About
Vanessa Mar-Molinero is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Academic Centre for International Students, part of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of University of Southampton.
Vanessa co-founded and is the SotonSmartSkills hub (www.smartskills.soton.ac.uk), together with Chris Lewis, which includes a wide range of blended learning modules for home and international students enhancing their digital literacies for education, academic skills, and independent learning, and facilitates the transition to Higher Education in the U.K. As part of the hub, she also coordinate the Language and Academic English Advising Service.
Vanessa is also curricular lead on eLearning for ACIS.
Research
Research interests
- Equity in education
- Cultural studies
Current research
Vanessa is interested in research topics within Digital literacies and Learner Autonomy in Higher Education, cultural studies and equity in education.
In recent years, she was involved in a project to enhance English Language learning across the HEI sector in Mexico. The £50k grant was awarded by the British Council in Mexico in collaboration with the University of Guadalajara to develop an innovative Independent Learning framework to support language students in Mexican Higher Education.
Publications
Teaching
Vanessa co-ordinates modules on British Cultural Studies: Introduction to British Life and Institutions and British Identity and Nationhood.
She is the curricular lead for Independent Learning at the University of Southampton’s Academic Centre for International Students and has created a wide variety of academic skills modules and Independent Learning, blended learning modules for international and home students that come under the umbrella of SotonSmartSkills.
Vanessa contributes to modules and dissertation supervision on the MA Applied Linguistics programme, as well as undergraduate modules such as the cross-University ‘Intercultural Communication in a Global World’.
Past Postgraduate PhD Supervision
Xingyang Lu, (co-supervisor with Prof. V Wright) The development of language learner autonomy in different communities of practice: exploring the institutional and social experiences of Chinese students in a UK university
Lizette Drusila Flores Delgado (2nd supervisor with Prof. V Wright)
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Vanessa specialises in Learner Autonomy and Innovation in Digital Literacies for Education. She is particularly interested in the interaction between cultural theories and the advancement of learner autonomy pedagogy, having studied an MA in Transnational Studies and worked researching and publishing in this area.