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Nadine Cavigioli

Position
Staff
Job title
Deputy Programme Manager (Learning and Teaching with SEND), Lifelong Learning Centre

Contact

My role

I am a first-generation, working-class educator specialising in trauma-informed, inclusive and equitable practice, with the aim of reducing psychological barriers that can be encountered when returning to study later in life. 

My role includes:

  • admissions
  • curriculum development
  • student support
  • leading on research and ethics
  • surfacing skills
  • student futures.

My undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation supervision typically focuses on social justice research projects (e.g. practitioner and autoethnographic methodologies). 

I was awarded Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in August 2023. This was in recognition of my work informing best practice for supporting a sense of belonging and mattering for underrepresented and underserved students, and raising awareness about classism specifically. 

Additional roles

My additional roles are:

  • external examiner
  • postgraduate certificate in academic practice (PGAP) and postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) mentor
  • co-organiser of the University of Leeds Working-Class Staff Network
  • reviewer for the Journal of Class and Culture.

Qualifications

Research interests

My research interests are:

  • autoethnography
  • classism in higher education
  • lived experience
  • practitioner research
  • trauma-informed methodologies
  • underrepresented and underserved student experiences.

Scholarship

  • March 2026, webinar: International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL). Paper: Welcoming Class into Educational Spaces. Co-presented with Stacey Mottershaw (Leeds University Business School) and Rachael O’Connor (School of Law, University of Leeds).
  • January 2026, webinar: Society for Research into Higher Education. Developing socially just pedagogies to support learners from marginalised backgrounds. Presentation: The Hidden Curriculum of Class - Pedagogical Strategies for Class-Centred Equity. Co-presented with Stacey Mottershaw (Leeds University Business School) and Rachael O’Connor (School of Law, University of Leeds).
  • November 2025, webinar: University of the West of England. Presentation: Experiences of Belonging: Working-class Students and Higher Education. Co-presented with Stacey Mottershaw (Leeds University Business School) and Rachael O’Connor (School of Law, University of Leeds).
  • Cavigioli, N. Mottershaw, S. and O’Connor, R. 2025. Supporting Working-Class Students in Higher Education: Developing Your Class-Conscious Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
  • Mottershaw, S., O’Connor, R and Cavigioli, N. 2025. A Collaborative autoethnographic reflection on social class and student belonging in higher education. In: Venn E., Ahn, M. Y. and Lowe, T. ed(s). Student Belonging in Higher Education: Perspectives and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
  • July 2025: Teaching Excellence Academy International Teaching and Learning Conference 2025, University of Hull. Workshop: Class-Conscious Trauma-Informed Practice: How to support and care for working-class students. Co-presented with Stacey Mottershaw (Leeds University Business School) and Rachael O’Connor (School of Law, University of Leeds). 
  • July 2025: CIHE Pedagogic Research Conference. Workshop: Pedagogy with Purpose: Centring social class, collaboration and community in higher education. Co-presented with Stacey Mottershaw (Leeds University Business School) and Rachael O’Connor (School of Law, University of Leeds).
  • June 2025: UALL-SCUTREA conference, Liverpool. Workshop: The Emotional Labour of Responding to the Trauma of Racism and Classism in Spaces of Learning. Co-facilitated with Dr. Lilian Nwanze-Akobo, Maynooth University.
  • January 2025: Student Education Conference, University of Leeds. Parallel session: Healing within the curriculum: transformational learning though student lived experiences. Co-presented with Faith Castle and Jo Huett, Lifelong Learning Centre, University of Leeds.