Our staff
The NSC has a director, four permanent members of academic staff and two members of administrative staff. You can find out more about who we are either by clicking on the relevant name below, or simply scrolling down the page.
The Director
Academic staff
Administrative staff
Recent staff
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Professor Knut Øystein Høvik Email: nsc-director@york.ac.uk Office: QUH/009 Professor Knut Øystein Høvik began as Director of the Norwegian Study Centre in August 2025. In his permanent position at the University of Inland Norway (Universitetet i Innlandet) at Hamar, Norway, Knut Øystein researches and teaches cultural studies and didactics. He has also been involved in several internationalisation projects in teacher education. Knut Øystein’s relationship with the NSC began back in 1997, as a student at the YorkCourse. He has since been accompanying students of English on short courses, and from 2019 to 2025 served as Vice-Chair on the NSC Board. Career
Recent publications Heggernes, Sissil Lea; Drange, Eli-Marie D. & Høvik, Knut Øystein (2025). “A small piece of my heart remained”: In-service foreign language teachers’ perspectives on short-term mobility in continuous professional development. Nordic Journal of Language Teaching and Learning (NJLTL). ISSN 2703-8629. 13(1), p. 95–114. DOI: 10.46364/njltl.v13i1.1375. Buseth, Jill Tove; Didham, Robert James; Høvik, Knut Øystein; Martinsen, Marianne & Øyehaug, Anne Bergliot (2025). Exploring teacher educators’ views on interdisciplinary teaching: a cross-disciplinary study of interdisciplinarity for sustainability education. Acta Didactica Norden (ADNO). ISSN 2535-8219. 19(2), p. 1–23. DOI: 10.5617/adno.11405. Høvik, Knut Øystein (2023). From Burning Beds to Rising Seas: Environmental Issues in the Song Lyrics of Midnight Oil. In Ede, Amatoritsero; Kleppe, Sandra Lee & Sorby, Angela (Ed.),Poetry and the Global Climate Crisis: Creative Educational Approaches to Complex Challenges. Routledge. ISSN 9781032508542. p. 27–40. Holander, Stefan Hans Olof & Høvik, Knut Øystein (2023). Urfolksperspektiver i engelskfaget. In Figenschou, Gøril; Karlsen, Silje Solheim & Pedersen, Helge Christian (Ed.), Ávdnet. Samiske tema i skole og utdanning. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 978-82-15-05804-7. p. 299–314. Høvik, Knut Øystein (2017). Fra British Club til Global English: Engelskfag i utvikling.In Løtveit, Morten (Eds.), Tidssignaler: Lærerutdanningsfag i utvikling: Utdanning av lærere på Hamar - 150 år. Oplandske Bokforlag. ISSN 9788275182515. p. 191–217. |
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Dr. Terry Hathaway Email: terry.hathaway@york.ac.uk Biography Terry has worked at the NSC since 2015. He teaches on a wide variety of subjects, including:
His approach to teaching is founded in radicalism – that is, his approach is centred on contextualising what is within a broader framework of the fundamental meaning and purpose of things. Scholarship and Research Activity Terry’s recent focus has been on writing a book concerning the corporation and its political, social, and economic power. Part of this project has involved constructing the conceptual foundations of an approach to political economy that is inclusive of law, with law often working as a counterpoint to political and economic discourse. Recent publications, some of which are spin-offs from this project, include:
You can also see a recent talk Terry gave at the Paris School of Economics here. |
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Associate Lecturer in English Studies Email: gina.lyle@york.ac.uk Office: QUH/002 Gina’s PhD research at the University of Glasgow centred on the roles of meat in contemporary Scottish writing with an emphasis on class and gender. She specialises in Scottish fiction, and is an editor for The Literary Encyclopedia’s Scottish Culture and Writing Post-45 volume. Her research is highly concerned with food, and she enjoys identifying and analysing recurrent interests and motifs across a period or an author’s corpus. Gina’s teaching interests include contemporary writing, discussions of food in literature, genre fiction, creative engagements with form, writing for children, and folktales. Each of her modules are designed to introduce participants to interesting concepts in literature and encourage their critical engagement with literary texts with dedicated space for nuanced discussion. |
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Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics, Literature and Culture. SFHEA Email: beck.sinar@york.ac.uk Office: QUH/003 Biography BA Linguistics with Literature (York), MA Syntax and Semantics (York), PhD in Historical Linguistic Variation and Change (York, ESRC funded) Beck is a senior lecturer (teaching and scholarship) specialising in contemporary and historical Linguistic Variation and Change. Her interests are many and varied, including:
Beck welcomes supervision or co-supervision of postgraduates in the fields of History of English, Sociolinguistics, and a diverse range of applied linguistics/didactics topics. Academic scholarship and research activity Beck is currently working with Dr Lalita Murty (Christ University, Bangalore, India) and Dr Claire Cowie (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) on further investigating the indexicality of Indian Englishes in Pop Culture. Her ongoing solo project is tracing the development of reflexive pronouns and intensifiers in the history of English. Recent publications:
