Hub’ – organising colloquia, leading aesthetic movement:
- ‘Making Sense 5: The Six Senses of Art’, 12/07/13, The Metropolitan Museum, New York (with Robert Storr).
- ‘Making Sense 4: EsSense Across Cultures’, 17/12/12, Cité Universitaire, Paris (with David Black).
- ‘Making Sense 3: Beauty, Creativity and Healing’, 5/11/11, Whitney Humanities Center, University of Yale (with Elaine Scarry).
- ‘Making Sense 2: Théorie esthétique et pratique artistique’, 19-20/10/10, Centre Pompidou, Paris (with Bernard Stiegler).
- ‘Making Sense 1: An international interdisciplinary colloquium for an effective aesthetics’, 25/09/09, University of Cambridge (with Jean-Luc Nancy).
Artist and filmmaker. Artwork exhibited/published and film screenings:
- 2022. ‘Let’s tell a story’, performance, ‘Hidden Lives, Hidden Gems conference, London.
- 2022. Writing the World Backwards, Young Creative Leaders Face Film Festival (international).
- 2021. Writing the World Backwards, This Is My Brave International Mental Health Film Festival, Australia.
- 2021. Writing the World Backwards, Reel Recovery Film Festival, USA.
- 08/2021. Writing the World Backwards, world premiere, ArtBomb Festival, Doncaster.
- 2021. Painting published on front cover of The practical handbook of eating disorders, PCCS Books.
- February 2018. Psycho, artwork published in ‘Broken Grey Wires’, Issue 1, London.
- October 2017. Touché, Experimenta Film Festival, India.
- July 2017. Minding Mines in India, Impact DOCS Awards Festival, California.
- May 2017. Minding Mines in India, Docs Without Borders Festival, Detroit. Won Award of Excellence.
- April 2017. Minding Mines in India, TMC London Film Festival, London.
- March 2017. Minding Mines in India, Arthouse Asia Film Festival, Kolkata, India.
- February 2017. Touché (revised, new version), 3-Minute Film Festival, in Santa Barbara, CA.
- January 2015. Touché screening at KHOJ International Artists Association, New Delhi, India.
- October 2014. Trance (solo, blindfolded dance performance), Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Conference ‘Provocations’, University of Wollongong, Ausralia.
- September 2014. Flashback (film and installation) at ‘Platform’, Masters Degree Show, Cambridge School of Art.
- June 2014. Touché (16mm film), screening at ‘Changing Rooms/Changing Spaces’ exhibition, Grafton Centre, Cambridge.
- April 2014. The Pulse of Prāṇāyāma performance-installation at ETHOS Hot Yoga Sports Studios, Cambridge.
- April 2014. TRANCE performance at ‘Body Talk’ exhibition at ‘Changing Spaces’ gallery, Norfolk Street, Cambridge.
- March 2014. Pulse exhibited in ‘I don’t know how to do this…’, at ‘Changing Spaces’ gallery, Norfolk Street, Cambridge.
- February 2014. Touché (16mm film) screened at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse. World Première.