About Us
'Creativity and innovation in education are not just an opportunity, but a necessity' (Ferrari, Cachia, & Punie, 2009, p. 47).
The Creative Practice Colloquium was founded by Nina Jones, Jemma Saunders and Ella Wright, three audio-visual doctoral researchers from the University of Birmingham. It was borne out of a sense of 'gappage': a gap in community, a gap in academia, a gap in practical industry. 'There's no place in academia for someone like you', to quote the title of Dr. Richard Langley's keynote from the Creative Practice Colloquium 2023. With the CPC, we endeavour to bridge these gaps, and create a dynamic platform for dialogue, collaboration, and innovation: a space where creative practitioners in and outside of academia can come together to discuss and tackle issues and challenges, and share successes and approaches.
The inaugural CPC, held on the 28th June 2023 was on the theme of 'Identities and Methodologies of the Creative Practitioner'.
The second event, held in June 2024, considered the theme of 'Industries and Institutions: Synergies and Struggles'.
The third CPC, took place from June 5-6 2025, and looked at 'The Researcher as an Individual.'
The fourth CPC will take place 9-10th July 2026, reflecting on the theme 'Who Gets to Speak? Ethics of representation and voice.'
2026 Committee
Emma Dandy
Emma Dandy is a poet, journalist and scriptwriter currently undertaking a practice-led PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham, supervised by Dr Bohdan Piasecki and Dr Luke Kennard.
Emma's research focuses on writing a collection of poetry and hybrid pieces that investigate the multiple narratives adopted people create for themselves in the absence of information about their birth families.
Carlotta Ottonello
Carlotta is a PhD student in the department of Film and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.
Their research looks at labour and the gamification of work, in relation to neoliberalism and surveillance, through the writing of a dystopian novel.
Qinran (Leo) Wang
Qinran (Leo) Wang is a PhD candidate researching the humanitarian gaze in refugee documentaries – a framing device that determines what is visible and how refugees are represented in such films. He is passionate about studying society through audio-visual methodology. His video essays about the humanitarian gaze and refugee filmmaking have been presented in several academic conferences.
Holly Winter-Hughes
Holly Winter-Hughes is a poet, researcher andfacilitator whose creative and academic practice explores embodiment, therapeutic writing, memory, trauma and resilience. She is a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham, investigating how embodied approaches to therapeutic writing can amplify the silent and unspoken across individual, communal and spatial contexts. Alongside her PhD, Holly is a Research Associate with the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability & Climate Action (BISCA). Her debut poetry collection, How to Leave a Body (Verve, 2025), has been widely recognised, and her poetry has been commissioned by organisations including Apples & Snakes, Arvon and Poetry Pharmacy.
Kadie Newman
Kadie Newman is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham. Her work has been published in Bare Fiction Magazine and The Tangerine.