Beck is a member of the University of York's Learning and Teaching Forum, the INCLUDE Network, SOTL senior leaders, and the leader of the NSC's Green Impact Team (awarded Gold in 2023, and three Platinums in 2024). International Partnerships and Collaboration
Coordinator of NSC-UoY Short Course programmes for all 14 Norwegian HEIs External examiner for BA and MA courses at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), The Western University of Applied Science (HVL), Volda University College (VUC) and Innland University of Applied Sciences (INN). MA supervisor (University of Bergen; Volda University College). Chair of the York-Anglo Scandinavian Society
Member of the Confederation of Scandinavian Societies
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Associate Lecturer in English Studies Email: Benjamin.Bland@york.ac.uk Office: QUH/006 Ben joined the NSC in September 2025. Ben is a historian of identity (particularly "race" and class), culture (especially popular music), and memory in modern Britain. He studied in York (BA, MA) and London (PhD). His interdisciplinary research and teaching is heavily informed by approaches from cultural studies and sociology. His work regularly emphasises global connections and contexts, and his teaching stresses the fundamental importance that histories of migration, imperialism, the Black Atlantic, and continental Europe play in understanding modern Britain. Ben recently completed a Leverhulme-funded project on the relationship between "race" and popular music in postwar Britain. Several articles are forthcoming from this, as well as a book focusing on the history of transatlantic hip-hop culture. He also continues to work on a long-term project, rooted in his PhD research, that explores the relationship between fascism and the broader politics of memory and identity in modern Britain. |
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Email: oliver.bainbridge@york.ac.uk Office: QUH/006 Oli is a finance and short course administrator at the NSC. Starting in January 2024 on a temporary basis, Oli is now a permanent member of staff with his main responsibilities being with the finances of the NSC. He also works closely with the Office Manager (Michelle Rowland) and Director (Jena Habegger-Conti) to provide administrative support to ensure the NSC's short courses run successfully. |
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Email: michelle.rowland@york.ac.uk Michelle is the Office Manager at the NSC. A graduate of Spanish, she studied at Trinity & All Saints College, Leeds (University of Leeds). She has worked in a variety of different administrative and customer service roles as well as working abroad. Originally from Sheffield, she moved to York in 2010 to work at the University, where she's held a variety of different support roles in various departments. Outside of work Michelle enjoys cycling, going to the theatre, attending creative workshops to learn new skills, screen printing and working towards an Access to HE Art & Design course which she hopes to complete in 2021. |
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BA & MA (University of British Columbia), DPhil (University of York) Current research interests: Race Relations in the UK; History of Racism; Modern/Post-Modern Literatures; Critical Theory; Children's Literature. Meg worked with the NSC between 1998 and 2024, having previously taught in universities in Canada, Australia and in the UK in the areas of Literatures in English, Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. Her current research interests are in 'race' relations in Britain and in literature by British writers of colour and working-class writers. She is working on a series of blogs on the 'whiteness' of Children's Literature and gathering material for a book on using Critical Literacy and fiction by writers of colour in the classroom. |
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Lalita worked at the NSC for 20 years (Sept 2003 - Jan 2024). During this time she taught modules in Applied Linguistics, Discourse Analysis and Global Englishes to more than 23,000 visiting students from Norway, supervised more than 70 master's theses for the Department of Education and was an invited visiting Associate Professor at the University of Oslo. Prior to this she was at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands, and the University of Sheffield, as well as teaching Applied Linguistics at a teacher training institute in India (1991-1996). Her latest research is into Iconicity in Telugu and teaching Global Englishes in the English Classroom. |
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Email: gweno.williams@york.ac.uk Gweno holds an Emeritus Professorship from York St John University where she was Professor of English and Academic Head of C4C Collaborating for Creativity, a HEFCE-funded Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. She also holds an Honorary Professorship from the University of York in recognition of her long and happy academic connection with the NSC and Norway. She joined the permanent NSC staff team as a teaching fellow in 2015, teaching literature and pedagogy, following regular guest lectures on literature, drama, film. She first lectured for the NSC (at Micklegate House) in 1982. She was Visiting Professor at NTNU for two years teaching on the MA programme. She has given guest lectures and spoken at conferences at Norwegian HEIs including Oslo, Bergen, NTNU, Agder, UiT, Halden. |
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