Dr Christopher Wiley receives British Academy/Leverhulme research grant
19 August 2026
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Dr Christopher Wiley gives lecture-recital on the comic songs of Alexander S. Bermange
17 November 2021
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a lecture-recital on ‘The Comic Songs of Alexander S. Bermange’ on Wednesday 17 November 2021, as part of the lunchtime recital series at the University of Surrey.
The lecture-recital was given alongside Alexander S. Bermange (pictured) himself, who illustrated the talk with a series of performances of his comic songs. It opened the event ‘Laughing and Crying: Perspectives on 20th and 21st Century British Song’ held at the University that day.
Dr Wiley’s talk focused on musical allusion and compositional process in three songs by Alexander S. Bermange, ‘I Wish That My Life Were Like a Musical’, ‘I Think I Might Be Jesus’, and ‘The Seven Georges’, each performed by the composer-lyricist at the piano. Some 30 academics and students were in attendance.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers internationally broadcast webinar on electronic voting systems in higher education teaching
24 June 2021
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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a webinar on the use of electronic voting systems in higher education teaching, on Thursday 24 June 2021, 2–3pm GMT (9–10am EST), as the last of an international webinar series hosted by Turning (formerly Turning Technologies), a global leader in response technology.
Entitled ‘Creative Uses of Student Response Systems’, Dr Wiley’s one-hour webinar was broadcast to over 430 registered participants internationally, prompting a lively discussion to which moderator Kevin Herrholtz (Turning’s Vice President of Client Experience & Solutions) turned for questions periodically throughout the webinar.
Drawing on examples from his music teaching, Dr Wiley’s webinar discussed creative applications of electronic voting systems beyond the standard right-or-wrong multiple choice question, exploring advanced features of the software; pedagogies associated with electronic voting systems, and ways of combining them with other learning technologies; student feedback received on response systems, and tips for getting started.
Dr Wiley has been an International Distinguished Educator with Turning since 2012. He has spoken about electronic voting systems to many audiences both internationally and nationally (including previous webinars in 2020 and 2016), as well as publishing a report on the use of electronic voting systems in higher education teaching, available online here.
Further information about the webinar may be viewed at the following link: https://www.turning.com/webinars/creative-uses-of-student-response-systems
The complete recording of the webinar is available here: https://turningtechnologies-5.wistia.com/medias/js73pm1ov5
Update: Dr Wiley has contributed a guest blog post to learning technology company DisplayNote’s DisplayNote Dialogues blog, on teaching at university during the pandemic and how learning technology has facilitated this. Entitled ‘Teaching During the Pandemic: Technology to the Rescue’, and dated 8 September 2021, it may be read here: https://www.displaynote.com/blog/dr-christopher-wiley-teaching-during-the-pandemic-technology-to-the-rescue
Dr Christopher Wiley leads session on student evaluation of teaching at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium
14 April 2021
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Dr Christopher Wiley led a session on ‘Playful methods of student evaluation of teaching’ at the University of Surrey’s annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) on Wednesday 14 April 2021, on the theme of playful learning.
Dr Wiley outlined several different case studies of student evaluation of teaching using playful methods, which led to a fruitful discussion with the 30 academics from across the University who were in attendance.
The session was undertaken in advance of the appearance of Dr Wiley’s co-edited SEDA Special on student evaluation of teaching (pictured), and follows his other published research in the field.
This year, the Surrey ExciTeS symposium was split across two mornings (14–15 April) and was held online. Dr Wiley has also delivered sessions (in person) at all the previous Surrey ExciTeS events, in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, including one on student evaluation of teaching in 2015.
Dr Christopher Wiley co-organizes online international conference on music composition and autoethnography
18 June 2020
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Dr Christopher Wiley has co-organized, with Dr Iain Findlay-Walsh, a major two-day conference entitled ‘The Autoethnography of Composition and the Composition of Autoethnography’, held on 17–18 June 2020.
Hosted online by the University of Glasgow and the University of Surrey, the event brought together over 250 delegates from across the globe. It featured Professor Peter Gouzouasis as keynote speaker, multiple panel sessions (one of which was chaired by Dr Wiley), and a concluding roundtable discussion (including Dr Wiley as co-chair and speaker).
Click here to download the Conference Programme: Conference brochure PDF
For the video recording of the conference, please contact Dr Wiley directly.
The event followed a previous two-day international conference on music and autoethnography held at the Institute of Musical Research, London in April 2018.
For additional information and the call for papers (now closed): https://goldenpages.jpehs.co.uk/2019/12/09/the-autoethnography-of-composition-and-the-composition-of-autoethnography/

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers internationally broadcast webinar for Turning Technologies on electronic voting systems
4 March 2020
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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a webinar on electronic voting systems and their potential applications in arts and humanities teaching, on Wednesday 4 March 2020, 2–3pm GMT (9–10am EST), as part of the Turning Technologies Webinar Series.
Drawing on his teaching in popular music, classical music, and musical theatre, Dr Wiley’s one-hour webinar, entitled ‘Using Electronic Voting Systems Creatively in the Arts and Humanities’, was broadcast to over 130 registered participants internationally.
Dr Wiley has been an International Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies since 2012. He has spoken about electronic voting systems to many audiences both internationally and nationally, as well as publishing a report on the use of electronic voting systems in higher education teaching, available online here.
Further information about the webinar may be viewed at the following link: https://www.turningtechnologies.com/news-and-events/webinars/using-electronic-voting-systems-creatively-in-the-arts-and-humanities/
The complete recording of the webinar is available here: https://turningtechnologies-5.wistia.com/medias/3jz3qmqxm1
Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Ethel Smyth for Byfleet Heritage Society
21 November 2019
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), Composer, Author, Suffragette, and Surrey Resident’ for Byfleet Heritage Society at St Mary’s Centre for the Community, Byfleet on Thursday 21 November 2019.
Speaking to an audience of some 50 society members, Dr Wiley introduced Smyth’s life, music, and connections to the local area, in a 50-minute talk illustrated with musical excerpts.
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley has previously given many public talks on the composer, writer, and suffragette including those for Woking Historical Society, Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, and at Smyth’s childhood home in Frimley Green.
Dr Christopher Wiley chairs roundtable and presents paper at Royal Musical Association annual conference in Manchester
12 September 2019
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Dr Christopher Wiley has chaired and presented at a roundtable discussion at the 55th Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association, hosted by the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music on 11–13 September 2019.
Entitled ‘What is the place for storytelling in academia? Autoethnography, critical self-reflection, and arts-based practice in music studies’, the roundtable was held in the Carole Nash Recital Room at the Royal Northern College of Music, and was attended by some 50 music scholars representing a wide range of institutions internationally.
The 90-minute roundtable included Dr Wiley’s paper ‘Stories of the self(s) in music studies: method, self-reflexivity, and narrative enquiry’, in which he discussed the potential applications of autoethnography to the discipline of music as well as criticisms that the methodology has elicited, alongside presentations by fellow panellists Esther Cavett, Ian Pace, and Darla M. Crispin.
The conference website is located here: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/music/connect/events/rma2019/
The full programme may be downloaded here: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/music/connect/events/rma2019/programme/

Dr Christopher Wiley convenes student panel discussion at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium
3 April 2019
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Dr Christopher Wiley facilitated a student discussion panel at the University of Surrey’s sixth annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) on Wednesday 3 April 2019, on the subject of student-staff partnerships.
The forum, entitled ‘Giving music students ownership of their learning’, discussed the Music Project module that had taken place during the previous semester on the theme of musical theatre, and the wide range of activities that students undertook in their assessments, from performances to compositions to organizational roles.
The panel of undergraduate Music students – Diana Nemyrovska, Katy Jackson, Heather Neele, and Edward Bellett-Travers (pictured, l-r) – answered questions from academics and learning support staff from across the University.
Dr Wiley has delivered sessions at Surrey ExciTeS events in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, including a previous student discussion panel in 2017.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper in the Faculty of Music Colloquium Series at the University of Cambridge
6 February 2019
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented a 45-minute version of his paper ‘Reconsidering Ethel Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’ in the Faculty of Music Colloquium Series at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Wiley’s talk, given to an audience of some 40 academics and graduate students in the Faculty’s lecture room, was a much extended version of the paper he has delivered at women’s history events at UK universities including Kent, Portsmouth, Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Edge Hill.
Dr Wiley previously gave an unrelated paper in an Oxbridge colloquium series in 2015.
Further information about Dr Wiley’s colloquium may be found here: https://www.mus.cam.ac.uk/events/current-events/Christopher-Wiley

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at community workshop at the University of Kent
8 December 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has spoken at the ‘100+ years of the women’s movement in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey’ community workshop held in the Tonbridge Centre at the University of Kent on Saturday 8 December 2018.
Dr Wiley’s paper, entitled ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, had previously been presented at UK universities including Portsmouth, Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Edge Hill. The day ended, rather fittingly, with an impromptu rendition of Smyth’s ‘The March of the Women’.
The full programme for the workshop may be found at the following link: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/womenshistorykent/programme-of-community-workshop-on-8th-december/
Dr Christopher Wiley gives pre-concert talk in Southwark Cathedral, London
3 November 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a pre-concert talk on Ethel Smyth for a performance of the composer’s Mass in D in Southwark Cathedral, London (pictured) on Saturday 3 November 2018.
In the 15-minute talk, Dr Wiley addressed some 150 audience members in the Cathedral’s transepts.
The concert, by the London Oriana Choir and Meridian Sinfonia, presented Smyth’s Mass in D alongside J.S. Bach’s Magnificat.
The listing for the concert may be found here: https://www.londonoriana.com/past-performances
Further information on the concert is available here: https://www.planethugill.com/2018/10/ethel-smyths-mass-in-g-at-southwark.html
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers presentation at Ethel Smyth’s childhood home
15 September 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a talk on Ethel Smyth at her childhood home, Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green, on Saturday 15 September 2018.
The event was organised for Heritage Open Days by Surrey Heath Museum and the charity ATD Fourth World, which now operates at Frimhurst Family House.
It marked the unveiling of blue plaques commemorating both Smyth and the philanthropist Grace Goodman, who transformed the house into its present function as recuperative facility for families in extreme poverty.
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley previously gave a talk at Frimhurst Family House on the composer and suffragette back in 2016.
Further information on the event is available here: https://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/residents/surrey-heath-museum/museum-events/heritage-open-days-surrey-heath

