Two new members join the Executive Committee of the British Society for Phenomenology, and there are some role changes too.
The Executive Committee (ExCo) of the BSP welcomes Hannah Berry and Edmund O’Toole to leadership roles within the society, and wishes them, as well as Matt Barnard and Vanessa Crome who both take on new roles, all the best. The ExCo also thanks Ross Clark who stands down from the position of Treasurer to the BSP, but who will remain on the ExCo.
The BSP ExCo is a voluntary body within and composed from our membership, committed to leading the society, and ensuring its success and growth. ExCo representatives may serve by fulfilling a specific role (or roles), or in an advisory capacity. ExCo members serve for a four year period, after which they can request to continue on the ExCo, or in their role, or move on to a new role.
This year three people stood down from ExCo roles having served their terms: Matthew Barnard as Secretary, Vanessa Crome as Membership Secretary, and Ross Clark as Treasurer. The ExCo wishes to thank them all for their service during what has been a time of change and growth in which they have all played a significant part. All three have decided to remain members of the ExCo, with Matt and Vanessa taking on new roles. Matt moves into a new position created at our last AGM, so that meant we needed to advertise to recruit two new people from our membership. Hannah Berry and Edmund O’Toole were both successful at interview in securing these positions.
Hannah Berry joins the ExCo in the role of society Secretary. Hannah is in the final stages of her Ph.D., which analyses empathy from a phenomenological and linguistic perspective. She currently works at Manchester Metropolitan University as a sessional tutor as well as teaching for the WEA (Worker’s Educational Association), Knowsley Council, and in secondary schools for MILK Education. Hannah has also worked at University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University. She has been a member of the BSP since 2014 and has attended and presented at a number of our conferences. During her degrees she also organised and hosted two conferences: the EMCA (Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis) Doctoral Network in Manchester in 2014 and PALA (Poetics and Language Association) conference at the University of Liverpool in 2019.
Dr Edmund O’Toole joins the ExCo in the role of Membership Secretary. Ed teaches at the National University of Ireland, Galway (“Philosophy of Psychiatry & Psychopathology”) and is SSM for fourth year Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the National University of Ireland in 2017. His philosophical work is interdisciplinary, covering psychiatry, psychology, and moral theory where phenomenology plays an important role. Ed is a member of the BSP and has presented at a couple of our conferences in the recent past. You can check out Ed’s work on a recent BSP Podcast.
Vanessa Crome moves role to become BSP Treasurer. Nessa has been our Membership Secretary since September 2016, during this time being the first point of call for all our members with any issues that needed sorting from lost online journal access to problems with membership payments. Nessa’s undergraduate degree was in Theology and her MA in continental philosophy, and is working on a monograph with Keith Crome on Nietzsche and Play. She currently works as a TA in a special needs school, and is also a printmaker. Producing mostly lino and monoprints, she recently had two of her recent works published in a journal article by Keith and Ross Clark in TRACEY journal (Volume 14 Issue 1) dedicated to the discussion of contemporary drawing and visualisation.
Dr Matt Barnard takes on the newly created role of BSP Technology Officer. Matt has held a number of positions over the years since he joined the BSP ExCo, including Membership Secretary, then – since 2016 – Secretary. In that role he has programme managed and documented society business, ensuring the observance of our values, processes, responsibilities, and compliances. Matt also had the idea of creating the BSP Podcast, which he launched in October 2016. In addition. Matt has served on the conference committee where also he designed and built our brilliant abstract submission and conference registration systems. In addition, he designed and built this BSP Online site, our membership site and was the author of our GDPR compliance regulations. Matt’s new role recognises the importance technology plays at the BSP, and consolidates all the disparate activities into one place. Matt’s Ph.D. was on Heidegger and Freedom, and he is currently a lecturer in philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has presented a number of times at the BSP annual conference (check out his latest BSP Podcast), and his most recent publication was in the JBSP special issue on Heidegger.