Meet the IFP Teaching Staff

Anya has been teaching for over 25 years and has worked with the IFP since the programme began in 2011. She received her PhD from the University of Birmingham in 1996 before working as a Teaching Fellow in the School of English at the University of St Andrews and joining the University of Edinburgh in 2007. She is an expert on the journalism of Oscar Wilde and published an edition of Wilde’s journalism with Oxford University Press.  She was nominated for Best Personal Tutor, Best Support Staff and Best Assessment Feedback awards in the University of Edinburgh's Teaching Awards. 

John holds a general Arts degree from the Open University, and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. He has been teaching at the University of Edinburgh since 1989 and is currently a tutor in Philosophy and Classics in the University’s Centre for Open Learning. John has been nominated for Best Personal Tutor and Best Course awards in the University of Edinburgh's Teaching Awards.

Dr Reena Sastri is a Teaching Fellow who teaches Introducing Cultural Studies. 

Reena holds a PhD in English Literature from Boston University and a PGDE from the University of Edinburgh. She lectured at the University of Oxford and the University of York before coming to the Centre for Open Learning at Edinburgh, where she has taught Cultural Studies on the IFP since 2017.

She is also a literature tutor and has published a book and many articles and chapters on American poets. Reena has been nominated for Best Implementer of Student Feedback award in the University of Edinburgh’s Teaching Awards. 

Phil is a Teaching Fellow in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and the Course Organiser for 'Foundation English for Academic Purposes Entry (FEAP Entry)' on the IFP. 

He has been at the University of Edinburgh since 2016.

Before coming to Edinburgh, he taught at institutions in South Korea, Spain, Australia as well as a number of other universities in the UK.

Phil is also a Course Organiser for one of Edinburgh’s Pre-Sessional Courses (for pre-Masters Students).

He teaches on a range of in-sessional EAP courses and supervises Masters dissertations with education students who are researching EAP. 

Phil has been nominated for Best Overall Teacher and Best Practice in Inclusive Teaching in the University’s Teaching Awards.

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Jill is a Lecturer in English for Academic Purposes at the University of Edinburgh.

She has been teaching English language and academic skills to our IFP students since 2013 and is the Course Organiser for the programme’s ‘Foundation English for Academic Purposes Plus (FEAP Plus)’ course.

Jill also teaches at the University’s School of Social and Political Science as well as Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

She is currently working on her PhD focused on identity and language within underrepresented students at the University.

Jill has been nominated for ‘Teacher of the Year' in the University's 2023 Teaching Awards as well as being nominated for the 'Contribution to Student Experience' team category in this year's CAHSS Recognition Awards.

Dr Sally Crumplin is the Course Organiser for History and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Open Learning. She teaches Medieval Scotland, the History course on the IFP.

Sally has been teaching for over twenty years and has worked on the IFP since it began. She received her PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2004 and worked there and at the University of Edinburgh as a Teaching Fellow before joining the Centre for Open Learning in 2009.

Sally's research and publications focus on saints and manuscripts in England and Scotland in the medieval period. She has been nominated for Best Personal Tutor in the University of Edinburgh's Teaching Awards.

Dr Morna Finnegan is a Teaching Fellow who teaches Social Anthropology.

Dr Morna Finnegan is a social anthropologist and mother who received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2010 and joined the IFP programme in 2019.  She has published several articles and a co-edited Berghahn Series book on human origins. 

Her doctoral research focused on ritual politics and gender egalitarianism among the Mbendjele Yaka and other Central African hunter-gatherers.  Morna received her Msc in Social Anthropology from University College London, where she has also taught on African cosmology.

Dr Alex Hale teaches Archaeology on the International Foundation Programme.

Alex received his PhD in archaeology from the University of Edinburgh in 2000 and since then, has taught, worked and researched archaeology in Scotland. He joined the Centre for Open Learning in 2017.

Alex’s research focuses on the intersections of archaeology, art, engagement and contemporary places.

His recent research includes the archaeology of graffiti and he is part of an International Network for Contemporary Archaeology in Scotland, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He is also a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeology and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 

Dr Gisli Vogler is the Course Organiser for Social, Political and Legal Studies at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Open Learning.

He teaches 'Introduction to Politics' on the IFP and helps organise the 'Introduction to Social Science' and 'Introduction to International Relations' courses.  

Gisli holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh and prior to joining our team in 2020, he taught classes in sociology and political science at the University's School of Social and Political Science.

Alongside his teaching, Gisli has also published articles on responses to injustice and violence and has a book coming out on complicity in injustice with Edinburgh University Press.

Robbie is the lead lecturer for Art and Design on the IFP and Course Organiser for Art Short Courses at the University's Centre for Open Learning. 

Before joining us at the University of Edinburgh, Robbie lectured  in painting and fine art at Gray's School of Art, the University of Chichester, Kent Institute of Art and Design, Oxford Brookes and Edinburgh College of Art .

Born in Liverpool in 1964, Robbie graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1990. He is an elected Royal Scottish Academician (RSA), where he acted as secretary from 2018-2021 and was President of Visual Arts Scotland from 2015-2017.

Robbie is a figurative artist whose practice centres on the depiction of detailed, suggestive narratives, frequently set within expansive architectonic constructions.

‘I invent narrative scenarios and characters within a cinematic context, involving myself with fake or reimagined mythology often borrowed from and celebrating the tropes found in late 20th-century science fiction film and TV.  Although often highly complex compositions, often borrowing from the illustrator’s device of the ‘cutaway’ where the viewer can see though buildings and objects to see how things work.’

His work has won many awards, most notably the inaugural W Gordon Smith painting prize in 2016, was a short-listed prize winner at the John Moores Painting Prize in 2021 and won the Highly Commended Prize at Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2023. He is currently represented by Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh.

Susie is a Teaching Fellow in Art and Design on the IFP and also teaches Short Courses at the University's Centre for Open Learning. 

She previously taught Drawing, Printmaking and Artists' Books at Edinburgh College of Art and also teaches workshops in adult education and schools in and around Edinburgh.  

Susie was awarded her degree in Drawing and Printmaking in 1991 from Edinburgh College of Art, where she also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma. 

Her work has continued to be print-oriented, but her practice has expanded to include text /image and 3D form. These elements have often been realised in the various forms of an artist book, and she greatly relishes the possibilities for conjunction and collision which this form offers.

Susie was recently awarded the Maureen Duke Educational Award, Society of Bookbinders (2021), Nancy Graham Memorial Book Prize, VAS, (2019), Sally Schofield Memorial Award (Visual Arts Scotland, 2015) and was an invited Artist in Residence at Edinburgh College of Art Library (2016).