Update: The following weekend, on Saturday 22 September, Dr Wiley attended a private ceremony (pictured, above) at which a blue plaque was unveiled at Smyth’s former house in Woking.
Dr Wiley’s interview about the event for That’s Surrey TV may be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiBN2ZXVPz0
Media coverage may also be found at the following link: http://surreyresidents.co.uk/2018/09/24/blue-plaque-marks-the-duchess-of-wokings-former-home/
As well as on Woking Borough Council’s website: https://www.woking.gov.uk/news/blue-plaque-marks-duchess-woking%E2%80%99s-former-home
Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk for Heritage Open Days at Farnham Maltings
14 September 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk on Ethel Smyth in the Cellar Bar at Farnham Maltings as part of the annual programme of Heritage Open Days on Friday 14 September 2018.
Speaking to an audience of over 50 people, Dr Wiley discussed Smyth’s music, literature, and activity as a suffragette, illustrating his presentation with music examples.
Further information about Dr Wiley’s talk may be found at the following link: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/dame-ethel-smyth-composer-and-suffragette
Media coverage of the Heritage Open Days activities taking place in the local area may be viewed online here: http://www.farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id=129364, http://www.farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id=129629
Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Ethel Smyth for Woking History Society
3 September 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley gave a talk on Ethel Smyth for Woking History Society in The Gallery at Christ Church Woking on Monday 3 September 2018.
Addressing over 50 audience members, Dr Wiley’s hour-long presentation discussed Smyth’s activity as composer, author, suffragette, and, for the last several decades of her life, a Woking resident.
Dr Wiley previously spoke about Ethel Smyth at The Lightbox, Woking for International Women’s Day earlier in the year, as well as hosting and performing in a concert of Smyth’s music at Christ Church Woking in 2014, to mark the 70th anniversary of her death.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at Women’s History Network annual conference at the University of Portsmouth
1 September 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley was among the many speakers who presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the Women’s History Network, held at the University of Portsmouth on Friday 31 August–Saturday 1 September 2018.
Entitled ‘The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage: National and International Perspectives’, the conference attracted a large delegation of scholars of women’s history internationally.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, was presented in one of the conference’s parallel sessions to an audience of some 25 academics.

Dr Wiley considered the extent to which Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate might be considered a feminist opera, with reference to the composer’s suffragette activity, the story on which the work was based, and her creative process, including her adaptation of pre-existing music in the score.
Dr Wiley has presented previous versions of his paper at several other UK universities including Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Edge Hill.
The conference website is here: http://www2.port.ac.uk/centre-for-european-and-international-studies-research/events/womens-suffrage-2018/
The complete programme for the event is available for download here: http://www2.port.ac.uk/media/contacts-and-departments/ceisr/events/Suffrage-Conference-2018.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley co-organizes and presents paper at international conference on women’s suffrage at the University of Surrey
30 June 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley served as one of three conference co-chairs for the two-day international conference ‘Centennial Reflections on Women’s Suffrage and the Arts – Local : National : Transnational’ held at the University of Surrey on 29-30 June 2018, together with two colleagues from the University’s School of Literature and Languages, Dr Charlotte Mathieson (pictured with Dr Wiley, right) and Dr Lucy Ella Rose.

The conference incorporated more than 25 papers including Dr Wiley’s own ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, which he had previously given at Edge Hill University earlier in the year. The panel on which he spoke, ‘Women’s Suffrage in/and Music’, led to an animated question and answer session (pictured, left).

Dr Wiley also convened and participated in a roundtable discussion (pictured, right) featuring three professional actresses who have recently developed shows on themes of women’s suffrage, Jacqueline Mulhallen (Sylvia, based on Sylvia Pankhurst), Lucy Stevens (Grasp The Nettle, on Ethel Smyth), and Kate Willoughby (#Emilymatters, a social media campaign inspired by Emily Wilding Davison), all of whom performed extracts from their plays as part of the conference.

Finally, Dr Wiley chaired a session on ‘Ethel Smyth, Suffrage, and Transnationality’, drawing on his reputation as an acknowledged expert on the composer, and was privileged to introduce Keynote speaker Elizabeth Crawford (pictured, left), who had been awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List earlier in the month for services to education in relation to women’s history.
The event attracted more than 40 delegates (pictured, below), with speakers ranging from University of Surrey academics and postgraduate researchers to museum-based archivists to international scholars from the UK, Continental Europe, and North America representing the disciplines of literature, music, film, and the visual arts.
The conference organizers gratefully acknowledge the support of the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Surrey; The British Association for Victorian Studies; and The Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK & Ireland.
Further information may be found at the conference website: https://suffragecentennial.wordpress.com/
The full programme, including abstracts, is available here: https://suffragecentennial.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/suffrage-conference-programme-2018.pdf

Update: A news piece on the conference has appeared on the the University of Surrey’s website: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/surreys-centennial-reflection-womens-suffrage-and-arts
Several postgraduate research students have contributed reviews to the conference website: https://suffragecentennial.wordpress.com/reviews/
See also the reviews on the School of Literature and Language’s website: http://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/english/2018/08/02/looking-back-at-centennial-reflections-on-womens-suffrage-and-the-arts-local-national-transnational/
Update: An article co-authored by Dr Wiley and Dr Amy Zigler, entitled ‘The Suffragette Movement and the Music of Ethel Smyth: The String Quartet and The Boatswain’s Mate’, is available on the Exploring Surrey’s Past website: https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/womens-suffrage/suffrage-biographies/dame-ethel-smyth-composer-and-suffragette/the-suffragette-movement-and-the-music-of-ethel-smyth-the-string-quartet-and-the-boatswains-mate/
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at conference on biography at the University of Nottingham
20 June 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has presented a paper at the multi-disciplinary conference ‘Biography and Public History: Constructing Historical Narratives through Life-Writing’, held in the Department of Music at the University of Nottingham on Wednesday 20 June 2018.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Anecdote as a Genre in Musical Biography’, drew primarily on his recent research on Victorian life-writing, while also discussing the foundational role of anecdote within musical biography from its advent at the turn of the nineteenth century onwards.
Proposing that biographical anecdote warrants recognition as a genre in its own right given its extraordinary staying power and the sophisticated narratives that developed around specific examples, Dr Wiley demonstrated its potential to contribute to a greater understanding of associated culture through the recounting of stories of its most cherished figures.
The one-day conference was attended by some 50 international delegates. Dr Wiley also chaired the opening session, which featured papers on archaeology, buildings architecture, and literature.
Further information may be found at the conference webpage: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/humanities/music/biography-and-public-history/biography-and-public-history.aspx
The full conference programme is available online here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/music/documents/2018/final-programme.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley gives paper on musical biography at Edinburgh Napier University
15 June 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has delivered a paper on musical biography at the ‘Music and Literature: Innovations, Intersections, and Interpretations’ conference hosted at Merchiston Campus, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland on 14-15 June 2018.
Entitled ‘Musical biography and the (non-)consonance of music and literature’, Dr Wiley’s paper revealed how biographical narratives might actually contradict the evidence of the music itself, or they may represent an appropriation of specific works for a given time and place, or function to promote them within wider reading communities who may otherwise be unfamiliar with that music.
Dr Wiley drew case studies from his wider research conducted over the years on musical biography, including the apocryphal story of Mozart’s Requiem, the earliest 12 volumes of the ‘Master Musicians’ series, and Ethel Smyth’s autobiographies. The two-day conference was attended by some 50 delegates.
Further information may be found at the conference website: https://musicandliteratureconference.wordpress.com/
The full programme for the event is available online here: https://musicandliteratureconference.wordpress.com/programme/
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at women’s suffrage conference at Royal Holloway, University of London
13 June 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has addressed the ‘Education, College Women, and Suffrage: International Perspectives’ conference held at his alma mater, Royal Holloway, University of London, on 13–14 June 2018.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Gender Studies and Multi-Disciplinary Teaching: A Case Study of Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement’, discussed the challenges presented by the delivery of tuition in gender studies within higher education contexts given the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of the field.
Presenting to an audience that itself encompassed a wide variety of different arts disciplines and educational backgrounds, Dr Wiley illustrated his arguments by drawing on his current research on the relationship between Ethel Smyth, her suffrage activity, and her opera The Boatswain’s Mate.
Organized by The Bedford Centre for the History of Women and Gender at Royal Holloway in conjunction with the Centre for the History of Women’s Education at the University of Winchester, the two-day conference attracted some 60 delegates.
Further information is available at the conference website: https://educationcollegewomenandsuffrage.wordpress.com/
The full programme may be viewed online here: https://educationcollegewomenandsuffrage.wordpress.com/programme/
Dr Christopher Wiley presents paper at Popular Music Education Symposium at Western University, Ontario, Canada
8 June 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley addressed the inaugural ‘Progressive Methods in Popular Music Education’ Symposium at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, on Friday 8 June 2018, presenting remotely via video-conference link from his office at the University of Surrey.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘From Research-led Teaching to Teaching-led Research: Keeping Curricula Contemporary in Higher Education Popular Music’, discussed the relationship between teaching and research in twenty-first-century UK higher education, with specific reference to his delivery of an undergraduate module on Adele’s 25 album.
A previous version of his presentation had been given at an international conference at the Institute of Musical Research, London (UK) in April 2018, focussing on the use of autoethnography as the principal methodology for the study rather than (as at this conference) on the pedagogy of popular music education and the curriculum design itself.
The two-day Symposium was hosted by the Don Wright Faculty of Music, concurrently with MayDay Group Colloquium 30. Together, the two events attracted a diverse line-up of presenters as well as over 100 registered delegates.
Further information about the ‘Progressive Methods in Popular Music Education’ Symposium is available online: http://www.music.uwo.ca/outreach/symposium-on-progressive-methods.html
The conference programme may be downloaded here: http://www.music.uwo.ca/outreach/images-pdf/mayday-progressive-methods-conference-program-2018.pdf
And presenter abstracts and biographies are available here: http://www.music.uwo.ca/outreach/images-pdf/PM-Abstracts-Fri.pdf

Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Ethel Smyth for Surrey Local History Symposium at Surrey History Centre
21 April 2018
Presentation, Public Output, Research annual symposium, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, local history, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, opera, presentation, research, suffragette, Surrey, Surrey Archaeological Society, Surrey Heath, Surrey History Centre, Surrey Local History Committee, Surrey Local History symposium, symposium, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking, women's suffrage Leave a comment
Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth, Ground-breaking Composer, Writer, and Suffragette’ at the Annual Symposium of Surrey Local History Committee on Saturday 21 April 2018.
The one-day symposium, whose theme was ‘The Changing Role of Women’, featured presentations from five speakers who work in areas of local history. Organized by a committee of Surrey Archaeological Society, the event was held at Surrey History Centre, Woking, and attracted around 40 audience members from across the county.
In addition to his internationally recognized academic research, Dr Wiley has previously spoken on Ethel Smyth at a range of local history events in the Surrey area, including talks at The Lightbox, Woking, The Guildford Institute, and at Smyth’s childhood home in Frimley Green.
The programme for the Surrey Local History Symposium is available at the following links:
Surrey History Centre – https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/heritage-culture-and-recreation/archives-and-history/surrey-history-centre/heritage-events
Surrey Archeological Society – https://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/content/changing-role-of-women-surrey-local-history-symposium
Celebrate Woking – https://www.celebratewoking.info/events/annual-symposium-changing-role-of-women
Dr Christopher Wiley organizes and presents paper at major international conference at the Institute of Musical Research, London
17 April 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has organized the two-day international conference, ‘Beyond “Mesearch”: Autoethnography, Self-Reflexivity, and Personal Experience as Academic Research in Music Studies’, held at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, on 16-17 April 2018.
The conference, which was supported by the Institute of Musical Research as well as the University of Surrey, drew strong interest from a large international delegation of around 80 participants from across the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia.
It featured three keynote addresses and 20 papers arranged in a series of parallel sessions, together with an innovative group discussion session (which may form a model to be adopted more widely at future conferences in music studies) in which delegates separated into smaller breakout groups led by a senior academic before reporting back to the conference.
Dr Wiley also chaired a number of sessions and facilitated discussions on a range of topics, as well as delivering his paper ‘From Research-led Teaching to Teaching-led Research: An autoethnographic enquiry into keeping curricula contemporary in higher education popular music’, elements of which have previously been presented at academic forums in both music and education studies.
This event followed the success of the multi-disciplinary conference recently co-organized by Dr Wiley, ‘Writing About Contemporary Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities’, held at the University of Surrey from 20-22 October 2017.
Dr Wiley previously co-organized a two-day international conference, ‘Musical Biography: National Ideology, Narrative Technique, and the Nature of Myth’, at the Institute of Musical Research in April 2015.
Further information about the ‘Beyond “Mesearch”’ conference may be found at the website: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/department-music-media/research/autoethnography-and-self-reflexivity-music-studies
The full programme, including abstracts, is available here: https://chris-wiley.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/imr-beyond-mesearch-conference-programme-16-17-april-2018.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers public talk on Ethel Smyth for International Women’s Day 2018
8 March 2018
Presentation, Public Output, Research Celebrate Woking, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, gender studies, International Women's Day, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, The Lightbox, The March of the Women, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking, women's enfranchisement, women's suffrage 3 Comments
Dr Christopher Wiley has delivered a public talk on Dame Ethel Smyth at The Lightbox, Woking for International Women’s Day (Thursday 8 March) 2018.
Addressing an audience of over 80 members of the public in The Lightbox’s Ambassador Room, Dr Wiley (pictured, left) spoke about Smyth’s life, music, and prose writings, with particular emphasis on her connections to Woking (her town of residence for over 30 years at the end of her life) and the surrounding area.
Dr Wiley also addressed the extent to which Smyth broke new ground for women both within and beyond the field of music composition, discussing her activity as a leading suffragette in the early 1910s as well as her war service, mindful of this year’s centenaries of women’s partial enfranchisement in the UK and of the end of the First World War.
A recognized expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley is frequently invited to give public lectures on the composer and writer, including recent appearances at The Guildford Institute and Frimhurst, Frimley Green (Smyth’s childhood home). This was the first of his several talks in the Surrey area this year, as well as one of a number of events commemorating Smyth for the Celebrate Woking Festival 2018.
Further information on Dr Wiley’s talk may be found here: https://www.thelightbox.org.uk/Event/ethel-smyth-composer-suffragette
The previous day, Dr Wiley had given an interview on Ethel Smyth at Woking Golf Club for an episode of Pyrford TV ARTS due to be released online in April.
Dr Christopher Wiley addresses interdisciplinary Suffragette Symposium at Edge Hill University
28 February 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley has spoken at the Suffragette Symposium hosted by the interdisciplinary Gender and Sexuality Research Group (GenSex) at Edge Hill University on Wednesday 28 February 2018.
His paper subjected to renewed critical scrutiny the claim that Smyth’s opera The Boatswain’s Mate, composed following her two years’ service as a suffragette in the 1910s, constitutes a ‘feminist opera’.
The presentation, entitled ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, explored the work’s refashioning of pre-existing music including two of Smyth’s suffrage songs used in its Overture, as well as a range of adaptations of traditional music.
Addressing an audience of some 35 delegates comprising both academics and members of the public, Dr Wiley also discussed the opera’s indebtedness to the short story by W.W. Jacobs on which it is based, and made consideration of Smyth’s creative process as documented in contemporaneous correspondence with Emmeline Pankhurst.
Further information on the Suffragette Symposium may be viewed online: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/wonder-women/gensex/
The full programme is available here: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/wonder-women/files/2018/02/Suffragette-Symposium-Programme.pdf
Speaker biographies and abstracts may be found at the following link: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/wonder-women/files/2018/02/Suffragette-Panel-Bios.docx.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers Keynote lecture at international conference at the University of Amsterdam
26 January 2018
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Dr Christopher W
iley gave a Keynote lecture at the two-day international workshop, ‘Transnational Perspectives on the Writing of Artists’ Lives, 19th-21st centuries’, held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 25–26 January 2018.
Dr Wiley’s 50-minute paper, entitled ‘Musical Biography as a National and Transnational Genre’, explored the extent to which composer life-writing reflects the preoccupations and concerns of its time and place of origin while simultaneously embodying pan-European values that remain strikingly robust across texts from different countries and centuries.
Addressed to an interdisciplinary audience primarily from The Netherlands, France, the UK, and US, Dr Wiley’s lecture developed research previously presented at the University of Oxford, and generated much productive discussion from delegates.
An internationally acknowledged expert in the field, Dr Wiley has given a number of previous keynotes at conferences on biography, including the four-day ‘(Auto)Biography as a Musicological Discourse’ held at the University of Arts, Belgrade in 2008.
The full schedule for the workshop may be viewed here: http://www.uva.nl/en/shared-content/subsites/amsterdam-institute-for-humanities-research/en/events/events/2018/01/transnational-perspectives-artists-lives.html
The programme is also available online as a PDF: https://www.huizingainstituut.nl/v02/wp-content/uploads/Programme-Workshop-Transnational-Perspectives-on-Artists-Lives-2-Jan-18.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley leads session at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium
3 January 2018
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a presentation and facilitated the ensuing discussion at the University of Surrey’s fifth annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) on Wednesday 3 January 2018.
His session, ‘From Research-led Teaching to Teaching-led Research: Keeping curricula contemporary’, explored the relationship between teaching and research and its implications for maintaining up-to-the-minute taught university curricula, for which substantial original research may necessarily be undertaken by the lecturer for the express purposes of teaching (as distinct from research previously conducted with a view to publication and used within the classroom only as a secondary endeavour).
To illustrate his arguments, Dr Wiley outlined aspects of the design of his first-year undergraduate module on Adele’s 25 album, previously discussed in a roundtable panel he convened for the Study Day on ‘Teaching and Creativity in Popular Music’ held at the University of Surrey on 10 June 2017.
Dr Wiley concluded his session by contending that the dichotomy often posited in the academic profession between teaching and research, typically viewed as two distinct (if not mutually exclusive) activities, is unhelpful for its omitting to take account of the extent of the middleground between them. He further suggested that just as teaching may be research-led, (pedagogic) research may itself correspondingly be led by teaching.
Dr Wiley has participated in all four previous Surrey ExciTeS events, delivering sessions in 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.
Dr Christopher Wiley gives pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne Tour 2017
7 November 2017
Presentation, Public Output Ambassadors Theatre, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Così fan tutte, Glyndebourne, Glyndebourne Tour, Mozart, Music, New Victoria Theatre, opera, pre-event talk, pre-performance talk, presentation, Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking Leave a comment
Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne Tour 2017, to introduce its production of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking on Tuesday 7 November 2017.
Dr Wiley’s talk focussed on two principal issues, the portrayal of women in Così fan tutte and the work’s relationship with the genre of opera buffa, illustrated with a slideshow and audio excerpts. Held in the Rhoda McGaw Theatre adjacent to the main auditorium, it was attended by a large audience of some 150 opera-lovers.
A work well-known to Dr Wiley from his undergraduate teaching, he also discussed the opera’s historical background, characters and plot, and the ways in which its reception has changed over time, as well as the specific interpretation taken by Glyndebourne Tour in this revival of the 2006 production directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Dr Wiley has previously given pre-performance talks for Glyndebourne in 2016, 2015, and 2014, mainly on operas by Mozart.
Dr Christopher Wiley co-authors presentation at International Symposium on Pedagogic Frailty at the University of Surrey
6 September 2017
Conference, Educational Research, Presentation, Publication, Research, Teaching arts and humanities, autoethnography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, education, Franklin, Guildford School of Acting, Higher Education, Jo Franklin, Music, pedagogic frailty, presentation, reciprocal autoethnography, resilience, School of Arts, Surrey, symposium, teaching, technical theatre arts, University, University of Surrey, Wiley Leave a comment
Dr Christopher Wiley and Jo Franklin (Guildford School of Acting) co-authored an interactive presentation delivered as part of the First International Symposium on Pedagogic Frailty and Resilience held at the University of Surrey on Wednesday 6 September 2017.
The session, entitled ‘Dialogic Approaches to Pedagogic Frailty’, explored how the authors had proactively sought to extend the results of two previous research projects in which they had been separately involved, including Dr Wiley’s co-authored autoethnographic study of pedagogic frailty in arts and humanities education.
They outlined the ‘reciprocal autoethnography’ approach by which they expanded the parameters of their earlier studies, as well as the methods by which they comparatively analysed the concept maps that resulted from previous research, independently of the original interviewer.
Based on their book chapter on autoethnography and pedagogic frailty, the presentation concluded by considering the potential for future expansion of the pedagogic frailty process as well as its benefits in terms of enhancing understanding of the preoccupations, priorities, and motivations of colleagues and teams.
The one-day symposium brought together some 40 academic colleagues from across the UK and internationally.
Further information about the symposium is available at the following link: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/department-higher-education/events/pedagogic-frailty
The full programme, including abstracts, may be downloaded here: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Pedagogic-frailty-symposium-programme.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley organizes Study Day on Teaching and Creativity in Popular Music and convenes roundtable
10 June 2017
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Dr Christopher Wiley organized a Study Day on ‘Teaching and Creativity in Popular Music’ at the University of Surrey on Saturday 10 June 2017, bringing together some 25 higher education academics from across England.
The day comprised a combination of paper presentations and innovative teach-in workshops, in which facilitators presented aspects of their teaching techniques in performance, songwriting, and production in genres ranging from musical theatre to hip hop.
Also included was a central roundtable discussion (pictured, below) on the subject of ‘Pedagogical Practice in Popular Music Teaching in Higher Education: Creative approaches and continuing challenges’, which Dr Wiley convened and on which he spoke about the challenges of designing an undergraduate module on genuinely contemporary popular music (specifically, Adele’s 25 album) in the absence of an established scholarly discourse on which to draw.

