Lara’s research investigates barriers faced by disadvantaged and under-represented young people in accessing, participating and ownership of a sense of belonging with Medicine and Dentistry. Lara’s research acts in agency with the view to encourage reform within these spaces informed by a co-designed and student lead methodology to include both quantitative and qualitative narrative data to inform her study. Her work is set within a constructivist framework and draws on theories on the transfer of knowledge and ownership examined by Bourdieu, Foucault and Freire.
Lara’s particular interest includes the underrepresentation of white working-class males within highly professionalised careers such as medicine and dentistry, leaning against the currently accepted aspiration deficit model ingrained in current government and outreach strategy discourse. With young black males from the Caribbean and white working-class males being the most underrepresented in Higher Education, her investigative interests include research on the historical and current impact of the legacies of enslavement to include the transatlantic slave trade as well as the legacy of British workhouses.
She is a member of the University’s Centre for Global Higher Education, The Oxford Strategic Studies Group and has won space on the University’s ‘Making a Difference Programme’ supporting a local Oxfordshire NGO’s service improvement design using participant lead strategy. She has also been recommended and accepted as a reader at All Souls College Library.
Prior to her doctoral research, Lara was awarded a Master’s in Education from The University of Nottingham with key research areas including ‘responding mindfully to challenging behaviour’ and ‘leadership in education’ with a dissertation focus on the intersectional barriers that white working-class males face in accessing higher education. In addition, she holds a BA (with honours) in American and Canadian History, Literature and Culture from the University of Nottingham with a focus on minority writers, the transatlantic slave trade, and exploring black masculinity as a vulnerability through the medium of art, music and design.
Lara’s professional experience includes leadership as Head of Faculty for Widening Participation and Access in the North of England. After her graduate internship from which she has classroom and pedagogical experience in working in high Index of Multiple Depravation (IMD) area schools, Lara brought expertise to building and directing University strategy for inclusion and access for which she was recommended into senior leadership after supporting The Department of Executive Education at Sheffield University’s Business School. Working collaboratively with The Director of Education, Dean of both the Dental and the Medical School respectively for the aptitude and pragmatism of University strategy, gaining several grants and alumni funding. She was a recommended board member by the Faculty Director to lead and provide research for the institutions Race Equality Charter, earning the University it’s first institutional Bronze Award for it’s commitment to diversity and equality for both students and staff.
Lara was also a member of the Departments Race Equality Charter submission advisory board, successfully securing the same outcome for The School of Dentistry. She was recommended and requested to lead the ‘building belonging’ working task group in the School of Education, gaining an award from Advance HE for her work. Lara was nominated for a Vice Chancellor’s Award for her contribution and commitment to Diversity, Equality and Community at The University of Sheffield. She also has working experience as an Associate Lecturer at UCL within their Global Business School for Health to build, implement and compliance base their Senior Leadership Programme.
At the Department of Education, University of Oxford, Lara seeks to build upon her academic and professional background in inclusion, equity and belonging amid a continuously shifting and significant curriculum and educational landscape.
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