Dr Sara Clayson

Professional biography

Research

Spanning the disciplines of English Literature, Childhood and Youth Studies and Education, my work explores narratives of identity and resistance in times of rapid technological and scientific change since the early-nineteenth century to the present day. It considers stories that embrace complex, ambiguous and hybrid identities – and that resist oppressive discourses about what it means to live as a human in a world dominated by technological development.

'Monsters'

My PhD research at the University of Birmingham (2007) focused on evolutionary narratives and androgynous gender identities in nineteeth-century popular fiction. Previously based in the Arts and Humanities at the Open University, I have published on R. L. Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and on M. E. Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and presented conference papers on Bram Stoker's Dracula; Dinah Craik's Olive; and Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan.

Fans

Since 2015, I have been based in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sports and I am currently working on a project on Fanfiction, wellbeing and young people's identity with Dr Naomi Holford, Senior Lecturer in Childhood and Youth Studies at the Open University and the Centre for Children and Young People's Wellbeing  We have recently published a blog post ‘Accepting me’: young people reflecting on fanfic and their identity | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences with the Health and the Arts Research Group | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Teachers and Students

I have also published a piece of narrative scholarship, reflecting on nostalgia and teacher identities in online learning environments in Voices of Practice: Narrative Scholarship From the Margins 

I am currently working on a cross-faculty project led by James Roy (School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sports) with Maureen Rhoden (Faculty of Business and Law) and Nicola McDowell (Faculty of Business and Law) on  Reimagining the Future of Online Distance Learning using narrative scholarship methodologies.

I am co-chair of SHARE Scholarship, a cross-faculty network of Staff Tutors and Student Experience Managers, running twice-monthly seminars to support and disseminate scholarship activity amongst this staff group. 

I lead a reflective practice blog for Associate Lecturer staff, Holding Up a Mirror: Personal Reflections on our Professional Practice, which publishes the personal stories of OU tutors and their remote working with students online.  

Teaching

My teaching career started in the Primary School classroom before moving into Adult Education and Further Education. Between 2002 and 2024, I taught as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, teaching modules in the Arts and Humanities, Children's Literature, Creativity and Language and Childhood Studies. Since joining the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies as a Staff Tutor and Senior Lecturer in Education, I have primarily worked on the undergraduate modules EK313 Issues in Research with Children and Young People and E320 Contemporary Research with Children and Young People. 

I lead the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport's Associate Lecturer Professional Development programme.

Recent Publications

Clayson, S. (2021) 'Nostalgia and Identity', in Voices of Practice: Narrative Scholarship From the Margins ed. by Sean Michael Morris, Lucy Rai and Karen Littleton, Washington: Hybrid Pedagogy Inc.