The event was held under the aegis of the London and South-East England 21st Century Music Practice Research Network founded in 2016 between 20 higher education institutions, as one of a series of study days framed around its six headline themes.
Further information is available at the website for the Study Day: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/department-music-media/research-department/popular-music-teaching-creativity
The full programme for the event is available here: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Study%20Day%20on%20Teaching%20and%20Creativity%20in%20Popular%20Music%20(programme).pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley leads post-show discussion on the suffragette movement at Cranleigh Arts Centre
26 May 2017
Presentation, Public Output, Research Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Cranleigh, Cranleigh Arts Centre, ethel smyth, Jacqueline Mulhallen, Lynx Theatre, Lynx Theatre and Poetry, Mulhallen, Music, suffrage activity, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, Syliva Pankhurst, Sylvia, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, women's suffrage Leave a comment
Dr Christopher Wiley addressed an audience of theatre-goers on Ethel Smyth as part of a post-show discussion following the one-woman play Sylvia, presented by Lynx Theatre and Poetry at Cranleigh Arts Centre, Surrey on the evening of Friday 26 May 2017.
The main performance, a theatrical production based on Sylvia Pankhurst’s life, activity as a painter, and service to the suffragette movement, was performed by professional actress Jacqueline Mulhallen (pictured, as Pankhurst) having been developed from original research.
After a brief interval, the post-show discussion led with Dr Wiley’s talk on Smyth, following which the audience were able to put questions to Dr Wiley and the creators of Sylvia, and to engage in further general conversation on women’s suffrage.
Internationally acknowledged for his substantial contribution to scholarship on Smyth across the past 15 years, Dr Wiley has more recently acquired a reputation as a local historian, many of the audience members already being familiar with his work on the Surrey-based composer, writer, and suffragette.
Further information about the event is available here: http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?agency=CRAN&organ_val=40629&pid=8410211
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at Collaborating Couples conference at the University of Bristol
19 April 2017
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented a paper at a two-day international conference entitled ‘Beyond Genius and Muse – Collaborating Couples in Twentieth-Century Arts’, held at the Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol on 18–19 April 2017.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Subject and Countersubject: The Prevalence of the Genius and the Muse in Musical Biography’, explored the pattern of collaborating couples that has emerged historically in musical biography, drawing on examples including Brahms and Clara Schumann, Ethel Smyth and Henry Brewster, Britten and Peter Pears, and Adele.
It built upon Dr Wiley’s previous scholarship conducted in this area across more than 10 years, of which the most recent output, his book chapter ‘Musical Biography and the Myth of the Muse’, was published in 2015.
The conference brought together some 50 academics from across Europe and the US, encompassing a range of topics in music, literature, and the visual arts.
Further information is available at the conference website: https://collaboratingcouples.wordpress.com/

Dr Christopher Wiley delivers workshop presentation on electronic voting systems in the arts and humanities at the University of York
1 March 2017
Educational Research, Presentation, Teaching arts and humanities, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, education, electronic voting systems, Higher Education, Music, presentation, teaching, teaching innovation, Turning Technologies, University, University of York, Wiley, workshop, York Leave a comment
Dr Christopher Wiley presented a workshop on using Turning Technologies response technology in the arts and humanities, at a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session held in the JB Morrell Library at the University of York on Wednesday 1 March 2017.
The invitation to deliver the workshop, ‘Enhancing Student Engagement Through Electronic Voting Systems: Innovative Pedagogies and Creative Applications’, followed Dr Wiley’s presentation at the Turning Technologies User Conference in London last year, at which he advocated the use of electronic voting systems in areas other than the STEMM and business subjects with which they are more readily associated.
As an external speaker and International Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies since 2012, Dr Wiley has recently addressed audiences representing a wide range of disciplines and universities across England, including Lancaster, Exeter, Sussex, Birmingham, Southampton Solent, Durham, Hull, and Surrey.
He has also spoken internationally at conferences in Ireland, Crete, Germany, and Denmark; delivered an internationally broadcast webinar; presented at the Higher Education Academy’s Arts and Humanities Conference in Brighton; and published a Higher Education Academy report on electronic voting systems.

Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Ethel Smyth’s opera The Boatswain’s Mate for Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group
27 February 2017
Presentation, Public Output, Research Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, deafness, ethel smyth, feminism, feminist musicology, gender studies, Guildford, Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, hard of hearing, memoirs, Millmead Centre, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, opera, presentation, research, Surrey, Surrey Heath, The Boatswain's Mate, University, University of Surrey, Wiley Leave a comment
Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Ethel Smyth’s (feminist?) opera, The Boatswain’s Mate’ at the Millmead Centre, Guildford on 27 February 2017, for Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group.
The Boatswain’s Mate was the fourth of six operas composed by Smyth (who suffered from distorted hearing and deafness for the last several decades of her life), and was the most popular and most frequently performed during her own lifetime. It was recently released in its first complete modern recording by Retrospect Opera (of which Dr Wiley is a part).
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley provided an outline of the circumstances of the composition of The Boatswain’s Mate, its plot, and interesting features of the music. He also discussed the extent to which the work constitutes a ‘feminist opera’, as has previously been suggested.
This is the second time that Dr Wiley has addressed Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, having delivered a presentation on Smyth’s life and works two years ago in January 2015. Dr Wiley has also recently given talks on Smyth at The Guildford Institute and at the composer’s childhood home in Frimley Green.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers talk on Ethel Smyth at The Guildford Institute
18 January 2017
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth, Groundbreaking Composer, Writer, and Suffragette’ at The Guildford Institute, Guildford on Wednesday 18 January 2017.
Speaking to a capacity audience of 70 in the Institute’s Assembly Room, Dr Wiley outlined Smyth’s significance to music, literature, and women’s suffrage, as well as her local connections to Surrey, illustrating his talk with excerpts from a variety of her works.
An acknowledged expert on the subject, Dr Wiley has recently given several talks on Ethel Smyth in the local area, including one at Smyth’s childhood home in Frimley Green, Surrey last September.
Further information on the event is available on The Guildford Institute’s website: http://guildford-institute.org.uk/whats-on2/dame-ethel-smyth-groundbreaking-composer-writer-and-suffragette/

