Department of Humanities staff

Neil Roberts - Lecturer in Journalism crouches next to an advertising canvas at an Open Day that reads Journalism.
Neil Roberts
Senior Lecturer

Neil joined the University in October 2021, to teach on the Football Journalism, Specialist Sports Journalism and Journalism undergraduate degree programmes.

Robin Sims
Dr Robin Sims
Programme leader specialising in critical theory and postmodernism.

Programme Leader

Kiran Singh
Postgraduate Research Student

Kiran's PhD research project is a comparative study of the Panjabi translations of Shakespeare’s plays. Her focus is post-colonialism, decolonisation, partition literature, and feminism.

Ryan wearing sunglasses standing by a lake.
Ryan Spencer
Postgraduate research student

Ryan is a postgraduate research student whose work is focused on warlike cultures and warrior traditions and how they can affect and shape the world-building process as it relates to Space Western short stories. 

Laura Stroud sat on a sofa with a hot drink in hand
Laura Stroud
Lecturer in Creative Writing

Lecturer in Creative Writing. Laura is also the Programme Leader for the MA Creative Writing for the academic year 2021-2022

Alen Toplisek
Dr Alen Toplisek
Senior Lecturer in Global Affairs and Politics

Alen is a Senior Lecturer in Global Affairs and Politics. 

Maria Urbina Montana presenting
Dr Maria Urbina Montana
Senior Lecturer in Journalism/Programme Leader MA Journalism

Maria Urbina Montana is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism. Her research interests focus on news media and Latin American politics, particularly social media, nationalism, and neoliberal change in Chile and the Southern cone. She has been working in the UK higher education for more than 8 years and worked as a journalist for Chilean and Latin American outlets covering politics and economics.

Paul Whickman in a classroom.
Dr Paul Whickman
Senior Lecturer in English

Paul is a Senior Lecturer in English.

Professor Ian Whitehead
Academic Head, University of Derby Online Learning

Ian is an Academic Head at the University of Derby Online Learning.

Aled Williams
Dr Aled Williams
Lecturer in English

Dr Aled Williams is a Lecturer in English at the University of Derby. His research and scholarly interests are in Romantic-period literature, post-Romantic and Modern poetry, and student writing development.