Dr Christopher Wiley convenes student panel discussion at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium
4 January 2017
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Dr Christopher Wiley organized a student discussion panel at the University of Surrey’s fourth annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) on Wednesday 4 January 2017.
Entitled ‘Exploring the potential benefits of online discussion forums in enabling students to become agents of research-led teaching’, the session focused on Dr Wiley’s use of a student-led online discussion forum in his final-year undergraduate module on musical theatre.
The panel of Music students and recent graduates, comprising Karen Taylor, Octavius Longcroft-Wheaton, and Jadene Doak (pictured, l-r), addressed questions from academics drawn from across the University.
Dr Wiley has led sessions at all three of the previous Surrey ExciTeS events in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
The full programme for 2017 symposium (including abstracts) is available here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/dhe/surrey_excites/Surrey%20ExciTes%202017%20Programme.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers workshop presentation on electronic voting systems at Lancaster University
15 November 2016
Educational Research, Presentation, Teaching Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, education, electronic voting systems, Higher Education, Lancaster, Lancaster University, presentation, teaching, teaching innovation, Turning Technologies, University, Wiley, workshop 1 Comment
Dr Christopher Wiley was the invited external speaker for a ‘Lunch and Learn’ event on Turning Technologies polling software held in the Charles Carter Building at Lancaster University on 15 November 2016.
His one-hour workshop, ‘Enhancing Student Engagement Through Electronic Voting Systems: Innovative Pedagogies and Creative Applications’, was attended by some 25 academics from across the University and was followed by a lively question and answer session. The programme for the event is available here.
Dr Wiley has given learning and teaching workshops on electronic voting systems at several universities across England since 2014, in addition to a recent Keynote at a conference at the University of Exeter and an internationally broadcast webinar.
Update: Dr Wiley has contributed an entry on student response systems to the Educational Developers’ Cookbook, an international online resource launched in December 2016. His piece, entitled ‘Feedback and Evaluation using Electronic Voting Systems’, may be read here: http://teachingcommons.yorku.ca/feedback-and-evaluation-using-electronic-voting-systems/
Dr Christopher Wiley gives pre-performance talks for Glyndebourne Tour 2016
9 November 2016
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Dr Christopher Wiley has delivered two pre-performance talks for Glyndebourne Tour 2016, to preface its productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, on 8 and 9 November, respectively.
Both talks were delivered at the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes prior to performances at the nearby Milton Keynes Theatre. Speaking to some 60 audience members, Dr Wiley introduced the plots and characters of the operas, their historical backgrounds, noteworthy features of the music (such as Puccini’s use of authentic Japanese tunes in the score of Madama Butterfly), and aspects of the interpretations taken by Glyndebourne’s productions.
Dr Wiley has previously given pre-performance talks for Glyndebourne in 2014 and 2015, but this is the first time that he has been invited to speak at Milton Keynes.
Update: Dr Wiley reprised his pre-performance talk on Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to some 60 opera-goers in the Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking on 30 November, by way of introduction to Glyndebourne’s production later that evening in the adjacent New Victoria Theatre.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers internationally broadcast webinar for Turning Technologies on student response systems
28 September 2016
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Dr Christopher Wiley gave a webinar on student response systems and innovative teaching practices on Wednesday 28 September 2016, 2-3pm EDT, as part of the ‘Explore Innovation with Turning Technologies’ Fall Webinar Series.
Entitled ‘Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features, and Tips for Getting Started’, Dr Wiley’s one-hour webinar was broadcast in North America as part of Turning Technologies’s ongoing programme of educational events.
Dr Wiley has been a Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies since 2012. During his time in this role, he has addressed many audiences both nationally and internationally, and, last year, published a report on using response technology in higher education teaching.
The flyer for the webinar may be viewed here: https://www.turningtechnologies.com/pdf/content/ExploreInnovationWebinarWiley.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk at Ethel Smyth’s childhood home
11 September 2016
Presentation, Public Output, Research ATD Fourth World, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Frimhurst, Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green, Music, music and literature, presentation, research, Surrey, Surrey Heath, University, University of Surrey, Wiley 4 Comments
Dr Christopher Wiley gave a talk entitled ‘Ethel Smyth: Composer, Author, Suffragette, and Surrey Resident’, at Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green (Ethel Smyth’s childhood home), on 11 September 2016.
Dr Wiley addressed an audience of some 50 members of the public during an event celebrating Ethel Smyth, part of the ‘Century of Sound’ Festival organised annually by Surrey Heath Borough. The full programme for the Festival is available here: http://www.centuryofsound.co.uk/event-programme.
Other features of the afternoon event included included performances of Smyth’s solo piano music by Dr Maureen Galea and of some of her songs by the Surrey Heath Singers, as well as a tour of the premises and a talk about the work of the charity ATD Fourth World, which now operates at Frimhurst Family House.
The event was jointly organised by Surrey Heath Museum, the University of Surrey, and ATD Fourth World.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers Keynote at Transforming Technology Enhanced Learning 2016 Conference at the University of Exeter
17 June 2016
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Dr Christopher Wiley was one of the Keynote speakers at the Transforming Technology Enhanced Learning (TTEL) Conference held in the Forum at the University of Exeter on Friday 17 June 2016.
Speaking in the Forum’s 400-seat Alumni Auditorium, Dr Wiley delivered his presentation, ‘Enhancing Student Engagement Through Electronic Voting Systems (EVS): Innovative Pedagogies and Creative Applications’, to an audience of around 90 academic staff from the University of Exeter and nearby higher education institutions.
Dr Wiley’s keynote discussed a range of applications and pedagogies with which students may be engaged through EVS, illustrated with various interactive audience-based tasks. Later sections of the talk also considered how EVS may be used in combination with a number of other popular learning technologies.
The one-day conference, designed to promote and disseminate good practices in transforming learning through technology-enhanced teaching, comprised a series of alternating keynotes and parallel workshop sessions.
As a Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies (one of the event’s sponsors) since 2012, Dr Wiley has recently given presentations and workshops on learning and teaching at several universities across England, as well as writing a report on using electronic voting systems in arts and humanities teaching, published by the Higher Education Academy.
The webpage for the TTEL Conference is available at the following link: https://as.exeter.ac.uk/education-quality-enhancement/e-learning/ttelconference2016/
The draft programme may be downloaded here: https://as.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/academicservices/educationenhancement/TTEL2016Draft2.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers presentation at the Higher Education Academy’s Arts and Humanities Teaching and Learning Conference in Brighton
3 March 2016
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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a presentation at the Higher Education Academy’s inaugural Arts and Humanities conference, ‘Inspire – sharing great practice in Arts and Humanities teaching and learning’, held at The Waterfront Hotel, Brighton (now Jurys Inn Brighton Waterfront) on 3–4 March 2016.
In the half-hour session, entitled ‘How to… use electronic voting systems creatively in arts and humanities teaching’, Dr Wiley outlined a variety of innovative ways in which he has incorporated electronic voting systems into his teaching in the Arts and Humanities over the years. The abstract for Dr Wiley’s talk, which immediately followed the conference’s opening keynote lecture, may be read here.
Acknowledged as a Distinguished Educator by Turning Technologies, Dr Wiley has previously given workshops on the use of electronic voting systems in higher education teaching at six UK universities in the past two years, as well as publishing the report Using Electronic Voting Systems in the Arts and Humanities last year as part of the Higher Education Academy’s Innovative Pedagogies series.
The complete programme for the conference (for which Dr Wiley also acted as a specialist reviewer of proposal submissions) is available here: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/artsandhumanities-conference-programme_6.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley organizes Learning and Teaching development event at the University of Surrey
12 January 2016
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Dr Christopher Wiley organized a half-day Learning and Teaching development event for the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 12 January 2016. This was the fifth forum of this nature in two years (see information about previous events here), and involved some 40 staff from across the institution.
This event incorporated a training session led by the University’s Student Services on the pastoral side of Personal Tutoring, as well as a discussion forum on student evaluation of teaching facilitated by Dr Wiley, which considered how academic staff might seek to maximize the effectiveness of feedback received from students for purposes of ongoing teaching enhancement.
A blog post written by Dr Wiley, in which the School of Arts Learning and Teaching symposia are discussed, has recently appeared on the Association of National Teaching Fellows blog. The post, entitled ‘How do National Teaching Fellows make a contribution in their institution?’, may be read at the following link:
Update: With over 400 reads in the week in which it appeared, Dr Wiley’s post set a new record for the Association of National Teaching Fellows blog.
Dr Christopher Wiley co-facilitates discussion forum at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium
6 January 2016
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Dr Christopher Wiley co-facilitated a discussion forum at the University of Surrey’s annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) on Wednesday 6 January 2016.
Entitled ‘How can we increase teaching quality without increasing teaching preparation time?’, the session was based on a longer workshop previously run at the School of Arts Learning and Teaching development event in September 2015.
Dr Wiley was joined for the discussion forum by two colleagues from Guildford School of Acting, Anna McNamara and Sean McNamara, as co-presenters. The session saw some 30 staff from across the institution engage in exploration of strategies by which teaching may simultaneously optimize preparation time and increase student engagement.
This is Dr Wiley’s third appearance at Surrey ExciTeS, following contributions in 2014 (the inaugural event) and 2015.
The full programme for Surrey ExciTeS 2016 may be found here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/dhe/surrey_excites/Surrey%20ExciTeS%202016%20Programme.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley gives pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne Tour 2015
1 December 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne Tour 2015, as a prelude to its production of Mozart’s opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail in the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, the tour’s final venue, on 1 December 2015.
Dr Wiley’s talk was held in the adjacent Rhoda McGaw Theatre, which was at capacity with some 200 opera-goers in attendance. Over the course of half an hour, Dr Wiley discussed the historical context of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, its extensive use of spoken dialogue, the virtuosic nature of some of its vocal writing, its orchestration and its portrayal of the East, as well as exploring aspects of Glyndebourne’s critically-acclaimed production.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which Mozart composed in 1781–2, holds a special place in Glyndebourne’s history: it was the work that brought its founder, John Christie, into contact with the soprano Audrey Mildmay, whom he subsequently married and who inspired the Glyndebourne Festival. This year’s production was the company’s seventh of the opera in its 80-year history.
The invitation for Dr Wiley to deliver this talk followed the success of his pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne Tour in October 2014 on another Mozart opera, La finta giardiniera, and was similarly well-received.
Dr Wiley convenes inaugural School of Arts ‘Opportunities and Networking’ event at the University of Surrey
8 October 2015
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The School of Arts at the University of Surrey held its first ‘Opportunities and Networking’ event in the Ivy main auditorium, Ivy Arts Centre on Thursday 8 October 2015, organized by Dr Christopher Wiley.
Over 100 students were in attendance across the subject areas of Music and Sound Recording, Theatre, Dance, Digital Media Arts, and the Guildford School of Acting.
The event introduced students to the many different possibilities for them to collaborate with one another on different School of Arts programmes, provided them with information about extra-curricular University activities related to the arts, facilitated their networking with students elsewhere in the School, and enabled them to register their interest in collaborating with one another via sign-up sheets.
Dr Wiley compèred the event, which featured contributions from range of other School of Arts staff as well as students. The evening ended with a series of networking activities designed to enable students to meet one another and to discuss their interests in collaborating on arts projects, followed by more informal opportunities to chat over pizza and soft drinks.
This ‘Opportunities and Networking’ event follows in the footsteps of an equally successful and well-attended panel discussion on ‘Careers in the Arts’, co-organized by Dr Wiley and hosted by the School of Arts earlier in the year.
Dr Christopher Wiley leads Learning and Teaching development event at the University of Surrey
18 September 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley convened and facilitated a Learning and Teaching development event for the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on Friday 18 September 2015.
40 academics from across the subject areas of Music and Sound Recording, Dance, Theatre, Digital Media Arts, and the Guildford School of Acting participated in two lively and productive discussions led by Dr Wiley during the half-day event.
Both designed to enable the sharing of best practices across the School, the first discussion workshop considered current School policy in relation to teaching, while the second explored strategies for teaching enhancement with a particular focus on student engagement and interactivity.
This was the fourth of the biennial School of Arts Learning and Teaching events instigated by Dr Wiley in his role as Director of Learning and Teaching, following the success of similar forums in January 2015, September 2014, and January 2014.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers workshop presentation on electronic voting systems at the University of Sussex
9 September 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley was the invited external speaker at a Turning Technologies ‘Lunch and Learn’ event on electronic voting systems held in the Jubilee Building at the University of Sussex on 9 September 2015.
During his 50-minute workshop, Dr Wiley explored the issue of engaging students with electronic voting systems using both bespoke handsets and the students’ own mobile devices, referring to a series of worked examples from his own teaching in order to demonstrate some of the more creative and advanced ways of deploying response technology.
Dr Wiley’s presentation, which was attended by an audience of 25 academic staff drawn primarily from the School of Business, Management, and Economics, was followed by a separate talk by René Moolenaar from the University of Sussex. The programme for the complete session is available here.
This event marks the sixth UK university at which Dr Wiley has delivered workshops on electronic voting systems since 2014 (the others being Birmingham, Southampton Solent, Durham, Hull, and Surrey).
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper in the Music Research Colloquia series at the University of Oxford
16 June 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented his paper ‘National Trends in Musical Biography’ in the Music Research Colloquia series at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford on 16 June 2015, to close the series for the 2014–15 academic year.
Speaking to some 25 academics and postgraduate students in the Faculty’s Denis Arnold Hall, Dr Wiley explored the relationship between musical biography and nationality, in terms of the status of the genre at particular times and places as well as its development over time.
Case studies upon which Dr Wiley drew included biographical retellings of the story of J.S. Bach’s keyboard contest with Louis Marchand, and the ideologies that emerge from the original volumes of the ‘Master Musicians’ series. Dr Wiley had presented earlier versions of this research at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London in 2015 and 2014.
The weekly colloquia are organized by graduate students and feature musicological research presented by a range of leading academics and younger researchers from universities around the world.
Details of Dr Wiley’s Research Colloquium may be found here: http://www.music.ox.ac.uk/event/research-colloquium-chris-wiley/
Dr Christopher Wiley hosts pre-concert talk for Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert
15 May 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley hosted a pre-concert talk for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Glass Room at G Live, Guildford on 15 May 2015.
In the half-hour talk, Dr Wiley provided a brief introduction to the works being performed that evening, which he then discussed with the conductor for the concert, Andrew Greenwood (pictured).
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s programme comprised Rossini’s The Barber of Seville Overture; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467 (with soloist Tom Poster); and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, ‘From the New World’.
With over 90 members in the audience for the talk, G Live’s studio theatre was at capacity. Dr Wiley previously hosted pre-concert talks for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 23 October 2013 and 7 November 2014.
Dr Christopher Wiley speaks at one-day event on electronic voting systems at the University of Birmingham
21 April 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley was the closing external speaker at ‘Going to the Polls: Teaching and Learning with TurningPoint’, held in Muirhead Tower at the University of Birmingham on 21 April 2015.
The one-day event on the subject of Turning Technologies electronic voting systems saw Dr Wiley deliver an updated version of his paper ‘Enhancing Instructional Interactivity through Electronic Voting Systems: Advanced Features and Innovative Pedagogies’, alongside a series of talks by academics from the University of Birmingham.
Dr Wiley has recently given workshop-style presentations on electronic voting systems at several different UK universities including Southampton Solent, Durham, Hull, and Surrey.
The full programme for the event, which was attended by around 40 academics from the University of Birmingham and nearby institutions, may be viewed here: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/doc/content/BirminghamEvent-GoingtothePolls.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley co-organizes and delivers paper at international conference on musical biography at the Institute of Musical Research, London
10 April 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley and Dr Paul Watt (Monash University, Melbourne) have co-organized a two-day international conference on musical biography held at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, on 9-10 April 2015.
The conference, entitled ‘Musical Biography: National Ideology, Narrative Technique, and the Nature of Myth’, brought together a broad range of some 50 interdisciplinary scholars from the UK, US, Australia, and Continental Europe.
In addition to several panel sessions, the conference incorporated two invited roundtable discussions, whose speakers included Professors Simon Keefe (University of Sheffield), Mark Evan Bonds (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Jonathan Cross (University of Oxford), and Rosamund Bartlett (Oxford).
In the course of the conference, Dr Wiley also chaired three of the panel sessions as well as presenting his paper ‘Myth-making and the Politics of Nationality in Narratives of J.S. Bach’s 1717 Contest with Louis Marchand’, which discussed the ideological significance of the variations in retellings of a single biographical story across different countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The schedule for the event may be viewed at the conference website: http://events.sas.ac.uk/imr/events/view/17765/Music+Biography+Conference
The full conference programme may be downloaded here.
Dr Christopher Wiley gives talk on Dame Ethel Smyth for Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group
26 January 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented a talk entitled ‘The Composer Dame Ethel Smyth and her Deafness’ at the Millmead Centre, Guildford on 26 January 2015, for Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group.
Smyth, who was active as composer, writer, and suffragette, was afflicted by distorted hearing and deafness for the last several decades of her life, particularly from the later 1910s until her death in 1944.
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley has previously given public talks on the artist at the University of Surrey and The Women’s Library, London, as well as writing for the OUP Blog and organizing a recital of Smyth’s music to commemorate the 70th anniversary of her death last year.
Dr Christopher Wiley convenes Learning and Teaching enhancement event at the University of Surrey
14 January 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley organized a Learning and Teaching enhancement event for academic staff across the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 14 January 2015, following the Symposia that had taken place in September 2014 and January 2014.
In a change from previous events, this one adopted a seminar-style format. It combined a discussion forum on the School’s Personal Tutoring system, facilitated by Dr Wiley, with a training session on module descriptors and programme validation co-facilitated by two members of the University’s Directorate of Quality Enhancement and Standards.
Over 30 academic staff were in attendance representing the range of disciplines encompassed by the School, including Music and Sound Recording, Theatre and Dance, Film and Digital Media Arts, and the Guildford School of Acting.
Dr Christopher Wiley facilitates discussion forum at University of Surrey Teaching Symposium
7 January 2015
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Dr Christopher Wiley led a discussion forum at the annual Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) event at the University of Surrey on Wednesday 7 January 2015.
Dr Wiley’s session, entitled ‘Module Evaluation Questionnaires: How can we use them to enhance teaching?’, drew on his expertise in the field of student evaluation of teaching.
In the course of the forum, Dr Wiley asked how data gathered via module evaluation might be used to enhance teaching and how the quality of that data might be improved, prompting much productive discussion among attendees.
Dr Wiley had previously presented at the inaugural Surrey ExciTeS Symposium in January 2014.
The full programme for Surrey ExciTeS 2015 may be found here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/dhe/surrey_excites/Surrey%20ExciTeS%202015%20Programme.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley hosts pre-concert talk for all-Beethoven Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert
7 November 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley hosted a pre-concert talk for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the studio theatre at G Live, Guildford on 7 November 2014.
Dr Wiley opened by providing a brief introduction to the repertoire being presented that evening, before engaging in some lively discussion with the conductor, Eduardo Portal (pictured).
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s all-Beethoven programme featured the Coriolan Overture, Piano Concerto No. 2 (with soloist Joaquín Achúcarro), and the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony.
The 25-minute pre-concert talk was attended by approximately 80 concert-goers. Dr Wiley previously hosted a pre-concert talk for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 23 October 2013 (see here).
Dr Christopher Wiley gives pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne Tour 2014
28 October 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne Tour 2014, to preface its production of Mozart’s opera La finta giardiniera in the New Victoria Theatre, Woking on 28 October 2014.
Speaking to an audience of over 100 opera-goers in the adjacent Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Dr Wiley endeavoured to enhance the audience’s experience and enjoyment of the evening’s performance by providing some contextual knowledge of the opera.
In the course of the half-hour talk, Dr Wiley explored the plot of La finta giardiniera, its historical background, and its significance within Mozart’s output, as well as drawing attention to noteworthy musical features and key aspects of Glyndebourne’s performance.
Mozart composed the score to his comic opera La finta giardiniera in 1774, at the age of 18. Glyndebourne’s acclaimed 2014 production was its first ever of this work.
Dr Christopher Wiley gives pre-screening talks at the University of Surrey
23 October 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley has delivered two pre-screening talks at the University of Surrey as part of its programme of film screenings in the Rik Medlik Building during the 2014/15 season.
Dr Wiley’s talk ‘Music and the James Bond Phenomenon’ preceded a screening of Goldfinger on 23 October 2014, which inaugurated a series dedicated to some of the best-loved Bond films. The 45-minute presentation examined the celebrated phenomenon of the theme songs to individual Bond films as well as their relationship to their associated films’ musical scores, showing how they have become an integral and instantly recognizable part of the franchise.
On 5 November 2014, Dr Wiley gave his talk ‘Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in Context’ prior to a screening of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, part of a scheduled series of films directed by Tim Burton. Dr Wiley discussed the literary origins of the Sweeney Todd story, situated Sondheim’s musical within his wider theatrical output, and explored the show’s cinematic adaptation.
Both events were well received by their respective audiences – more people attended Dr Wiley’s pre-screening talk on Sweeney Todd than stayed on to watch the film itself!
Dr Christopher Wiley speaks at forum on electronic voting systems at Southampton Solent University
19 September 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley was the invited external speaker at the ‘Clicker Technologies Learning Forum’ held in the Meon Suite of Matthews Building at Southampton Solent University on 19 September 2014.
Dr Wiley’s one-hour workshop, entitled ‘Enhancing Instructional Interactivity through Electronic Voting Systems: Advanced Features and Innovative Pedagogies’, follows similar presentations given earlier in the year at other UK universities including Durham, Hull, and Surrey.
The forum, which focussed on the use of TurningPoint Polling Software, was attended by over 30 delegates representing Higher Education institutions across the south of England. Other contributors included Patrice O’Hagan from Turning Technologies, and Dr Chris Barlow from Southampton Solent University.
A tweet from Turning Technologies summarising the day appears below. The full programme may be viewed here: http://portal.solent.ac.uk/events/events-articles/2014/september/clicker-technologies-learning-forum.aspx
Dr Christopher Wiley organizes second Learning and Teaching Symposium at the University of Surrey
15 September 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley convened a second one-day Learning and Teaching Symposium for academic staff across the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 15 September 2014, as a follow-up to a related event that had taken place in January.
Themed around ‘Inspirational Teaching: Sharing Practice’, the event included two sessions by invited speakers and two discussion workshops facilitated by Dr Wiley (one on sharing good practices in teaching, the other continuing previous conversations on assessment and feedback), as well as a roundtable comprising three current students who presented their views on inspirational teaching.
The Symposium was attended by over 30 full-time and Associate staff ranging from long-standing lecturers to those who had only started work at the University that day, and representing a wide variety of different arts disciplines.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers presentation at EERA’s European Conference on Educational Research, University of Porto, Portugal
3 September 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley has given a paper at the major international European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), at the University of Porto, Portugal, on 3 September 2014.
Dr Wiley’s presentation, ‘Standardized Module Evaluation for Teaching Excellence and Enhancement: Views of Students at a Single UK Higher Education Institution’, was included in a joint session of the conference’s Network 10 (Teacher education research) and Network 11 (Quality and effectiveness assurance).
Further information on Dr Wiley’s paper is available at the conference website here. Dr Wiley had previously delivered a version of this presentation in the UK at The Hatton, London in June 2014.
One of the key annual activities of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), ECER 2014 Porto was entitled ‘The Past, the Present, and Future of Educational Research in Europe’ and attracted 3,000 delegates from all over the world who presented their research across five days in many concurrent sessions.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at international conference at the Institute of Musical Research, London
18 July 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented his paper ‘Life and Works: The Master Musicians Series (1899–1906) as Victorian Period-Piece’ at the ‘Music Literature, Historiography, and Aesthetics’ Conference held at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, on 17-18 July 2014.
Dr Wiley’s paper explored elements of Victorian ideology (including preoccupations with evolutionist theory and with ‘working partnerships’ between men and women) that emerge strongly from a close reading of the volumes of the original Master Musicians series. He then showed how these concerns yielded important consequences for the authors’ discussions of the musical works themselves.
The conference’s call for papers is available here: http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/news-events/call-for-papers-conference-on-music-literature-historiography-and-aesthetics/
The full conference programme may be downloaded here: http://music.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Music%20Literature%20Historiography%20and%20Aesthetics%20programme%20(1).doc
Dr Wiley had previously presented a paper at a related conference held at Monash University, Melbourne earlier in the year.
Dr Christopher Wiley presents conference paper on standardized module evaluation at The Hatton, London
4 June 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a paper on standardized module evaluation, teaching enhancement, and the recognition of teaching excellence at the Sixth Annual ‘Learning at City’ Conference on 4 June 2014.
Hosted by City University London and with the theme of ‘Students as Partners in Learning?’, this year the conference was held at The Hatton, Farringdon – its first time at an external venue.
Dr Wiley’s paper, entitled ‘Standardized Module Evaluation for Teaching Excellence and Enhancement: Views of Students at City University London’, followed an earlier presentation on the same topic at the 17th Annual SEDA Conference in 2012.
Based on research conducted last year via paper-based questionnaires completed by Student Representatives, Dr Wiley’s talk was given to an audience of some 30 staff drawn from City University and other HE institutions across England.
At the conference, Dr Wiley also presented an updated version of his poster, ‘The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme: Paths to Success’, originally shown at the inaugural Surrey ExciTeS Symposium in January 2014.
The full programme for the day may be viewed here: http://city-university-london.co.uk/t/EMO-2IBW5-7UH3CZ-13O24O-1/c.aspx
Dr Christopher Wiley leads recital of the music of Dame Ethel Smyth on the 70th anniversary of her death
8 May 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley organized a recital of the music of Dame Ethel Smyth, given at Christ Church Woking by staff and students of the School of Arts at the University of Surrey, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the composer’s death in Hook Heath, near Woking on 8 May 1944.
The one-hour lunchtime recital of chamber, vocal, and solo keyboard works featured pianists Maureen Galea and Margaret Roberts, Isabella Stocchetti (flute), and Christopher Wiley (oboe, organ), as well as members of the University Chamber Choir. The full programme was as follows:
- Two Interlinked French Folk Melodies (1928, from the opera Entente cordiale) for flute, oboe, and piano (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Aus der Jugendzeit!! E. v. H. (c.1878–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- Nocturne (Kanon in Gegenbewegung) (c.1877–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- ‘O Gott du frommer Gott’ and Canon on ‘O Gott du frommer Gott’ (Nos. IIa & IIb from Short Choral Preludes, c.1882–4) (Christopher Wiley, organ)
- Piano Suite in E major (c.1877–1880) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin (Ophelia’s Song) (1928) (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Overture to the opera The Boatswain’s Mate, Piano transcription (1913–14) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- ‘Laggard Dawn’ and ‘The March of the Women’ (Nos. 1 & 3 from Songs of Sunrise, 1910) (University Chamber Choir, dir. Isabella Stocchetti; Maureen Galea, piano)
Dr Wiley, who has been conducting research on Ethel Smyth for over a decade, also gave spoken introductions to each piece, and Surrey History Centre provided their ‘Musical Passions’ exhibition celebrating Smyth’s life.
Attended by some 50 audience members, this commemoration followed the Ethel Smyth Symposium hosted at the University in February of this year.
Update: The event was favourably reviewed by Sebastian Forbes, who wrote that ‘Senior lecturer Christopher Wiley, who has done much research into Smyth, not only devised and introduced the concert but also, very expertly, played oboe and organ.’
The review is available here: http://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/arts/2014/05/12/celebrating-the-life-and-work-of-dame-ethel-smythe-concert-at-christ-church-woking/
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers workshop presentation on electronic voting systems at the Universities of Hull and Durham
12 March 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a revised and updated version of his presentation ‘Enhancing Instructional Interactivity through Electronic Voting Systems: Advanced Features and Innovative Pedagogies’ at a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session organized by Learning Enhancement & Academic Practice (LEAP) at the University of Hull on 12 March 2014.
Dr Wiley showcased a variety of different applications taken from his own teaching to illustrate the wide range of possibilities offered by electronic voting systems, as well as discussing the pedagogy underpinning the practice with reference to key academic studies. Co-presenter Conor Dumigan from Turning Technologies then provided a demonstration of how to create many different types of voting slides using the software, drawing on approaches including peer instruction, positive reinforcement, and game-based learning.
The 90-minute session was attended by over 40 staff from across the University, some of whom were entirely new to electronic voting systems.

Update: On 3 April 2014, Dr Wiley reprised his presentation in a two-hour lunchtime workshop at Durham University’s Palatine Centre, again speaking alongside Conor Dumigan. Some 20 staff from across the University were in attendance, including senior Faculty academics, education lecturers, learning technologists, and staff trainers.
Ethel Smyth Symposium at the University of Surrey features Dr Christopher Wiley as speaker and performer
19 February 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley contributed to a Symposium dedicated to Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), the Surrey-based composer and writer also noted for her suffrage activity in the early 1910s, which was held in the Performing Arts Technology Studios at the University of Surrey on 19 February. This was the University’s first ever event for LGBT History Month, for which Smyth was named as one of the faces of the 2014 theme of Music.
Introduced by Professor Diane Watt, Head of the University’s School of English and Languages, the Symposium commenced with a talk by Dr Wiley entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944): In Search of a Lesbian Identity in Music and Literature’, in which he discussed possible ways of interpreting Smyth’s artistic output as reflecting her sexual identity and feminist sensibilities, with musical illustrations provided by Maureen Galea (piano) and the University Chamber Choir.
A drinks reception followed the talk, during which audience members were able to view the ‘Musical Passions’ exhibition celebrating the life of Ethel Smyth, provided courtesy of Surrey History Centre.

The Symposium closed with a concert of solo, chamber, and vocal works by Ethel Smyth, featuring staff and students of the University including pianists Maureen Galea and Margaret Roberts, Isabella Stocchetti (flute), and Christopher Wiley (oboe), as well as the University Chamber Choir. Highlights included a performance of Smyth’s Violin Sonata with guest artist Sophie Langdon and the Head of Performance, Professor Clive Williamson. The full programme was as follows:
- Two Interlinked French Folk Melodies (1928, from the opera Entente cordiale) for flute, oboe, and piano (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Aus der Jugendzeit!! E. v. H. (c.1878–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)
Nocturne (Kanon in Gegenbewegung) (c.1877–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)- Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 7 (1877) (Sophie Langdon, violin; Clive Williamson, piano)
- Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin (Ophelia’s Song) (1928) (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Overture to the opera The Boatswain’s Mate, Piano transcription (1913–14) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- ‘Laggard Dawn’ and ‘The March of the Women’ (Nos. 1 & 3 from Songs of Sunrise, 1910) (University Chamber Choir, cond. Isabella Stocchetti, dir. Russell Keable; Maureen Galea, piano)
The Symposium was held in association with the University of Surrey Equality and Diversity, the School of Arts, the School of English and Languages, LGBT History Month, and Surrey History Centre. Both the talk and the concert were attended by around 50 people, including staff and students of the University and external visitors.
Further information
Event website: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/music/events/ethel_smyth.htm
Poster: http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/LGBT-History-Month-Final-2014-21-01-14.pdf
Surrey History Centre: http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/lgbt-2014/
Update
An academic response to Dr Wiley’s talk, ‘Musical Inversions: Ethel Smyth’ by Dr Heike Bauer (Birkbeck University of London), appeared on the blog A Violent World of Difference on 21 February 2014: http://violentworldofdifference.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/21-feb-2014-musical-inversions-ethel-smyth/
Dr Christopher Wiley organizes Learning and Teaching Day at the University of Surrey
16 January 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley convened a one-day Learning and Teaching Symposium, themed around ‘Enhancing Assessment and Feedback’, for academic staff across the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 16 January 2014.
The event comprised three sessions by invited speakers, poster presentations, and two discussion workshops facilitated by Dr Wiley, one focussing on Grade Descriptors and the other on reviewing current Feedback practices in the School (pictured). Also included as part of the Symposium was a dedicated session for Associate Tutors on Assessment and Feedback, again led by Dr Wiley.
The Symposium was attended by over thirty academics and several teaching-related staff from across the School of Arts (Music, Sound Recording, Dance, Film, Theatre, and the Guildford School of Acting) as well as e-Learning and Library & Learning Support Services.
Dr Christopher Wiley gives workshop on electronic voting systems at inaugural University of Surrey Teaching Symposium
8 January 2014
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Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a workshop on Turning Technologies electronic voting systems at the inaugural Surrey ExciTeS (Excellence in Teaching Symposium) event held at the University of Surrey on 8 January 2014.
Entitled ‘Enhancing Instructional Interactivity through Electronic Voting Systems: Advanced Features and Innovative Pedagogies’, the workshop was one of 36 parallel sessions, and was attended by some 30 academic staff from across the University.
In the course of the workshop, Dr Wiley presented a series of innovative applications of electronic voting systems drawn from his teaching in musicology, utilizing advanced functions such as leaderboards, demographic comparison, and moment-to-moment response in addition to the standard right-or-wrong multiple choice question.
Dr Wiley also presented a poster, ‘The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme: Paths to Success’, which provided background on The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme, reflected on his successful application in 2013, and offered some general tips on applying for teaching awards in Higher Education.
The full programme for the Surrey ExciTeS 2014 Symposium may be found here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/dhe/news_and_events/events/Surrey%20ExciTeS%202014%20Programme.pdf
Dr Christopher Wiley presents research seminar at the University of Surrey
20 November 2013
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented a research seminar based on his paper ‘Music and Literature: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and “The First Woman to Write an Opera”’ at a research seminar hosted by the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 20 November 2013.
Dr Wiley joined the University of Surrey in September 2013 following a nine-year tenure at City University London. One aspect of his research concerns the intellectual dialogue between Ethel Smyth and Virginia Woolf (pictured, R-L). The article on which his paper is based is being published in the refereed journal The Musical Quarterly.
Dr Christopher Wiley addresses Turning Technologies User Conference, Dublin
4 November 2013
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented the latest version of his paper ‘Using Electronic Voting Systems in the Arts and Humanities’ at the Turning Technologies User Conference held at Trinity College Dublin on 4 November 2013.
This follows appearances earlier in the year in Germany and Crete (and, last year, in Denmark) in his capacity as a Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies.
Dr Christopher Wiley hosts pre-concert talk for Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert
23 October 2013
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Dr Christopher Wiley hosted a pre-concert talk for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert at G Live, Guildford on 23 October 2013.
In the half-hour talk, Dr Wiley presented a brief introduction to the works on the programme, as well as interviewing the conductor for the concert, Ivor Setterfield (pictured), and soloist Alexander Sitkovetsky.
The evening’s programme comprised Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, and Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony.
Dr Christopher Wiley facilitates workshop on electronic voting systems at ICICTE 2013, Crete
5 July 2013
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Dr Christopher Wiley facilitated a workshop on electronic voting systems at the International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education (ICICTE) in Chania, Crete on 5 July 2013.
Dr Wiley’s presentation, entitled ‘Increasing Instructional Interactivity with Turning Technologies Response Technology’, was chaired and moderated by Jay Carpenter, UK Territory Manager from Turning Technologies.
Highlights of Dr Wiley’s presentation included findings from his research into student engagement with electronic voting systems, aspects of his own teaching in musical theatre and pop music, and even a dodecaphonic piece improvised on an iPad piano app.
Last year, Dr Wiley became the first ever person from the arts and humanities appointed to Turning Technologies’ global Distinguished Educator programme (see here).
The day’s programme for the conference may be accessed at the following link: http://www.icicte.org/ICICTE13Programme3.htm
A review of the conference by Olivia Fox may be found here: http://blogs.city.ac.uk/educationalvignettes/2013/08/01/review-of-icicte-technology-innovations-conference/
Dr Christopher Wiley addresses Turning Technologies User Conference 2013, Germany
4 June 2013
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Dr Christopher Wiley reprised his paper ‘Using Electronic Voting Systems in the Arts and Humanities’ at the most recent Turning Technologies User Conference in Karlsruhe, Germany on 3 June 2013.
Jointly hosted by the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Conference attracted a range of delegates from countries including the UK, US, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Finland, Lebanon, and South Korea. The full Conference Agenda may be viewed here.
Dr Wiley’s paper was originally delivered last year at Aarhus University, Denmark (see here) and was revised for presentation in Karlsruhe, as part of the second Turning Technologies Conference to be held in Continental Europe.
An advocate of electronic voting systems for the past five years, in 2012 Dr Wiley became the first person from the arts and humanities to join Turning Technologies’ Distinguished Educator programme (see here).
Update: as a result of this conference appearance, Dr Wiley was featured on ‘Turn to Your Neighbour: The Official Peer Instruction Blog’, which is among the top 100 most read educational blogs globally.
Written by the blog’s founder, Dr Julie Schell (who described it on Twitter as her ‘funnest post to date’), the article on Dr Wiley may be read here: http://blog.peerinstruction.net/2013/06/10/3-easy-ways-to-use-clickers-and-peer-instruction-in-the-arts-and-humanities/
Update: A video of Dr Wiley’s complete presentation may be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yTPsAGW8fo
Dr Christopher Wiley organizes inaugural University Music Careers Evening
12 February 2013
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The Centre for Music Studies at City University London hosted its inaugural ‘Careers with a Music Degree’ evening on Tuesday 12 February 2013 from 6-9pm, organized by Dr Christopher Wiley.
The event welcomed external speakers from a range of different music-related professions including venue management, teaching, freelance performance, the music business, music therapy, sound recording, and graduate positions. In addition to explaining their own roles and professions, the panel of experts had many useful employability tips to pass on to the students.
Speakers represented organizations including the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Barbican, The Latymer School, ForeSound School of Music and the Performing Arts, Mazars LLP, and the Incorporated Society of Musicians. Several were recent graduates of the City BMus programme who were now in key positions within their profession.
Around 50 current students were in attendance (together with former students and staff). Many have now made important new contacts and some have even secured placement opportunities as a direct result of the event.
Dr Christopher Wiley addresses SEDA Annual Conference at Aston University, Birmingham
16 November 2012
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Dr Christopher Wiley addressed the 17th Annual Conference of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), ‘Excellence in Teaching: recognising, enhancing, evaluating and achieving impact’, held at Aston Business School Conference Centre, Aston University, Birmingham on 15-16 November 2012.
His presentation, entitled ‘Standardized Module Evaluation for Teaching Excellence and Enhancement: Views of Students and Staff at a Single UK Higher Education Institution’, discussed the principles underpinning the standardization of module evaluation and its advantages and disadvantages.
Drawing on the standardized module evaluation implemented across City University London last year and some of the more localized processes it replaced, as well as the views of students and staff interviewed as part of his research, Dr Wiley also considered other measures by which teaching excellence might instead be recognized such as student-led teaching award schemes.
In the course of the workshop session, Dr Wiley facilitated a lively discussion on the relative merits and drawbacks of standardized module evaluation, exploring the processes currently implemented at different institutions, sharing best practices, and working towards action planning for the future.
Dr Christopher Wiley delivers paper at International Conference on Learning, Institute of Education, London
16 August 2012
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented his paper ‘Divided by a Common Language? Evaluating Students’ Understanding of the Vocabulary of Assessment and Feedback at a Single UK Higher Education Institution’ at the Nineteenth International Conference on Learning, Institute of Education, University of London on 16 August 2012.
Dr Wiley’s paper, which discussed the changing context of Higher Education in the UK and its implications for assessment and feedback, fell on the same day that students across the country received their A-level results and found out whether they had been accepted to their chosen university degree course.
Presenting some of the findings of interviews conducted with students across City University London in the past academic year (previously discussed here), Dr Wiley questioned many aspects of current assessment and feedback processes, enriching his talk with reference to innovations implemented this year in his own academic practice.
The Nineteenth International Conference on Learning welcomed some 600 delegates from 40 countries across three days.
Dr Christopher Wiley addresses Turning Technologies User Conference 2012, Denmark
19 June 2012
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Dr Christopher Wiley addressed the Turning Technologies User Conference 2012 at Aarhus University, Denmark on 19 June 2012, delivering a presentation entitled ‘Using Electronic Voting Systems in the Arts and Humanities’.
In the first Turning Technologies Conference to be held in Continental Europe, Dr Wiley argued for the largely unrecognized potential for electronic voting systems to enhance teaching in disciplines other than the sciences and business, drawing on his use of the technology as a music lecturer as well as his original research.
Dr Wiley was one of six speakers to lead parallel breakout sessions during the conference, selected from over 50 proposals received. Participating delegates were drawn from countries including the US, Denmark, the UK, France, Germany, Holland, and Spain.
The full programme for the event may be downloaded here.
Dr Christopher Wiley presents paper on assessment and feedback at ‘Learning at City’ Conference
13 June 2012
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Dr Christopher Wiley presented a paper on assessment and feedback at City University London’s Fourth Annual ‘Learning at City’ Conference on Wednesday 13 June 2012.
Entitled ‘Divided by a Common Language? Evaluating Students’ Understanding of the Vocabulary of Assessment and Feedback at City University London’, Dr Wiley’s paper asked whether certain key terms used routinely in assessment and feedback practice might hold a subtly different meaning for students than for staff, presenting evidence from a series of consultations with students from across the University.
A video of Dr Wiley’s presentation may be viewed from YouTube here. The full programme is available here.
Dr Christopher Wiley is guest speaker in inaugural University debate
1 February 2012
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Dr Christopher Wiley was chosen as one of two guest speakers to participate in the first in a series of cross-institutional debates on matters of teaching and learning at City University London (see review here).
Hosted by the University’s Learning Development Centre and attended by an audience of around 60 staff and students from the University, the inaugural debate considered the provocative motion ‘Assessment Practice in Higher Education relies largely on a limited range of methods that are not always fit for purpose‘.
Supporting the motion was Professor Nigel Duncan (City Law School), the University’s academic lead for assessment and a distinguished law lecturer. Co-chairing the event were Patrick Baughan and Neal Sumner, both Senior Lecturers in the Learning Development Centre.
Both Professor Duncan and Dr Wiley were given an initial 10 minutes to address the audience followed by brief opportunity for rebuttal of one another’s arguments, before discussion was opened up to the floor.
In the final vote, the debate motion was supported by 70%-30%. Nonetheless, Dr Wiley was congratulated not only for having admirably risen to the challenging task of opposing such a motion but for having evidently swayed a significant minority with the persuasiveness of his arguments.
The debate opened the annual Learning Development Centre Showcase event, which this year was on the subject of ‘Student Engagement’, and at which Dr Wiley was also awarded a Best Learning Spaces Design prize for his design of a hypothetical lecture room layout.
Dr Christopher Wiley presents paper at the Sibelius Academy, Finland
9 December 2011
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Dr Christopher Wiley has presented a paper at the Radical Music History Symposium 2011 hosted by the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki on 8-9 December 2011. His paper was entitled ‘Musical Biography and the Myth of the Muse’, and discussed the portrayal of women in biographies of the Great Composers who, though silenced throughout much of the text, suddenly came into view at critical junctures in life-writing on their male associates as rhetorical signifiers of the increasing power of their creative genius. Chris argued that musical biography thereby became complicit in women’s historical effacement by casting them in the role of vessels for the stimulation of artistic creation in men, implicitly denying them the possibility of undertaking such activities themselves while simultaneously linking them inextricably to those of associated male composers. Chris concluded by demonstrating some ways in which this model, for its longevity and the robustness with which it has been perpetuated, yields profound consequences for more recent writing of the lives of women composers as well as for contemporary feminist musicology’s project to deconstruct and critique musical canon.
Dr Christopher Wiley wins University Student Voice Award at City University London
30 November 2011
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Dr Christopher Wiley has won a prestigious Student Voice Award (so named because all nominations are made by the students themselves) at City University London.
Staving off fierce competition from hundreds of nominees, Chris was one of 12 me
mbers of academic staff across the University to win the coveted £1,000 prize.
The Student Voice Award scheme is run by the University’s Students’ Union in conjunction with the Learning Development Centre, to acknowledge lecturers who have demonstrated great commitment to top-quality teaching, learning, and assessment over the past year, and who have made a positive impact on the student experience. Students are required to complete a one-page application by way of nominating a staff member.
Chris’s nomination was made primarily on the basis of excellence in dissertation supervision, together with quality and timeliness of feedback on written work. The students also commended him for the ‘buzz’ they feel after his lectures, for his listening and communication skills, and for the support he has given to student activities both on and off campus.
Chris was formally presented with the award at the prize-giving ceremony with which the annual ‘Learning at City’ conference ended on 23 June 2011. Earlier that day, he had delivered a presentation at the same conference based on his research on institutional handbooks for postgraduate research students.
Sandi Toksvig, Dr Christopher Wiley, and Velvet Fist at The Women’s Library, London – Tuesday 27 September, 18:30-20.00
27 September 2011
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Dr Christopher Wiley appeared alongside writer and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig at The Women’s Library, London on Tuesday 27 September, providing an introduction to the life, works, and suffrage activity of Ethel Smyth.
Dr Wiley has been researching and writing on Ethel Smyth for over a decade, including a groundbreaking article on Smyth’s intellectual relationship with Virginia Woolf, published in one of the UK’s foremost journals of musicology, Music and Letters.
The event, entitled ‘Shout! Shout! Up With Your Song!’, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the first performance of Smyth’s celebrated suffragette anthem ‘March of the Women’, and also featured a recital by the acclaimed a capella feminist choir Velvet Fist.
The flier for the event is available for download here.
Dr Christopher Wiley has spoken at the
Dr Christopher Wiley was Chair of the Conference Committee for an international, multi-disciplinary three-day conference entitled ‘Writing About Contemporary Artists: Challenges, Practices, and Complexities’, held at the 
Dr Christopher Wiley acted as host and interviewer for a pre-concert talk for the 







